01x10 - Paris

[bunniefuu]

[siren]

♪ Inspector Gadget's
field trip ♪

♪ We're going on a visit ♪

♪ Inspector Gadget's
field trip ♪

♪ Come on,
let's go with him ♪

♪ Inspector Gadget's
field trip ♪

♪ What's that, you ask?
What is it? ♪

♪ Inspector Gadget's
field trip ♪

♪ Well, no one
wants to miss it ♪

♪ Inspector Gadget's
field trip ♪

♪ We're going on a visit ♪

♪ Inspector Gadget's
field trip ♪

♪ Have fun,
let's go with him ♪

♪ New places,
new faces ♪

♪ Inspector Gadget's
field trip ♪

♪ Inspector Gadget's
field trip ♪

Inspector Gadget here.

I'm either in front of
the world's largest erector set

or the famous
Eiffel Towerin Paris.

It had better be
the Eiffel Tower.

I didn't travel
all the way to Paris

to see an erector set.

Taking a field trip
to g*y paree,

the city of lights.

It's a dirty job,
but somebody has to do it.

Paris is located
in the heart of France.

If that's a heart,

then the Seine river
must be the aorta.

And in the middle
of the aorta, or Seine,

is a small island
called the Ile de la Cite.

If it looks a little tired,

it's because it's
been around since 300 b.c.

The pioneer Parisians
thought this would be

a great place
to start a city

since it was already there.

Ile de la Cite

is where you find
Notre Dame cathedral.

Just look up.
You can't miss it.

That's right.

It's the big, old looking
church right there.

It's an excellent example
of gothic architecture,

as any gargoyle
will tell you.

The french began
building Notre Dame in 1163.

It took them 182 years
to complete it.

When it was finished
the workers shouted,

"boy, are we old!"

Of course,
they shouted it in french

since gargoyles
are almost never bilingual.

Notre dame
is the setting

for victor hugo's
famous book

the hunchback
of Notre Dame.

Hmm...
That name rings a bell.

In the novel,

Notre Dame's bell tower
was the home

of quasimodo
the hunchback.

Guess they had
quite a housing shortage

back in quasimodo's days.

On the bright side,

quasimodo always knew
what time it was.

I have a hunch
he was quite happy there.

But back to our field trip.

No, that's not quasimodo.

It's a gargoyle,

the first clue to identifying
gothic architecture.

The second clue
that we're in gothic land

is flying buttresses.

That's why the gargoyles
look so unhappy--

they're constantly ducking
flying buttresses.

Would you believe
flying buttresses

provide extra support
for the walls?

As for the funny name,

just take away
the buttresses

and watch those walls fly.

And if that
isn't enough,

Notre Dame has
an inside, too.

Here's the ultimate proof

that gothic architecture
is right above our heads.

These beautiful
ribbed vaults

help support the roof.

The vaults are like wires
in an umbrella,

and they hold up
a very heavy church.

There's the magnificent
rose window of stained glass

that allows streams
of colored light

to shine through.

That's what
stained glass windows do best.

Trying to clean off
those stains

would be a real pain.

Looks like we're headed
the right way.

As you can see,

some of those statues
are missing their heads.

Would you believe that was
an old french headache cure?

Would you believe
a sculptor

who ran out of rock?

This is
the gallerie des rois,

where the 28 headless
statues are kept.

That means
"gallery of the kings."

During
the french revolution,

the people of France
chopped off the statues' heads

because the statues
represented France's kings.

Of course,
without the heads,

those rock bodies
could belong to anyone,

so we'll have to take
their word for it.

Time for the old Inspector
to do some ace detecting

and solve the mystery of
the missing royal heads.

Wowsers!

This is either the royal
Parisian bowling ball works

or I've cracked the case.

The missing heads
are all here

at a national museum called
the musee de cluny.

I call it cluny's headworks.

Actually,
a construction worker

cracked the case
before I did.

He accidentally stumbled
across the heads

at a building site where
he was heard to exclaim,

"heads! I win!"

The Musee de Cluny

is a good home
for the royal heads.

They blend right in
with the other old stuff.

Would you believe

these guys are fixing
broken sculptures?

Would you believe

they're cleaning up
after an office party?

How about reconstructing
humpty dumpty?

Stay tuned.

There's lots more
excitement up ahead.

We're back, and boy,
are my Gadgets tired.

The master puzzle maker
of them all,

gustav Eiffel,

built this monument

The Eiffel Toweris one of

the most outstanding
monuments of Paris.

