I love the adventure stories with twisted plots, mysteries, puzzles. That is why I love the stories created by Dan Brown and his major character Professor Robert Langdon who was very well played by Tom Hanks in the series of successful movies. Moreover, in my travel adventures I managed to visit most of the countries, places, museums, etc, and even CERN, which are described in the books and movies. And when I watch the movies I travel back in time together with Professor Langdon.

So, today I invite you to solve great mysteries of Leonardo, Illuminati, and Dante. It’s time to refresh your knowledge of history and arts. Welcome aboard!

The Da Vinci Code

Jacques Saunière, a Louvre curator, is pursued through the Grand Gallery by an albino Catholic monk named Silas, who demands the location of the Priory’s “keystone” to find and destroy the Holy Grail. Saunière gives him a false lead and is murdered. The police find his body posed like Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man. Police captain Bezu Fache has his lieutenant, Jérôme Collet, summon American symbologist Robert Langdon, who is in Paris for a lecture on the interpretation of symbols, to examine Saunière’s body.

Langdon is shown the body and a secret message, readable only by blacklight. It contains an out-of-order Fibonacci sequence. Sophie Neveu, a police cryptographer and Saunière’s granddaughter, tells Langdon that Fache planted a tracker on him after finding the words, “P.S. Find Robert Langdon” at the end of Saunière’s secret message. Fache believes that Langdon murdered Saunière. Sophie throws away the tracker, distracting the police while they sneak around the Louvre, finding more clues in Leonardo da Vinci’s works. Langdon deduces that Saunière was the grand master of the Priory of Sion. And our adventure begins.

We meet Professor Robert Langdon for the first time during his lecture. He uses Sony laptop for his presentation.

Robert Langdon The Da Vinci Code - Sony laptop

In one of the next scenes of the movie we can clearly see the van with Bosch logo. Same is for the famous French water – Badoit. We can see it in a bucket full of ice.

Robert Langdon The Da Vinci Code - Bosch

Robert Langdon The Da Vinci Code - Badoit

When Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveu (Audrey Tautou) come to the bank to retrieve the cryptex, we can see how KUKA robot picks the right box that belonged to Jacques Saunière. When the bank employee helps the main characters to pass the police, we can get a glimpse of his Rolex watch.

Robert Langdon The Da Vinci Code - KUKA robot

Robert Langdon The Da Vinci Code - Rolex watch

At Sir Leigh Teabing’s (Ian McKellen) house our guests learn more about The Last Supper painting secrets. Their host is also a fan of Sony, so we may see various TV sets and displays in the house. While enjoying their evening tea, we can as well see Heinz there, of course.

Robert Langdon The Da Vinci Code - Heinz

When Robert Langdon and Sophie look for a tomb in London, they borrow a Sony Ericsson smartphone to search for more information.

In the final scene of the movie we see that Robert lives in Ritz hotel in Paris, and from there he starts his evening walk to follow the Arago medallions and come to the Louvre.

Angels & Demons

The Catholic Church mourns the sudden death of Pope Pius XVI, and prepares for the papal conclave to elect his successor in Vatican City. Father Patrick McKenna (Ewan McGregor), the camerlengo, takes temporary control of the Vatican during the sede vacante period.

Meanwhile, at CERN, scientists Father Silvano Bentivoglio and Dr. Vittoria Vetra (Ayelet Zurer) create three canisters of antimatter. As Vetra goes to evaluate the experiment, she discovers that Silvano has been murdered, and one of the canisters was stolen. Shortly thereafter, four of the preferiti, the favored candidates to be elected pope, are kidnapped by a man claiming to represent the Illuminati. He sends the Vatican a warning, claiming he will murder each of the cardinals from 8 p.m. to midnight, when the stolen antimatter will explode and destroy the city, hidden somewhere within.

Unlike two other movies, there are only few product placements in Angels & Demons. And they can be divided in two categories – Sony and TV channels.

That is why we see Sony computers and displays in the first scene in CERN.

And when the events of the movie accelerate, we can see various TV channels broadcasting from Vatican City. These are Canal+, CNN, and Reuters.

And this is it for Angels & Demons. More product placements are waiting in Inferno.

