Bussers, Busboys and Busgirls

Image: Three T.G.I Fridays bussers. Source: the internet.

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Over the past few years I have been lucky enough to spend a total of five months ‘living’ in New York City and travelling through other parts of America. I have lost count of the number of restaurant and café meals I have eaten during that time – not that I was keeping score – but it was a lot. More than a lot in fact. If there was one element of eating out that I never quite got a handle on, it was the concept of the busboy, although nowadays, the term busboy or busgirl has become desexed, and the generic term busser, is used instead.

According to Wikipedia, busser, busboy or busgirl are terms used in the United States for someone that works in the restaurant and catering industry assisting the waiting staff (that is, waiters and waitresses).

But what exactly does the busser do?

This apparently depends on the size of the restaurant, but generally if you are eating out in America, the busser is the person who brings water to your table, and keeps your glass topped up throughout your meal. They may also bring out the bread and other pre-dinner snacks, although your waiter/waitress will always be the person to serve your meal.

In a busy restaurant, the busser may also be responsible for all assistant activities in the dining hall like resetting tables, clearing away dirty dishes and cleaning up spilled items, shining cutlery, restocking waiter stations with water, bread and/or orange juice, etc. In smaller restaurants where there aren't a lot of employees, they may do additional duties in the kitchen like washing dishes, restocking, and taking out the trash.

One other aspect of eating out in America that confuses and stresses many international travelers is the practice of tipping. While I was a lot more familiar with the protocols of restaurant tipping on my 2010 visit to the US (than I was on my first visit in 2008), I was still confused about how tipping worked vis-à-vis the busser’s. That is, I knew that busser’s were not tipped separately from wait staff, but if waiter/waitresses rely so much on tips to supplement their minimum wages, how are the lowly busser’s meant to supplement their wages?

In researching this question online I was surprised (to say the least), to learn that busser’s are in fact paid from the total pool of tips that accumulates during a restaurant shift.

In effect, busser’s receive a percentage of the tips that wait staff are tipped! I don’t know if there is an accepted percentage at play here, or if the amount of money the busser’s are ‘tipped’ is at the discretion of the waiters, but clearly the concept of tipping in America becomes much more serious when you realize your 15 percent gratuity is being divided up between wait staff and busser’s.

Some Well Known Former Busboys

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Image: Collage of famous former bus boys (bussers)

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Among a list of former bussers on Wikipedia, I was surprised to see some very famous and well known faces. These include the civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.; and Jon Stewart, comedian, and host of The Daily Show (who has named his production company Busboy Productions). Then there are Langston Hughes (dubbed the "busboy poet"); Huey Morgan, musician; Dick Cavett, actor and host of The Dick Cavett Show; and the actors Johnny Depp, Alec Baldwin, Robert Downey Jr., Jake Gyllenhaal, Andy Kaufman, and Al Pacino. Finally, Richard Feynman, American physicist and Nobel Laureate, worked as a busboy in his aunt's restaurant in New York in the 1930s; and Ho Chi Minh, Vietnamese revolutionary and President, was a busboy in Boston at the Parker House Hotel.

Pay Rates: Wait Staff Vs. Busser

Just when you begin to think the busser is at the bottom of the restaurant pecking order, you learn that busser’s – as employees – are in fact paid more than wait staff.

But how can this be possible? The answer lies in America’s labor laws.

In a January 2009 article published in the online edition of the Wall Street Journal and headlined, If a Half-Eaten Burrito Lingers, There May Be No Busboy to Blame, Janet Adamy writes: In many states, it's cheaper to keep servers [i.e., wait staff] on the clock than bussers because of a loophole that allows restaurants to pay servers who earn tips less than the minimum wage -- as little as $2.13 an hour. Bussers must be paid at least $6.55 an hour.

Interestingly, while Seek dot Com, 'Australia's #1 job site' did not list positions for bussers/bus boys anywhere across Australia when I searched the site, it did list dozens of jobs for male and female wait staff with wages that would make most American wait staff faint. For example, one ad from Dell Ugo's New Farm, in Brisbane had wait staff salaries ranging from AUD$15 - $24.99 per hour.

