Paris, Greece, The Benaki Museum & Hubert Pernot
This past August I went on trip to Paris (for a week) and Greece afterwards (for a little more than 2 weeks). It was my first time in Paris – needless to say the city is beautiful. Everything there is so purposeful, so symmetrical, just perfect. If your heading down I recommend you buy the 2 or 4 day museum/monument pass – it’s vital cause you bypass lines (and save money). The Museum D’Orsey is a must, as is the Louvre. If you want to see everything in the Louvre don’t try and do it all in a single day. Also, make sure you get the headset before you go inside as everything is in French. Check out the Picasso museum if you like his work – be warned that a lot of his famous pieces aren’t there. If you have time check out the Palace of Versailles and the gardens behind them, you’ll need to take a train there, but you can grab the one at the stop beside the Eiffel Tower. Your pass gets you in there also.
Greece was just as I remembered it last year, but then again that’s why I keep going back. A highlight from Greece was visiting the Benaki Museum in Athens. Benaki was a wealthy man living in Alexandria who migrated to Greece in the early 1900s. He was an avid collector of Greek history and art, particularly that of Modern Greek history. After his death he donated his estate and his entire collection to the Greek government – hence the Benaki Museum was formed. I don’t think there is any place in the world with a more impressive collection of Modern Greek history than here. On the third floor was the traveling photo exhibit of Hubert Pernot. In the late 1800s Hubert was commissioned by the French government to come to Greece, take photos and convince the French people to vacation there. I’m not sure why the French government wanted the French people to vacation in Greece, perhaps moral was low and Greece was seen as an exciting new land just coming out of a 400 year war. In any case, Hubert fell in love with Greece and spent the next 30 years of his life touching every part, during which he compiled three amazing photo albums. This exhibit is a collection of his best photos (digitally enhanced of course).
You can look at photos from my trip here.
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