Inferno

Some time after helping the Vatican dealing with an antimatter threat, Harvard University professor Robert Langdon awakens in a hospital room in Florence, Italy, with no memory of what has transpired over the last few days, but being plagued with hellish visions. Dr. Sienna Brooks (Felicity Jones), the doctor tending to him, reveals that he is suffering from amnesia as a result of a bullet wound to the head. An orderly says the police are there to question Langdon but the officer turns out to be Vayentha, an assassin, who shoots the orderly while coming up the hallway. Brooks helps Langdon to escape, and they flee to her apartment.

Among Langdon’s personal belongings, Langdon and Brooks find a Faraday pointer, a miniature image projector with a modified version of Sandro Botticelli’s Map of Hell, which itself is based on Dante’s Inferno. They soon realize this is the first clue in a trail left by Bertrand Zobrist, a dangerously unstable villain who believed that rigorous measures were necessary to reduce the Earth’s growing population, and who committed suicide three days earlier after being chased by armed government agents.

When Robert Langdon wakes up in Sienna’s house, we can find various brands across her apartment. First of all we see Sony TV remote controls. And when Professor asks for coffee, Sienna goes to the kitchen where we spot tea brands like Greenfield and Twinings.

Robert Langdon Inferno - Greenfield and Twinnings

While Sienna is looking for some clothes for Robert, he decides to use her Apple MacBook to check his Google mail.

When Robert and Sienna decide to call to the consulate, we see that Sienna uses Sony smartphone. When they realize that they can trust no one, they start their investigation. First, they search for the information about Zobrist. Google, Wikipedia, and YouTube are very helpful even in the movies.

Later in the movie we see more Sony product placements – a TV set in Command Risk Consortium, a smartphone and a tablet used by Elizabeth Sinskey.

When Robert Langdon and Sienna Brooks try to escape from their enemies with the help of Christoph Bouchard, they make everyone believe they are going to fly to Switzerland via Swiss, but instead they take an Italo speed train to Venice.

When finally the truth is revealed and memory is restored, Robert and Elizabeth go to Istanbul to stop Sienna from unleashing the virus. Elizabeth shares Zobrist’s message with Robert. They watch it together on a Dell laptop.

In the final scene when Professor returns Dante’s mask to the museum, we can see the museum employee wearing the tag with the Florentine Civic Museums branding.

Robert Langdon Inferno - Florentine Civic Museums

Unfortunately, there is no news about the future movies with Tom Hanks. And no news about any new books. Looking forward to new adventures of Professor Langdon.

I highly recommend you to visit Product Placement section of the website. You will find more amazing movie series analysed there.

Bon à savoir

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Particularités de la station Franklin D. Roosevelt: "(jusqu'en 1942 : Marbeuf ; de 1942 à 1946 : Marbeuf - Rond-Point des Champs-Élysées)"

Madeleine

Trajets très demandés

Rues proches du lieu de départ Franklin D. Roosevelt:

Avenue des Champs Elysées, Avenue Franklin D. Roosevelt, Avenue Montaigne, Rond-Point des Champs Elysées-Marcel Dassault, Rue Jean Mermoz, Avenue de Selves, Avenue Matignon, Impasse d’Antin, Rue de Ponthieu, Rue du Colisée, Avenue du Général Eisenhower, Place François Ier

Rues proches de la destination Madeleine:

Boulevard de la Madeleine, Place de la Madeleine, Rue de Sèze, Rue Duphot, Rue Vignon, Passage de la Madeleine, Rue Cambon, Rue Chauveau-Lagarde, Rue de l’Arcade, Rue Godot de Mauroy, Rue Royale, Rue Saint-Honoré, Voie A/1

This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.

VENICE, Italy (AP) — Venice has always been a place of contrasts, of breathtaking beauty and devastating fragility, where history, religion, art and nature have collided over the centuries to produce an otherworldly gem of a city. But even for a place that prides itself on its culture of unusual encounters, Pope Francis’ visit Sunday stood out.

Francis traveled to the lagoon city to visit the Holy See’s pavilion at the Biennale contemporary art show and meet with the people who created it. But because the Vatican decided to mount its exhibit in Venice’s women’s prison, and invited inmates to collaborate with the artists, the whole project assumed a far more complex meaning, touching on Francis’ belief in the power of art to uplift and unite, and of the need to give hope and solidarity to society’s most marginalized.

Francis hit on both messages during his visit, which began in the courtyard of the Giudecca prison where he met with the women inmates one by one. As some of them wept, Francis urged them to use their time in prison as a chance for “moral and material rebirth.”