Of course, Australian wages for wait staff are much higher because waiters don’t rely on tips to make a living wage. Any tips they get are a bonus received for providing a genuinely great service throughout the dining experience.

More Information:

Wikipedia's Bus Boy entry...

The Wall Street Journal Online...

Stupid Ways To Cut Costs For Restaurants... 

Rockefeller Center, NYC

Image: The Rockefeller Center, New York City

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It’s pretty much impossible to miss the Rockefeller Center in New York City. Located in midtown Manhattan, the complex consists of 19 major buildings, the largest of which is the GE Building. Directly in front of this building is a large sunken outdoor plaza which doubles as an ice skating rink in winter and restaurant during the summer months.

During my spring 2008 visit to New York I often found myself in the vicinity of the Rockefeller Center and enjoyed passing the time admiring the skaters, people watching in general, and stopping for something to eat at one of the many restaurants and cafés in the underground concourse beneath the GE building. For some reason I rarely went to the Center during my 2010 trip to New York City. Maybe it was because I had seen enough of the site previously to feel happy to overlook the area in favour of New York’s many other interesting locations.

Rockefeller Center, or Rockefeller Plaza covers an area encompassing 22 acres (89,000 m2), the borders of which are 48th and 51st streets, and Fifth Avenue to the east, and Sixth Avenue to the west (see map). It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1987.

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View Larger Map

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Rockefeller Center was named after John D. Rockefeller, Jr., the only son of his namesake and father, John D. Rockefeller Sr. the wealthy oil magnate. Rockefeller Jr., initially planned a syndicate to build an opera house for the Metropolitan Opera on the site, but changed his mind after the stock market crash of 1929 and the withdrawal of the Metropolitan from the project. Faced with the choice of abandoning the project completely or building and financing the Center himself, Rockefeller Jr., chose to build, turning the construction project into the largest private building project ever undertaken in modern history.

Of course, apart from ice skating and people watching and eating, one of the other reasons visitors flock to Rockefeller Center is to take the elevator rides to the ‘Top of The Rock’ as the visit to the observation decks is called. The views from the 70th floor are quite spectacular, as you might imagine, and you have the added advantage of getting great views (and photographs) of the Empire State Building which is near by.

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Image: Looking straight up at ’30 Rock’

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Unlike most other Art Deco towers built during the 1930s, the GE Building was constructed as a slab with a flat roof. This is where the Center's observation deck, the Top of the Rock is located.

In 2005, the Center’s owner completed a $75 million makeover of the observation area which now spans the 67th-70th floors and includes a multimedia exhibition exploring the history of the Center. On the 70th floor, there is a 20-foot (6.1 m) wide viewing area, allowing visitors an unobstructed 360-degree panoramic view of New York City.

Here is a minute or so of video footage I shot during my Top Of The Rock visit during March 2008.

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Getting There:

The nearest subway station is the 47-50th St - Rockefeller Ctr. Station which can be reached by the B, D, F, and M trains (more info: http://www.mta.info/).

Tickets:

• Podcast $2.50     
• Adult $22.00     
• Child (6-12) $15.00     
• Senior (62+) $20.00     
• Sunrise Sunset $32.00     
• Sunrise Sunset Child $17.00 
• Note: a SUNRISE SUNSET ticket allows guests to visit twice in one day.

Online:

Rockefeller Center Official Site...

John D. Rockefeller, Jr. (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Rockefeller Center [From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia...

Sunday Sunnies #1

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If you have a fear of flying you may not want to watch this. Then again, it may just be the perfect antidote! A classic comedy sketch from Monty Python.

John Cleese - How to Irritate People - Airplane Sketch

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One Ring To Scam Us All

Image: Exhibit A: The One Ring to scam us all…

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One of the lessons of international travel is learning to be aware of – and deal with – the hundreds of potential scams and scammers waiting to con visitors and locals alike of their hard earned cash. Paris had scammers and con artists aplenty, and while I managed to avoid most of them, I have to admit I did get caught out by one particular scam. So in the interests of public education, and at risk of opening myself up to public ridicule, I have decided to outline the scam here.

