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Paris

A few other sights in Paris.

The Museum of Arts and Industry is a fascinating museum that houses the collection from the National Conservatory of Arts and Industry. The conservatory was founded in 1794, during the French Revolution. As such, it has a vast and historical collection of scientific instruments and inventions. If you visit the museum, plan to spend the whole day there: it is huge!

Musée des Arts et Métiers
Paris Observatory

The prime meridian (0° longitude) today goes through Greenwich in London. The location of a meridian is purely arbitrary, and the world could have equally chosen the meridian that runs through the Paris Observatory. In one sense the Paris meridian would make more sense because the meter was originally defined by the distance from the Equator to the North Pole at the Paris Meridian being 10^7 meters. This bit of trivia makes it very easy to remember the size of the earth: the circumference is roughly 40,000kms.

Arago line

A series of medalions run through Paris to mark the Paris meridian.

Arago medalion
Partheon
Bastille
Bastille
Bastille
Bastille
Bastille
Eiffel Tower
Eiffel Tower
Eiffel Tower
Eiffel Tower
Eiffel Tower
Eiffel Tower
Eiffel Tower
Eiffel Tower

I then take the Eurostar train from Paris to London. The highlight being speeding along the French countryside at 300km/h and going through the Channel Tunnel–both amazing feats of engineering. Except there is not much to see in the tunnel other than ten minutes of darkness punctuated by a few lights.

Eurostar train

Here we arrive at London St Pancras station. The Morocco to the UK overland trip was successfully completed–the journey was the reward.

London