Paris, Arc de Trioumphe. The Goddess of Hatred.

On a recent visit to Paris my friend and I climbed 300+ stairs to the top of the Arc de triomphe in Place Etoile. 

There is a small museum at the top with a huge head of Liberté in the centre. For once, I was struck with how incongruous she looked. Incongruous with the humanistic ideal of the French revolution. 

This image, does it not rather fit with Erida, the Greek goddess of Hatred, rather than with the Liberty? 

Well, that's Paris to you.

author on top of the Arc de Triomphe, and 

the statue of the Unknown soldier, also in the museum at the top of the Arc.

Marianne on Top of a Volcano.

No photoshop, just an angle. It looks the Marianne in the market square in Vire, Calvados, sits right on top of a fountain (not quite volcano.)
Photo by ©A.Anichkin.

Red Marianne in the Mist.

This bust of Marianne, the symbol of the French Republic, was erected in the market square in Vire on the 100th anniversary of the Revolution in 1889. 

The bronze monument miraculously survived heavy Allied bombings in 1944. 

Just before the 2012 elections the monument was repainted in a bright red colour. Probably to protect it from the elements. And the centre-right mayor of Vire was defeated for the first time in more than twenty years. Now the town has a left-wing mayor.

This  June 1944 photo (from here) shows the state of Vire during the battle for Normandy. Marianne is in the bottom left corner.

Marianne in Autumn

Light brown bust of Marianne, the symbol of the French Republic, stands out against the dark foliage behind. The column with Marianne on top was erected in 1889 to commemorate the first Centenary of the French Revolution. It stands in the market square in Vire, Calvados.