I was walking through Place de la Concorde one day, when a pretty young thing suddenly approached me and showed me a large ‘gold’ ring (see image above), and ask in broken English if I had inadvertently dropped it in the snow. Of course I had not, and I told her so.

Since the ring had quite a large diameter, and could easily pass as a man’s ring, she insisted I take the ring, saying magnanimously that it was my “Lucky day”, as she had no use for such a large object. I tried to tell her that I didn’t want or need it, and that she should keep it for herself, but she insisted.

Somewhere in the back of my mind warning bells were ringing, but she was such a pretty young thing that I finally I thanked her and took the ring. And therefore – the bait!

I turned and started walking away, and no sooner had I gone half a dozen steps when suddenly, there she was again. Since it clearly was my ‘lucky day’, she said, could I return the favour and give her a little money in return for the ring?

Still holding the ring in my hand, I offered to give it back to her, but there was no way she would take it. She was more than happy for me to keep it, but asked again if I would be so kind as to offer her something in return. Of course, by now I knew I had been scammed and could have simply walked off with the ring, or simply dropped it in the snow and left her to pick it up. But I didn’t.

Now this may sound like a stupid thing to say, and looking at it on ‘paper’ it does seem completely illogical. But. I figured I had been caught out by my own gullibility and stupidity, and for that, she at least deserved to get something for her efforts, and for the lesson she taught me – which of course, is to not be so gullible and stupid.

I think in the end I ‘paid’ four euros for the useless ‘gold’ ring and I still carry it to remind me to be more aware the next time some pretty young thing approaches me and offers to give me something for nothing!

Postscript: Over the next day or so, I was approached by at least two other (much older) women trying to work the same scam on me. Eventually I got my revenge. Again, I happened to be walking near Place de la Concorde, and noticed one of those women working the scam on a young couple. I approached the group and said something to the effect of, “Ah, how about that. You’ve got one of these as well,” and showed them my gold ring, which was exactly the same as the one the elderly lady was trying to foist onto the couple. As it happens, they had in fact already given the woman some money, but as soon as they realized they had been conned, they took their money back and left the woman holding her useless gold ring.

As the young couple walked off I tut-tutted a few times, and wagged a finger in the old ducks face. The saying: If looks could kill… comes to mind here, and feeling quite smug and just a little self-satisfied with myself, I walked off, leaving the woman to curse her bad luck.

Friday Photos: Duck! Duck! Duck!

Image: Ducks practicing their synchronized preening routines

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I captured the three ducks in the first photograph preening themselves on the banks of the Central Park model boat pond during the summer of 2010, and was lucky enough to get them in an almost perfectly synchronized cleaning session.

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Image: The Alice H. and Edward A. Kerbs Memorial on Conservatory Water

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The Alice H. and Edward A. Kerbs Memorial is the current ‘home’ of the Central Park Model Yacht Club (CPMYC). The Central Park Model Yacht Club was founded in 1916, but model sailing on Conservatory Water started about 40 years earlier.

After a wooden structure burned down in the early 1950's, a new home for club was established in 1954: The Kerbs Memorial Boathouse. The new building was sponsored by Jeanne E. Kerbs in memory of her parents Alice and Edward Kerbs, who enjoyed watching the boats sailing on the pond from their Fifth Avenue apartment window.

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Image: The Jeanne E. Kerbs plaque on the Inventors Gatepost at East 72nd Street, NYC

Source: New York City Parks website…

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You can see larger versions of these photographs and many others through my Flickr page here… or click here to watch a full screen slide show of all my photographs…

More Information

Central Park Model Yacht Club...

Central Park website...

PS: You can find previous Friday Photos by using the search box at the top left of the page.

First Flights

Image: First flights have come a long way since the Wright Brothers!

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I must be getting old, because I have no recollection of my first flight – although it almost certainly took place when I embarked on my first overseas journey in April 1971. That was the year I set off on one of those rites of passage trips that thousands of young Australians undertook then – and still do – and I have no recollection of ever having flown before that.

I write about this now, because of an interesting incident that took place during the Denver to Tucson leg of my travels down to the American south in 2010. A young male passenger sitting in the seat behind me was travelling by air for the first time, and his general excitement as the plane prepared for take off got me thinking about first flights, and how they are totally different from what is depicted on television shows and movies.

