Saturday, October 06, 2012

La Pérouse !


Jean François de Galaup, aka comte de La Pérouse is a famous French Navy officer that lead several expeditions around the world and took part in the American independance war around 1780 (read more about his captivating life here, if you interested). I found his bust on the river banks, not far from the Eiffel Tower. That's all for the week ;-) Have a good weekend everyone!

12 comments:

  1. Beauty. History. Serenity.
    Love this photo.

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  2. How fascinating. I've never heard of him before. Thank you, Eric.

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  3. I like him a lot. Why can't I ever get my hair to do that?

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  4. He has a rather curious expression on his face. Is the grass surrounding the statue really that green? It sure looks lush and thick. :)

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  5. Mrs, V, lol! Can you imagine what your comment would sound like to Galaup in his day?

    Everywhere I looked in the photo I saw diagonals! Interesting composition.

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  6. La Perouse is famous in Australia as Cook was sort of racing against him to put the British flag first on this new far away land. There is a town district (with a Museum) named after him, in Sydney. He died on his way back in Polynesia somewhere. His adventures oversees (and mysterious desapparition) were very popular at that time and it is said that Louis XVI last words before walking up to the guillotine were "do we have any news from Monsieur de la Perouse?"...

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  7. You guys crack me up!!

    @BV. Thanks for sharing this info, I did not know he was "famous" in Australia. As for the Luis XVIth quote... I really vwould love to know if it's true!

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  8. Such a beautiful picture Eric. I see bv has already mentioned the Australian connection. I've known about the Sydney suburb for some time- but I didn't know that there was a museum, I'll have to check that out sometime soon. There is a new book about to be released about the English and French racing to get to Australia in the 18th century. Recently I went to the amazing exhibition about Napoleon in Melbourne and Louis XVI's fascination with Monsieur de la Perouse was highlighted in the exhibition. I did a blog post about the exhibition, if you would like read more about that.

    http://astrongbeliefinwicker.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/napoleon-exhibition-ngv.html

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  9. @ bv

    It was not a race against Cook ( who died in Hawaii in 1779) but to prove the feasibility and and to complete somehow what Cook had started ( circumnavigation of the globe) . La Pérouse started his expedition only in 1785 and it was not completed since both ships sank (IIRC) in 1788

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  10. The National Gallery of Victoria has a fantastic website to go with the exhibition (which finishes in the next few days, not sure how much longer this link will be active). The La Perouse page link

    http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/napoleon/exploration-and-discovery/la-perouse

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  11. LOL It almost looks like he is winking at you! Must be a Frenchman. :)

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  12. J'allais noter ici la dernière parole de Louis XVI concernant Mr de la Pérouse... mais j'ai été précédée par bv. Il semble que cette citation soit véridique.

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