“Paradoxically, a stay in prison can mark the beginning of something new, through the rediscovery of the unsuspected beauty in us and in others, as symbolized by the artistic event you are hosting and the project to which you actively contribute,” Francis said.

Francis then met with Biennale artists in the prison chapel, decorated with an installation by Brazilian visual artist Sonia Gomes of objects dangling from the ceiling, meant to draw the viewer’s gaze upward. He urged the artists to embrace the Biennale’s theme this year “Strangers Everywhere,” to show solidarity with all those on the margins.

The Vatican exhibit has turned the Giudecca prison, a former convent for reformed prostitutes, into one of the must-see attractions of this year’s Biennale, even though to see it visitors must reserve in advance and go through a security check. It has become an unusual art world darling that greets visitors at the entrance with Maurizio Cattelan’s wall mural of two giant filthy feet, a work that recalls Caravaggio’s dirty feet or the feet that Francis washes each year in a Holy Thursday ritual that he routinely performs on prisoners.

The exhibit also includes a short film starring the inmates and Zoe Saldana, and prints in the prison coffee shop by onetime Catholic nun and American social activist Corita Kent.

Francis’ dizzying morning visit, which ended with Mass in St. Mark’s Square, represented an increasingly rare outing for the 87-year-old pontiff, who has been hobbled by health and mobility problems that have ruled out any foreign trips so far this year.

And Venice, with its 121 islands and 436 bridges, isn’t an easy place to negotiate. But Francis pulled it off, arriving by helicopter from Rome, crossing the Giudecca Canal in a water taxi and then arriving in St. Mark’s Square in a mini popemobile that traversed the Grand Canal via a pontoon bridge erected for the occasion.

During an encounter with young people at the iconic Santa Maria della Salute basilica, Francis acknowledged the miracle that is Venice, admiring its “enchanting beaty” and tradition as a place of East-West encounter, but warning that it is increasingly vulnerable to climate change and depopulation.

“Venice is at one with the waters upon which it sits,” Francis said. “Without the care and safeguarding of this natural environment, it might even cease to exist.”

Venice, sinking under rising sea levels and weighed down by the impact of overtourism, is in the opening days of an experiment to try to limit the sort of day trips that Francis undertook Sunday.

Venetian authorities last week launched a pilot program to charge day-trippers 5 euros ($5.35) apiece on peak travel days. The aim is to encourage them to stay longer or come at off-peak times, to cut down on crowds and make the city more livable for its dwindling number of residents.

For Venice’s Catholic patriarch, Archbishop Francesco Moraglia, the new tax program is a worthwhile experiment, a potential necessary evil to try to preserve Venice as a livable city for visitors and residents alike.

Moraglia said Francis’ visit — the first by a pope to the Biennale — was a welcome boost, especially for the women of the Giudecca prison who participated in the exhibit as tour guides and as protagonists in some of the artworks.

He acknowledged that Venice over the centuries has had a long, complicated, love-hate relationship with the papacy, despite its central importance to Christianity.

The relics of St. Mark — the top aide to St. Peter, the first pope — are held here in the basilica, which is one of the most important and spectacular in all of Christendom. Several popes have hailed from Venice — in the past century alone three pontiffs were elected after being Venice patriarchs. And Venice hosted the last conclave held outside the Vatican: the 1799-1800 vote that elected Pope Paul VII.

But for centuries before that, relations between the independent Venetian Republic and the Papal States were anything but cordial as the two sides dueled over control of the church. Popes in Rome issued interdicts against Venice that essentially excommunicated the entire territory. Venice flexed its muscles back by expelling entire religious orders, including Francis’ own Jesuits.

“It’s a history of contrasts because they were two competitors for so many centuries,” said Giovanni Maria Vian, a church historian and retired editor of the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano whose family hails from Venice. “The papacy wanted to control everything, and Venice jealously guarded its independence.”

Moraglia said that troubled history is long past and that Venice was welcoming Francis with open arms and gratitude, in keeping with its history as a bridge between cultures.

“The history of Venice, the DNA of Venice — beyond the language of beauty and culture that unifies — there’s this historic character that says that Venice has always been a place of encounter,” he said.

Francis said as much as he closed out Mass in St. Mark’s before an estimated 10,500 people.

“Venice, which has always been a place of encounter and cultural exchange, is called to be a sign of beauty available to all,” Francis said. “Starting with the least, a sign of fraternity and care for our common home.”