In those media (unless used as part of the drama), the aircraft is always whisper quiet, take off always smooth, and the seating in Economy Class always spacious! You hear no engine noises, passengers never experience ear popping discomfort, and never have to sit through the safety demonstration or frequent announcements from stewards or pilots.

Since this passenger’s main reference points were the movies and television shows he would have seen, the actually experience of flying would have been quite different and even nerve-wracking. No doubt he would have had conversations with family members and friends who might have already flown in aircraft, but nothing prepares you for the experience like being there, strapped in your seat waiting for the plane to take to the air.

Watching movies, you miss the whine and roar of jet engines as they pick up revolutions that set the plane rolling slowly down the tarmac; and you miss the thumps and bumps that occur as the front landing wheel rolls over the runway lights helping guide the pilots. As the plane ramps up to maximum take off speed the roar of jet turbines becomes even louder until the aircraft finally severs the link with gravity and takes to the air. The list goes on: the thumps, as wheels are retracted into their wheel bays; the ritual of in-flight meals, the regular announcements, visiting the restroom for the first time, and making an effort to actually read the safety guide.

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Image: Flaps down and speed brakes up as this plane lands once again

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When you watch movies, you never get to experience those moments of tension as the aircraft begins to descend to your destination. Even I never get bored watching as the wing flaps are extended exposing hydraulic cables and other mysterious aircraft parts within the wing cavities. There are more thumps as the wheels are now lowered into place. Ears popping again, you watch as the plane skims over fields, houses, highways, and airport perimeters, the ground rushing by seemingly faster and faster until finally wheels hit the tarmac with a jolt and the flaps extend to their maximum length to create as much drag as possible to help slow the speeding aircraft down. Finally, adding even greater levels of noise to the whole landing experience, reverse thrusters on the engines roar into life as they too are brought into play to help slow the plane.

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Video of thrust reverser being deployed on a 737

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And to think, all these and more exciting moments are included free in the cost of your airline ticket!

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Image: Sunset over Europe during my 2010 flight to Paris

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Of course, there’s more: entertainment channels to play with; breaking through cloud cover into bright sunshine and blue sky; turbulence; flashing wing lights; golden sunsets; and traffic flowing down streets and highways at night lighting up cities and towns like flowing lava.

No wonder this young man was excited. Heck, I’m excited just writing about it!

I remember the Denver to Tucson flight took place at night, which makes me pose the question: What would be the best time to take a first flight – or any flight for that matter – during the day, or at night? Each has its own joys and delights, but each is quite different. Personally, I prefer day flights, but can get just as much enjoyment from night flying – especially when passing over large cities.

What about you? If you’ve read this far, why not take a few minutes to share your first flight experience or express your preference for day or night flying. I look forward to your contribution.

In-Flight Magazines

Image: Cover shot of December 2010, Air France magazine

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There they are, jammed into the storage pocket located behind every airline passenger seat – generally between the vomit bag and the in-flight shopping catalogue.

I’m talking about in-flight magazines, those relentlessly cheerful, glossy publications produced by the world’s major airlines to keep bored passengers entertained with stories featuring exotic locales, illustrated with stunning sunset shots, and peopled by natives whose only pleasure in life seems to be administering to your every wish and whim.

Take the December 2010 issue of Air France Magazine. Come to think of it – following my return to Greece from Paris flying with Air France – I did take it. It’s lying open on the table in front of me generating a severe case of buyers remorse (see footnote).

Why is it that in-flight magazines always seem to feature gushing stories about locations you are not flying to? A case in point: the December issue of Air France Magazine. I mean, there I am, flying to Paris, one of the most romantic and idealized cities in the world, reading about the incredible kingdom of Bhutan, and sun drenched New Caledonia.

New Caledonia? What was I thinking? I could have been sunning myself in the South Pacific for the past two months. Instead, I spent ten days freezing my butt in Paris, and now here I am freezing my ears on the Aegean island of Ikaria!

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Image: Screen shot of Air France magazine accommodation feature

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Then there is the article about luxurious accommodations in Bali, Thailand, Shanghai and elsewhere which make my 35 euro budget hotel look like a flop house for vagrants.