My uncle, Shifty Gadget,

once sold the Eiffel Tower
to a couple of tourists...

Then he changed
his residence

to the Bastille.

Mr. Eiffel built
the tower in 1889

for the universal exposition
or world's fair.

It made it easier

to find your horse cart
after the fair.

Just look for Eiffel 11-b

and listen for
that familiar whinny.

They were going
to take the tower down

after the 20-year exposition
was over.

But it would have been
a lot of work,

and by then the Parisians
had come to love it.

And, of course, by then,

they needed it
to find their cars.

When in Paris,
do as the Parisians do

and walk up the 1,652 steps

which zigzag their way up
to the top of Eiffel Tower.

Coincidentally,
the same number of steps

take you down
the Eiffel Tower.

The Eiffel Tower is repainted
every 7 years,

and it takes

to cover
the entire structure.

Now that we know
how hard the stairs are,

let's take the elevator.

But first, an Inspector
Gadget field trip fact...

When Eiffel built the tower
in 1889, he wanted to make

it twice as tall as
any other building,

and he did.

It's twice as tall
as the Washington Monument

and twice as hard to climb.

It's 984 feet tall.

Here's a Parisian dog

who didn't make it
out of town for the summer.

It's a dog's life.

Sorry, no wet dogs allowed
on the Eiffel elevator.

This is more like it.

That wet dog will never know
what he missed.

Well, then again
maybe he will.

We made it.

Top of the world,
ma Gadget!

The Eiffel Towerwas

the first radio tower
in the world in 1915.

It was also one of the first
television transmitters

in 1925.

Now, if only
they had television sets.

If you look closely,

you can see
millions of rivets.

to be exact.

I'm not going
to count them.

I'll just take
their word for it.

Without the rivets,

you'd have 5 short towers
lying around down there.

The tower was made
of 5 pre-made parts

that were stacked up
and fastened together

with--you guessed it--
lots of rivets.

But no flying buttresses,

and I can't find
a gargoyle anywhere.

Let's take a closer look

at the incredible scenery
of Paris.

Look at those people
down there.

They look
like Parisian ants.

There's the Seine river,

the grand arche,

and the Louvre.

If it wasn't for all
those beautiful landmarks,

you could really see Paris.

Wowsers!

This is a huge monument.

Either that or the rest
of the city has shrunk.

It's the arc de triomphe.

It took over 30 years
to build,

and was completed
in 1836

to honor the troops
of napoleon,

one of the great leaders
of France.

It's 164 feet high
and 148 feet wide.

It's so big that one time
a small plane attempted

to fly through the arch...

Missed it by that much.

Let's just skip
the Gadget copter

and drive around the arch...

And around the arch...

And around the arch.

at the arc de triomphe.

Some of them even leave.

This is the world renowned
berthillon ice cream parlor,

or as the french say...

Glace de berthillon.

Glace means ice cream,

and that means delicious
in any language.

Go, go,
Gadget ice cream scooper.

So many flavors
and so little time.

Ahh. back on tour.

The map says,
"bon appetit,

"and follow
the ice cream dribbles

"in a straight line to...

The outline of a building"?

Aha! A missing building
and a sign.

this is where

the infamous
bastille prison was located.

It held
dangerous criminals,

political opponents
of the king,

and one very
silly uncle of mine.

Here's
the original foundation.

On july 14, 1789,

freedom fighters
who were against the king

tore down the fortress.

I guess
they made their point

because it started
the french revolution.

Every year the french
celebrate july 14th,

which is known
as bastille day.

The french kick off
their celebrating

the night before
with a ball organized

by the local firemen.

That way they're early
in case of a fire.

Hey, cut that out!

Wowsers!

That's a big firecracker.

Oh, wait a minute.

That's an old empty cannon
at the invalides.

Remember who was honored
at the arc de triomphe?

He's buried here,

and his name
was napoleon.

He was a little guy with
big ambitions for France,

and he makes
a nifty dessert.

Starting in 1796,

napoleon began his campaign
to conquer europe

and almost succeeded,
much like the plane

that tried to fly
through this arch.

Napoleon later died
in exile.

The invalides used to be
a soldier's barracks,

but no one was using it
in 1840,

so they buried
napoleon here.

Hope the soldiers
found another barracks.

Today most of the buildings
are occupied

by the military services
and the army museum.

And since napoleon doesn't
take up much room,

they park
the cannons here, too.

Probably makes 'em feel
at home.

This neighborhood
is called La Defense,

which is a futuristic place

that has a collection

of unusual and colorful
apartment towers

and office buildings.