___

Winfield reported from Rome. Associated Press writer Colleen Barry contributed.

Pope greets artists and inmates at Venice Biennale

Pope Francis is greeted by Gondoliers upon his arrival in Venice, Italy

By Euronews with AP

Published on 28/04/2024 - 9:47 GMT+2

Comments

The Pontiff travelled to Venice to see the Holy See’s pavilion for this year’s Venice Biennale. It’s a first for a pope, and has given the 60th edition of the world’s longest running international art exhibit reason.

The Vatican chose to stage its pavilion inside Venice’s women’s prison, and through a deal with the Italian Justice Ministry, invited inmates to work alongside the artists. The result is a multimedia exhibit “With My Eyes,” that is open to the public by reservation only and under strict security conditions.

The Vatican exhibit has turned the convent-prison into one of the must-see attractions of this year’s Biennale, an unusual art world darling that greets visitors at the entrance with Maurizio Cattelan’s wall mural of two giant filthy feet. The work, titled “Father,” recalls Caravaggio’s dirty feet or the feet that Francis washes each year in a Holy Thursday ritual that he routinely performs on prisoners.

Greeting the prisoners, the Pope remarked: "Let us not forget that we all have mistakes to be forgiven for and wounds to heal, I too, and that we can all become healed who bring healing, forgiven who bring forgiveness, reborn who bring rebirth". The inmates donated to Bergoglio products that they make in the prison laboratories, including natural soaps and a new white skullcap, which the Pope immediately put on.

After that encounter, Francis heads by boat across the Giudecca Canal to Venice’s iconic Santa Maria della Salute basilica to meet with young people. Then he is driven by golf cart over a pontoon bridge laid across the Grand Canal for the occasion to Piazza San Marco, where he celebrates Mass in the shadow of the city’s spectacular Byzantine basilica.

Francis’ dizzying morning visit, which will end before lunchtime, represents an increasingly rare outing for the 87-year-old pontiff, who has been hobbled by health and mobility problems that have ruled out any foreign trips so far this year.

But it’s also unusual because it comes as Venice, sinking under rising sea levels and weighed down by the impact of over tourism, is in the opening days of an experiment to try to limit the sort of day trips that Francis is undertaking.

https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2024/04/28/pope-greets-artists-and-inmates-at-venice-biennale

París te espera. Te propongo un paseo juntos por el Barrio Latino, Montmartre, Saint Germain, los Campos Elíseos, el Marais o sobre las aguas del Sena. Tú eliges.

Jul13

La imaginaria Línea Arago, el meridiano de París.

Desde muy antiguo, el hombre ha querido poner límites geográficos a la Tierra y ha evidenciado una innegable necesidad de introducir magnitudes de medición que permitan a cartógrafos, geógrafos e, incluso, astrónomos tener una posibilidad de situar un punto con exactitud en nuestro planeta.

Hasta 1884, momento en que se celebró la Conferencia Internacional del Meridiano, eran varios los puntos de partida utilizados para medir la tierra hacia derecha e izquierda. En este momento se tomó como medida universal el Meridiano de Greenwich, el meridiano cero, el punto desde el que se habrían de medir todas las distancias en la tierra en el sentido este-oeste. Pero este meridiano no fue el primero ni el único que existió en nuestro planeta.

Medallón Arago situado entre el 152 y el 154 del Boulevard Saint Germain .

Uno de los más conocidos hasta entonces fue, precisamente, el Meridiano de París, una línea imaginaria cuyo punto cero pasaba por el Observatorio Astronómico de la ciudad.

Hoy nos vamos a referir a esta línea imaginaria que, con el paso del tiempo y a modo de homenaje, ha tenido su réplica sobre el pavimento de París. Más aún después de que Dan Brown publicara su célebre obra «El Código da Vinci» en el que se le menciona en varias ocasiones identificándola (erróneamente) con la Línea Rosa.

Hablemos del autor de este meridiano de París.

François Arago, quien dio nombre a esta línea imaginaria, fue un astrónomo francés que nació en 1786 muy cerca de Perpignan y su familia era catalanoparlante. Su padre era un campesino acomodado que pudo dar carrera universitaria a varios de sus ocho hijos. Estudió en el instituto público de Perpignan. Mostrando gustos militares desde su infancia, se centró en el estudio de las matemáticas para preparar el concurso de ingreso en la Escuela Politécnica de París.