I looked in vain for a guide to the prices charged by the hotels featured, but none was to be found anywhere – not in the magazine, anyway. Fearing this was a clear case of “If you have to ask the price – you can’t afford it,” I took a deep breath and headed online.

I was right. I couldn’t afford it. Even at the special internet rate of “from USD $245++” per night I was not going to be staying at the Alila Ubud Resort in Bali anytime soon. Clearly, my copy of the in-flight magazine had inadvertently strayed from First Class down to Economy.

How else do you account for the high priced advertisements for higher priced luxury goods and products, modeled by even higher priced Hollywood actors. Surely Penélope Cruz, Charlize Theron, and Leonardo DiCaprio are not so strapped for cash that they have to tout for watch makers and perfume companies. Surely! Leonardo – say it isn’t so.

The next time I take an airline flight I’m going to carry a good book to read and leave the in-flight magazine where it belongs, jammed between the in-flight shopping guide and the vomit bag.

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Image: Screen shot of New Caledonia article including obligatory friendly native

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Footnote: Buyer's remorse is the sense of regret some people have after purchasing big-ticket items such as a car or house [or in my case, I trip to Paris]. It may stem from a sense of not wishing to be wrong, of guilt over extravagance, or of suspecting you have been "snowed" by a salesperson. [Source: Wikipedia...]

Out With Old – In With The New

Image: Challenge: Always set the trail, never follow the path. (Image source: the Internet)
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So this is Christmas, and what have we done?
Another year over, and a new one just begun.
~ John Lennon (Happy Christmas/War Is Over)

Whew! That’s it, another year done and dusted, and a new year now underway. The saying, Time flies when you’re having fun, comes to mind here, and I have certainly had a lot of fun travelling and relaxing, writing and contemplating, and plotting and planning.

The traditional thing to do at this time of the year is to draw up a list of New Year’s Resolutions, most of which are quickly forgotten or lost along the way as life, work, and the daily grind keep plans and dreams on hold until at best, the following year or at worst, indefinitely.

I’m pleased to say I have pretty much left work and the daily grind behind, but then – have I? Maybe I have simply swapped paid work with the unpaid work – and some days it does feel like work – of writing for this blog. And even when it doesn’t feel like work, it is definitely unpaid. Not only that, but I am currently researching and planning to launch this blog as a website in its own right. I have already secured the rights to the domain name www.compleattraveller.com, and I am now trying to get my head around the whole process and logistics of setting up and maintaining a regular website.

Since I am still travelling, and will be for another couple of months, this process may be completed later rather than sooner, but when the transformation finally takes place the Compleat Traveller will have entered a new phase in its short life.

As the image illustrating this entry suggests, it is going to be a real challenge for me to make the transition from blog to website, but then what is life if not a constant series of challenges?

Supporting Wikipedia

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As anyone who has been reading the Compleat Traveller on a regular basis will know, I make extensive use of what I truly believe is the best online resource for researching the historical facts and information which I incorporate into my blog posts.

That resource is Wikipedia.

The fact that this resource is provided free to all is a great testament to the value of the internet in the 21st century. Millions of people around the world visit the Wikipedia site every day to research, browse, read, and just as importantly to add new content to the site.

Personally, I think my blog posts would be far less interesting without the addition of historical information to help put my musings and observations into some sort of context. Without the history, they would merely be the casual ramblings of a traveler passing through a city or landscape noting things of interest without understanding the history behind the construction of a particular building or monument, or why certain events happened when they did.

I enjoy the research, and I especially enjoy learning more about the many places I have visited or I am planning to visit. I also like the challenge of incorporating what I hope are some of the more interesting historical tidbits into my writing. In deed, there is rarely a day when I don’t check the Wikipedia site for information about any number of topics, and it’s an ever rarer day when I have come up short and not been able to find information on what I’ve been looking for.

Started in 2001, the main Wikipedia site is written in English, and currently contains over 3.5 million articles. However other language versions of Wikipedia are available and while they do not yet contain the same number of articles, they provide an incredible resource to non-English speaking users.

