Monday 8 January 2007
LOUIS XIV / And The Sun Shone Bright / 50
By David Pitt, Monday 8 January 2007 - 20:27 :: Best
There would be no way to even skim the surface of the accomplishments of Louis XIV in one paragraph. He was not called Louis the Great or the Sun King for nothing. Suffice it to say he believed strongly in the Divine Right of Kings; he strengthened and stabilized France immeasurably; he played and built at Versailles and Fontainebleau,; he fought four wars; and he basically made the 17th century (or at least 1661-1715), in the words of Voltaire, the Age of Louis XIV. What interests me most here is that he is the only King that made the list of the 100 Greatest Frenchmen Ever. Close to 50 Kings and only 1 made this list. The sun must indeed have shone bright.
Original appearance Oct 8, 2005, © 2005 / LOUIS XIV / 1638-1715 / King, Louis the Great, Sun King / best / A- / 50 / CIP 350, OO 07, RD 08, YP 30/3-8
Whether you are talking monument or museum, gallery or fortress the superlatives regarding the Louvre almost can’t be overstated. It started as a fortress and ended as a museum but has always been a monument to France and the French. Vast and imposing, noble and brilliant, and every other accolade known to man, still understates the treasure. From the Pavilions to the Pyramid, the Grande Galerie to the Petite, the Mona Lisa to the Marly Horses, you will find almost every renowned name in French and European art up to 1850 (after that it is the Orsay). Before this there are the antiquities ranging from the Neolithic, through the Egyptian, and up to the Roman. Furniture, jewelry, tapestries and tableware, bronzes and armor…. I haven’t yet begun to skim the depth and I could never end.
Vulcanologists and geologists seldom become famous but, if they are also good at making documentaries, sometimes they do. Haroun Tazief was and did. Actually he traveled with Jacques Cousteau in the early 50’s, so he probably got some good tips. Volcanoes and spelunking were his areas of expertise. He did considerable cave research, particularly at Gouffre (abyss) Pierre-Saint-Martin in the Pyrenees, (at the time the deepest known cave in the world). In 1958 he made The Devil’s Blast which won a couple of awards including a BAFTA. In 1967 it was Le Vulcan Interdit (The Forbidden Volcano), and it was nominated for an Oscar. He also wrote a number of books (5 or 6) including one in 1992 called Earthquake Prediction. He wasn’t bad at publicity either.
Here sits a wizened old man with a flowing white beard, owlish glasses and a French beret. He’s 90 something and a living Saint, with a heart as big as Mother Theresa’s. He fights to include the excluded, house the homeless, touch the poor. His real name is Henri Grouès but ever since the war he has been known by his nomme de guerre in the French Resistance – l’Abbé Pierre. He was an MP for a short time after the war, but now he has all the MP’s and the Presidents and the Premiers doing his bidding. He is a master at utilizing the media and pressuring recalcitrant politicians. He founded Emmaus International in 1949 to provide the roofs and has been going strong ever since. There have been rumors of anti Semitism, which he denies. Beyond that he is as close to a Saint as you can get without dying.
Very few people actually die for science. Marie Curie and her husband Pierre isolated polonium and radium – she coined the term ‘radioactive’ – and they both died in large part from its effects. She was a double Nobel Laureate – first in 1903 in Physics with her husband and Becquerel. She won it again in 1911 on her own in Chemistry. Most cancer therapy proceeds from her work, as does modern dating techniques, nuclear energy and much of molecular biology. These are some of the giant strides made possible by their refusal to patent and insistence on making their work freely available to all scientists. Her daughter followed in her footsteps and she too was a Nobel Laureate with her husband. Giant strides, huge footsteps, human sacrifice – humanities debt!