Although there are many places from whence I drew inspiration for this grant, one of my strongest was from a survivor I met in Houston when I was working on my 2011 grant. She said that not enough people know about France's role in the Holocaust. I use her testimony in my class, and it from her testimony that my two students took inspiration for their National History Day exhibit. 

The students used the Upstander to show that it is our responsibility to honor an individual's right, and they used Vichy, the Vel d'Hiv roundup, and the train company, SNCF, to show that while evil does exist in the world, the Upstander is always a positive force in any situation. 

Seeing this memorial on my last day in Paris was so powerful. 

As I was walking to find the memorial, I ran into a memorial for the Bir-Hakeim. I love, love, love serendipitous experiences.

The Velodrome does not exist anymore, and this is what the street surrounding it looks like.

And this is the plaque where the Velodrome actually stood.

The memorial is at the end of the street (right by the river, near an entrance to the RER that is used for the Eiffel Tower). The picture at the top of this post points to the memorial in the pictures below.

I could not have asked for a better way to end my time in Paris. Seeing the memorial for the event that my students so much, seeing the memorial for the event that was not acknowledged for such a long period of time, seeing the memorial for the event that is such a reminder of the dark period in our humanity gives me courage to continue to find the good in the world--and to continue to teach my students about the power of the Upstander.

There is nothing more exciting for me to be traveling to a research point and find another. This is the monument at the Place de la Republique, At this location, there was a military barricks. It's also where Daguerre, a contributer to the field of photography, gave demonstrations. 

Photography. That's something else I want to tie in with this grant-the power of the individual to change the world all while he or she is behind a lens.

Seeing Normandy in one day isn't enough time, but I was able to visit Omaha Beach and the American cemetery. It was so moving to see the waves break on the beach and the tribute to the soldiers who fell.

I was able to research at Memorial de la Shoah for two days. On one of the days, the museum sponsored a bus for anyone who wished to travel to Drancy, an internment camp about forty-five minutes outside of Paris. It was so moving to visit both museums as well as the memorial at Drancy

What better place to find Upstanders than in the Pantheon, a final resting place for the great men and women of France? 

The building was originally a church dedicated to St. Genevieve, the patron saint of Paris. I had no idea how she saved Paris from the Huns in 451. That is also something else I will research later.

In the Pantheon, I saw Voltaire's tomb. His Candide is one of my favorite novels, and my thoughts about cultivating the garden come directly from his writing.

There were also several memorials to the Revolution.

In 2007, President Chirac unveiled a plaque to the Righteous Among the Nations. 

And Marie Curie is the only woman in the Pantheon there of her own accomplishments. 

The Musee de l'Armee was beautiful and breathtaking. In it, I viewed the exhibit on World War I and World War II. There were several resistance pieces there, and there are several people whom I will need to research. This grant does not end when I leave Paris.

Napoleon's tomb is in the gold domed church that is the first picture. I'm not calling Napoleon an Upstander, but it was very exciting to see his (and Josephine's) tomb.

The Free French were discussed in the exhibit, and a lot of the research that my two eighth grade students completed covered what was in the museum. That was very exciting for me.

A lot of museums do not allow photography of their exhibits, so I have taken plenty of notes when I could not take photographs.

No trip to Paris is complete without seeing the Arc and the Eiffel Tower. There is an eternal flame for the unknown soldier (from World War I) that is lit under the Arc.

I took my first pedicab ride in order to get to see the Eiffel Tower. I was too far away from the tower to be able to travel to the top and see the view, but it is still beautiful. 

I think I posted a picture of Joan of Arc when I visited Paris in 2011, but it's still neat to see the statue in the middle of a street down which I'm walking. I'm sure there are memorials and historic areas around the world, but I am constantly taken by the history found and memorialized in Paris.

I mean, what else can I say?

And, of course, the Globe is in London. All of the shows were sold out. 
I tried. :(