Wikipedia is hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization that also hosts a range of other projects. These include a free media repository (Commons); Wikinews, free-content news; Wiktionary, a Dictionary and thesaurus; Wikiquote, a collection of quotations; Wikibooks, a great resource of free textbooks and manuals, Wikisource, a free-content library; Wikispecies, a directory of species; and Wikiversity, which provides free learning materials and activities.

That’s why have I decided to add one more blog post to the final day of 2010. Because Wikipedia is wrapping up a fundraising drive aimed at raising $16 million to fund the ongoing work of the foundation behind the website, and having just made a AU$100 donation to the foundation, I thought I should bring the fundraising drive to your attention, dear reader.

If you too, have made use of Wikipedia during the year, or if you have enjoyed the historical background information I’ve used in my posts, I would encourage you to head on over to Wikipedia and make a donation of your own. It will be greatly appreciated.

Friday Photos: Tuileries Garden

Image: A grove of trees stripped bare of the summer cover in the Tuileries Garden, Paris

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In July 2009 I introduced a regular Friday Photo ‘section’ to the Compleat Traveller, but for reasons I no longer remember, I stopped making regular updates (the last photo appeared in November of that year). However, since I have thousands of photographs waiting to see the light of day, I have decided to reinstitute the Friday Photo section with this post.

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Image: Time to ponder

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Yesterday, I wrote about the Tuileries Garden in Paris, and thought I’d add some extra photographs here for your viewing pleasure.

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Image: Slowly melting ice/snow slips towards the edge of this café tabletop

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Image: A murder of crows looking for food

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You can see larger versions of these photographs and many others through my Flickr page here… or click here to watch a full screen slide show of all my photographs…

More Information

PS: You can find previous Friday Photos by using the search box at the top left of the page.

Jardin des Tuileries, Paris

Image: The Tuileries Garden, Paris: a stark winter landscape of bare trees, and light snow

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During my visit to Paris earlier this month, I spent some time walking through parts of the massive Jardin des Tuileries (Tuileries Garden).

I say ‘parts of’ deliberately, because like many locations in Paris – the Louvre, Palace of Versailles, Musée d’Orsay, and other popular attractions – you need a lot more than a few hours to explore and appreciate these historic sites. The Tuileries Garden is wonderful to experience on cold winter days, when the snow covers the ground, your breath hangs in the freezing air, and most of the trees in the garden have shed their leaves and their dark, rain soaked trunks and branches stand out starkly against the frigid landscape.

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The Tuileries Garden seen from the west- the Fer à cheval (horseshoe), Grand Bassin Octagonal, and the Grande Allée ending at the Louvre [Source: Wikipedia… ]

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The Jardin des Tuileries (Tuileries Garden), is a public garden located between the Louvre Museum and the Place de la Concorde. Created by Marie de Medicis as the garden of the Tuileries Palace in 1564, it was first opened to the public in 1667, and became a public park after the French Revolution. Since then it has become the place where Parisians come to promenade, meet, celebrate, and relax.

The garden’s name comes from workshops called tuileries, which used to exist on the current site, and which made tiles for the roofs of Paris’s buildings.

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Image: Winter colours of the Tuileries Garden, Paris

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The Garden of Catherine de Medicis

In July 1559, after the death of her husband, Henry II, Queen Catherine de Medicis decided to move from her residence near the Bastille, to the Louvre Palace, along with her son, the new King, François II. While there she decided to build a new palace for herself, separate from the Louvre, with a garden modeled after the gardens of her native Florence.

The garden of Catherine de Medicis was an enclosed space five hundred meters long and three hundred meters wide, separated from the new chateau by a lane. It was divided into rectangular compartments by six alleys, and the sections were planted with lawns, flower beds, and small clusters of five trees, called Quinconces; and, more practically, with kitchen gardens and vineyards.

The Tuileries was the largest and most beautiful garden in Paris at the time, and Catherine used it for lavish royal festivities honoring ambassadors from the Queen of England, and the marriage of her daughter, Marguerite de Valois, to the future Henry IV.