Medallón Arago situado en los Jardines de Luxemburgo.

En dos años y medio consiguió el nivel adecuado en todas las ciencias exigidas para el concurso de ingreso en la escuela. Fue admitido con la nota más alta de su promoción y se matriculó en la sección de artillería, pero se quejaba del nivel insuficiente de los profesores. Criado en un ambiente republicano, se negó (junto con otros alumnos) a felicitar a Napoleón con motivo de su coronación en 1804, desobedeciendo las normas de esta Gran Escuela.

En el año 1804, gracias a la recomendación de Siméon Poisson y Pierre Simon Laplace, recibió el cargo de secretario-bibliotecario del Bureau des Longitudes (Oficina de las Longitudes) del Observatorio de París mientras seguía estudiando en la Escuela Politécnica. De esta forma consiguió ser incluido junto con Pierre-Simon Laplace y Jean Baptiste Biot en el grupo llamado a completar las medidas del meridiano que empezó años antes J. B. J. Delambre.
Ahí empezó su andadura en busca del meridiano exacto, un meridiano que pasaba por París.
Arago tuvo la suerte de preservar todos los resultados de sus investigaciones y los depositó en el Bureau des Longitudes de París. La calidad de sus trabajos le convierten enseguida en un ciéntifico renombrado no sólo en el seno de la comunidad científica sino también en la opinión pública.

Medallón Arago situado en el Palais Royal.

En 1830 Arago, que siempre había profesado ideas republicanas, fue elegido diputado por los Pirineos Orientales y mantendrá su escaño durante toda la monarquía de julio. A ello dedicó todos sus recursos oratorios y científicos centrándose en la cuestión de la educación pública, la mejora de las condiciones de vida de los obreros, el sufragio universal, los premios a los inventores y el apoyo a las ciencias. Después de los acontecimientos de febrero de 1848 que provocaron la caída del Rey Louis Philippe I, Arago es nombrado miembro del gobierno provisional como Ministro de la Guerra, la Marina y las Colonias, y proclamó la República ante el pueblo de París.

Regresó a su puesto en el Observatorio donde prosiguió con su incansable labor científica. Casi no volvió a pisar la Asamblea, a pesar de ser reelegido diputado en 1849.

Tras el golpe de Estado de Luís Napoleón en diciembre de 1852, Arago intentó movilizar a la Academia sin éxito. Obligado como funcionario a prestar juramento al Emperador, se negó y dimitió, pero Napoleón le aseguró que no sería inquietado.

Afectado de diabetes y de problemas intestinales, falleció al año siguiente en París. Fue enterrado en el cementerio de Père-Lachaise.

Medallón Arago situado en el Cour Napoleon del Louvre.

De la importancia de este personaje han quedado evidencias en París.
Hay un boulevard dedicado con su nombre que linda con el edificio del Observatorio Astronómico de París.
Arago también es uno de los 72 científicos cuyo nombre Eiffel mandó grabar en las cuatro caras de la torre que levantó.
Pero en París también hay un monumento con el que se le recuerda, un monumento imaginario que mide 9 kilómetros de largo y que es difícil de apreciar: la célebre línea Arago.

Esta es la historia. En 1893 se decide erigir una estatua de bronce con la efigie del astrónomo junto al Observatorio de París, sin embargo, en 1942, debido a las necesidades de construir cañones para la II Guerra Mundial, el gobierno francés la funde y desaparece.

Cuarenta y dos años más tarde, en 1994, el gobierno de la ciudad decide restablecer el honor a Arago y pide al artista holandés Jan Dibbets su construcción. Este artista, inspirándose en el célebre Meridiano de París calculado por François Arago, diseña 135 medallones de bronce de 12 centímetros de diámetros que fueron colocados en el suelo de la ciudad a lo largo del meridiano en dirección sur a norte.

Los medallones indicando la línea Arago a su paso por el Museo del Louvre.

Muchos de estos medallones han desaparecido con el tiempo, bien por robo o por pérdida. Otros se encuentran en muy mal estado y se distinguen por su forma no por ser legibles o reconocibles por algún signo. Otros muchos están en buen estado y es una tarea difícil y ardua ir en su busca.

Aquí os acompaño de un plano para quien quiera hacerlo. Armaos de paciencia porque un meridiano (aunque sea sólo sobre París) no se recorre en un sólo día.