Looks like a flying buttress
flew by too fast.

One of the most
famous buildings

is the 35-story arch
made of glass and marble.

It's so big,

you can fit the Notre Dame
cathedral inside it.

But don't try it
on a busy sunday morning.

This artist gave La Defense
the thumbs up.

That looks like fun.

Go, go, Gadget skates.

Just a roller blade away

is one of
the most famous

art collections
in the world,

the Louvre museum,

which is actually inside the
largest palace in the world.

But before it was a palace,

it was a fortress
that couldn't stop growing.

It was still growing
as of 1993.

Kind of like my chia pet.

The glass pyramid
was built by

a famous american architect
named i.m. pei.

An egyptian building

built by an american

inside a french fortress.

And they say
we can't all get along.

The Louvre has over million
works of art,

and some of them
are pretty good.

We'll have to come back
on another field trip

to see more.

I may even dash off
a self-portrait for them...

If I can find my crayons.

Napoleon not only
collected countries,

he collected their art
by the shipload.

Napoleon missed collecting
one great piece.

It was already there.

In the early 1500s,

king francois the first

bought a very
famous painting

by the italian artist,
leonardo da vinci.

It's called the mona lisa.

She's the woman
with the funny smile.

Why do you think
she's smiling?

Probably just got back
from the dentist.

T.g.v. stands
for tres grande vitesse,

which means
"very high speed."

These trains are among
the fastest in the world,

and can reach speeds
up to 186 miles per hour.

But as fast as they are,

they still don't get you
out of France.

We're going to the village
of Mont St. Michel,

which is 230 miles
northwest of Paris.

It's probably even further
from where you are.

Wowsers!

Mont st. michel!

That was faster than taking
one of those fast trains.

Here we are
across the waters

from mont st. michel.

But you can't get there
from here.

According to this sign,
it's too dangerous

to walk, boat,
or swim to the island

because it's surrounded
by quicksand

and changing tides.

Or as that quick tides
and changing sands.

Kind of explains
the drop-off

in the tourist trade.

Hour by hour,

the treacherous quicksand
turns into a huge ocean.

Then, before
you can blink an eye,

it's low tide
and dry as a bone.

This granite rock island
is called Mont St. Michel.

was built for 4 monks,

obviously during
the low tide.

Later, the island turned
into a prison.

They didn't even have
to change the furniture.

Today, they've made
Mont St. Michel

into a national monument.

It's much easier
for tourists

to get to the island
nowadays.

In fact, there's a taxi.

Hope it's quicksand proof.

Reminds me of
my uncle jack Gadget.

He drove a taxi for years...

Before they made him
return it.

Since 1802,

there have been
many attempts

to build a tunnel
under the english channel.

they finally succeeded.

Up until then, the train had
to take a boat.

We're on the chunnel train
under the english channel.

The english have
only one channel,

and it's not even
a tv network.

In 1986,
ground was broken

on either sides
of the tunnel.

And they figured
as long as they broke it,

they might as well
keep digging,

so they did...

Until they met in 1994.

The chunnel
under the channel

is really

try to say that


and one surface tunnel

to funnel fresh air
for the faint of heart.

Try to say that once.

Let's see how
the chunnel chopping was done.

These machines are called
boring machines,

but there's nothing boring
about them.

They dig dirt big time.

The train travels

and gets you
to either London or Paris

in just 3 hours...

As long as they remove
the boring machine

from the tracks.

If you do it
the old fashioned way

by train or car and ferry,

it takes
between 7 and 8 hours.

And that's not counting
the time it takes

your stomach
to forget the trip.

At last!

The palace of Versailles.

This is where french royalty
partied in the late 1600s.

Wowsers!

Those guys knew how to live.

It was built
by king Louis XIV

to glorify the richness
and beauty of France.

There are hundreds
of sculptures

all over the 6,000 acres.

Probably made it easier
to find your carriage.

There are over

sprinkled
throughout the estate,

or sprinkling
throughout the estate.

Unlike
the Washington Monument,

the Eiffel Tower is growing.

Must be eating its veggies.

Actually, it's because
the tower is made of iron,

which expands
when it's hot.

In the summer,
the tower is 7 inches taller

than it is
in the winter.

I hope you had fun
in g*y paree...

Being lead
by the Eiffel Tower,

subdued by the Seine,

amused at the museums,

buttressed at Notre Dame,

and challenged
by the chunnel train.

Until next time,
go, go, Gadget field trip!