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Tuileries Garden of Le Nôtre in 17^th century, looking west toward the future Champs Elysees, Engraving by Perelle. [Source: Wikipedia… ]

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And so it went. One Monarch after another overseeing the planting of hedges, hundreds of trees, shrubs, flowers and other plants, landscaping and reshaping the grounds, adding sculptures here, water features and fountains there, as well as vast terraces and a Grand Allée – rivaled only by the 1500 metre Grand Allée at the Palace of Versailles.

Following the deaths of Catherine de Medicis and her successors, the Kings, Henry III and IV, responsibility for the upkeep and maintenance of the garden fell to that other great line of kings, King Louis XIII (13^th), XIV, XV and then King Louis XVI (16^th), until finally the French Revolution of October, 1789 brought a stop to the whole circus – for a while at least.

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Image: Evergreen shrubs in the Tuileries Garden, Paris

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The French Revolution and Beyond

On October 6, 1789, as the French Revolution began, King Louis XVI was brought from Versailles to the Tuileries Palace. He was subsequently found guilty of high treason for his part in the insurrection of August 10th, 1792, and executed by guillotine in January 1793.

When Napoleon Bonaparte (who was about to become Emperor), moved into the Tuileries Palace in February, 1800, he began making improvements to the gardens and the cycle of building, landscaping, plantings and so on began all over again. Eventually, the long suffering citizens of France and Paris had had enough, and following the fall of Napoleon, and the subsequent reigns of the Kings, Charles X and Louis-Philippe, and the Emperor, Louis Napoleon, the whole imperial edifice of the French Republic was brought to the ground by the uprising of the Paris Commune in 1870.

When the army arrived and fought to recapture the city, the Communards deliberately burned the Tuileries Palace, and tried to burn the Louvre as well. The ruins of the Tuileries Palace were not torn down until 1883, and the empty site of the palace, between the two pavilions of the Louvre, became part of the Tuileries Garden you see today.

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Image: Footprints in the snow: Tuileries Garden, Paris

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More Information

As always, my indispensable source of historical information continues to be Wikipedia. Read more about the Jardin des Tuileries here…

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You can see more of my photographs of the Jardin Des Tuileries via my Flickr page here... Or see all my Flickr images by following this link...

Virtual Sistine Chapel

Image: The Hand of God giving life to Adam

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the Sistine Chapel (Cappella Sistina in Italian) is the best-known chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the Pope in Vatican City. The chapel takes its name from Pope Sixtus IV, who restored the old Cappella Magna between 1477 and 1480. Since the time of Sixtus IV, the chapel has served as a place of both religious and functionary papal activity. Today it is the site of the Papal conclave, the process by which a new Pope is selected. It is also the site of some of the worlds most famous frescoes.

The frescoes of the Sistine Chapel were created by great Renaissance artists of whom Michelangelo, Raphael, Bernini, and Sandro Botticelli are the best known. Under the patronage of Pope Julius II, Michelangelo painted 12,000 square feet (1,100 m2) of the chapel ceiling between 1508 and 1512. It is said that he resented the commission, believing his work only served the Pope's need for grandeur. However, today the ceiling, and especially The Last Judgment, are widely believed to be Michelangelo's crowning achievements in painting.

Following a ten year (1984-1994) restoration project the Sistine Chapel and the stunning frescoes adorning its walls and ceilings are one of the major attractions at The Vatican.

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Image: Who’s who and what’s where on the Sistine Chapel walls and ceilings. Source: Wikipedia…

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I have never actually visited the Sistine Chapel myself, although it is on my ‘bucket list’, but when a friend sent me a link which allowed me to visit the Chapel from the comfort of my Greek island accommodations, I had no hesitation making the instant journey to Italy to exam the frescoes up close without the risk of straining my neck or putting my back out.

And now you too can visit the Sistine Chapel by clicking on this link…

To view every part of Michelangelo's masterpiece just click and drag your arrow in the direction you wish to see. Alternatively, you can also use the four direction keys on your keyboard to look up, down or turn around within the virtual Chapel.

You can also use the Shift key to zoom in closer and the Ctrl key to zoom out.

Use the image plan above to look for specific sections within the frescoes.

Enjoy.

More Information:

The Official Vatican website...

Wikipedia: the Sistine Chapel…

Wikipedia: the Sistine Chapel Ceiling…