Avez-vous su? - 10 St. Sulpice Church

Another 'Da Vinci' Myth-Buster:

The meridien line materialised by a brass inlay in the pavement of this church is a part of a scientific instrument built here in 18^th century. This was done in full agreement with the church authorities by the astronomers in charge of the newly established Paris observatory. They used it for detailing various parameters of earth's orbit.

Contrary to fanciful allegations in a recent best-selling novel, this is not a vestige of a pagan temple. No such temple ever existed in tits place. It was never called Rose-Line. It doesn't conincide with the meridien traced through the middle of Paris Observatory which serves as reference for maps where longitude are measured in degrees east or west of Paris.

Please note that the letters P and S in the small round windows at both ends of the transcept refer to Peter and Sulpice, the patron saints of the church and not to the Priory of Sion.

The inlay exists, it leads upto the marble construction with a globe at the top.
More interestingly, patches of the marble inscription have been, chiseled to erase out what they said.

Avez-vous su ? - 9

[The list below, is just compiled for the sake of information & doesn't intend to make any comment on Christianity or Papacy, both of which I hold in regard.]

Vatican Facts :-
1. The St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican where the Pope is famous for making public appearances, isn't the official seat of the Pope. The Basilica of St. John Lateran, located across town in San Giovanni Piazza, is the official ecclesiastical seat of the Pope, as the Bishop of Rome.
2. The St. Peter's Basilica isn't the largest basilica either, though it was when it was built. The Basilica of Our Lady of Peace, in Ivory Coast, built in & closely modeled on St. Peter's is.
3. Medieval times have seen Anti-Popes, cardinals who contested the position and seat of the presiding Pope & whose claims were widely recognised.
4. Wikipedia also lists a handful Sexually-active Popes. While St. Peter, the 1^st Pope, was known to be married, its ironic that Pope Innocent VIII had several illegitimate children, so did Pope Pius IV.

Bare Facts!

I was casually chatting with Guillaume, (About to start his Ph.D. - from Grenoble - been to India), when the topic of IITs came up. I told his about IITs in Bombay, Kanpur - when he said he couldn't place Kanpur. I casually remarked - Kanpur is a small city in Northern India, without realising that his next question would stump me!
What is the population of Kanpur?

Looking up, facts - here are a few laid out (& will give you an idea, why the small wasn't in place):

Place	Population in Million
Europe	728
Maharastra	96.75
France	64.10
Mumbai	19.70
The Nedtherlands	16.57
Ile-de-France	11.50
Belgium	10.15
Austria	8.20
Switzerland	7.50
Pune	4.48
Kanpur	4.18
Paris	2.15
Amsterdam, Lyon, Zurich, Geneve	< 1

Avez-vous su? - 7

Rafael Nadal turned 21, on Sunday.
While he has won, the last 2 French Opens, he hasn't won a Quarter Final match, at any of the other Grand Slams ever!!

This year, he hasn't dropped a single Set and as a write, has broken Carlos Moya's serve, to lead in the 1^st set of his, QuarterFinal match.

Federer, on the other hand - has lost 1 set.

Love you, Roger - but the grass shall be greener on the other side of the Channel!
Till then,
Go Rafa!

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Edit :-
Within minutes, Moya broke Nadal's serve to level 3-3. Seems like some match!
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Edit :-
Another break, by Nadal - to regain lead 4-3.
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Edit :-
Rape, Set, Match - 6-4 6-3 6-0 Rafa into the semis!

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Edit :- Later
Have a look at Nadal's Homepage! It screams of arrogance & self-confidence.

Avez-vous su? - 6

80 yrs. ago, to the day - Charles Lindberg became the 1^st person to fly a solo, non-stop flight from New York to Paris in the Spirit of St. Louis.
He flew from Roosevelt Airfield (in Garden City, New York) to Le Bourget, Paris in 33.5 hours. He left NY on 20^th May 1927, and arrived the next day.
In his words,

I first saw the lights of Paris a little before 10 P.M., or 5 P.M., New York time, and a few minutes later I was circling the Eiffel Tower at an attitude of about four thousand feet.

Although he was a decorated hero, later in life - he was accused of AntiSemitism and of being being a Nazi sympathiser.

His grandson Erik Lindbergh repeated this trip 75 years later in 2002 in 17 hours 17 minutes.

The Cold Saints

& what modern Science still can't explain!
Anyway, over the past few days, weather in Paris has been terribly windy and cold, and for a person like me, it leads to snoozing!
While, the day we landed, 1^st May, was bright and sunny, the weather has turned sour over the last weekend. It rains every evening, and is generally cloudy and boring during the whole day.
Talking casually to a Ph.D. here, (again, the only one who manages Anglais), he mentioned something about "Cold Saints". Googling told me that this was the period where days of St.Mamertius, St. Pancras (or St. Pancratius) and St. Gervais, were celebrated and they together (along with a certain Cold Sophie) are known as the Ice Saints. This brief, weather inversion, is particularly well-known in German, Austrian and Swiss folklore. The days from 12^th to 15^th May, are known to bring in cold-weather across Northern Europe (in Julian Calendar). Germans refer to it as Eisheiligen.

And if this wasn't cold enough, apparently, in Gregorian Calendar, the Ice Saints are celebrated from 19-22 May, and the onset is thus still 4 days away.Brrr ...
No scientific explanation known.

Ref:
1. The ever reliable Wiki
2. Ski-ers Blog Entry 1 and Entry 2
3. McUniverse

Avez-vous su? - 4

That Pineapple in French is called 'Ananas', the exact same thing it is called in Marathi!
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Edit :- dated 10.5.2007
The Scientific Name of Pineapple is Ananas comosus.

Avez-vous su? - 3

The Roseline or the Meridian made so famous by Dan Brown - as to being passing through the Inverted Pyramid in Louvre - doesnt actually pass through the Inverted Pyramid.

While it does pass through the Louvre, quoting Wikipedia:

Brown is also wrong to imply that the Paris Meridian (the "Rose Line" of his novel) passes directly over La Pyramide Inversée. In the Louvre area, the meridian line actually runs through the museum and the great courtyard at a spot considerably to the east of the Inverted Pyramid.

I looked all over the area surrounding the Inversee Pyramid, frantically searching for the smallest black circles, that I could find, disappointed until - Wikipedia enlightened me !

Avez-vous su? - 2

You might have known that the switches are switched in this part of the world.
A switch that, if fitted properly, would be considered off in India, is considered to be ON in here.
Also, electric power is 110V than the 220V that we are used to in l'Inde :P

More strangely, power points (& I dont mean the Microsoft dumbos), have a single Male Pin earthing and 2 Female Pins that supply AC.

Avez-vous su? - 1

This is an observation, which might not be correct -

Cars in Paris have a weird system of number plates.
The Front number plates are the standard black on white.
But the same car, has a black on yellow number plate on the rear.