Navigating Paris Museums in a Wheelchair

Posted on June 9, 2013 by Schwingen In Switzerland

My dad came to visit. He traveled all the way to Europe and was bound and determined to see things. Unfortunately, dad’s knee is bone on bone. He can walk, but needs knee surgery soon and can’t spend much time on his feet or move too quickly. The only way to get him around museums was renting a folding wheelchair (chaise roulette). Museums often have ones you can borrow for free. It was lightweight and made it possible for him to see a lot. The highlight of being in a wheelchair was a front row seat to the Mona Lisa at Paris’ Louvre Museum.

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Unfortunately, the Louvre museum was once a palace and is not as handicapped friendly as we’d hoped. Wheelchair ramps were sorely lacking. It was pretty obvious that it is hard to retrofit museums with elevators/lifts at convenient spots. The Musée d’Orsay (a bit of a nightmare) and the Hôtel National des Invalides Army Museum weren’t easy to navigate either. Fortunately, they had some pretty cool stuff to make any the frustration well worth it.

Check out all the in the stairs in these pictures. While the retrofit of an old train station is pretty cool and well done, all the stairs make some corners virtually inaccessible.

Even when they had a wheelchair lift, we had to go in search of personnel to operate the lift. This often took 20 minutes or so. While all of this was a bit of an inconvenience, it (more or less) worked and my dad was blown away by what he saw. So were we.

On another note, it made us appreciate the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and how accessible things are in the US.

Fun In The Alpine Fortress Of Fürigen

Posted on April 10, 2012 by Schwingen In Switzerland

Last weekend, we went to Lucerne and visited the fortress of Fürigen. We had been looking forward to visiting some of Switzerland’s formerly hidden fortresses that have been turned into museums. Since we were near Lucerne, we finally got the chance.

Can you spot the entrance in this photo?

Festung Fürigen Museum zur Wehrgeschichte (aka Fort Fürigen) is part of Swiss National Redoubt defense plan (Schweizer Alpenfestung or Réduit Suisse) to respond to foreign invasion. Developed in by neutral Switzerland the 1880’s, Germany’s invasion of its neighbors necessitated updates (Germany even developed an invasion plan for Switzerland). Fort Fürigen was part of a series of fortifications around Lake Lucerne that were rushed to completion in 1941-2 to protect nearby roads and rail lines.

The entrance is intentionally well-camouflaged. We had to double back and ask for directions to find it. The nondescript entrance leads to a 200-meter (656 feet) tunnel system leads into the mountain.

A private telephone line connected the lake’s fortresses but they also used the radio to communicate with each other.

Entering the fort, you pass the radio station (located near the entrance to assure clear reception) and several sets of machine gun defenses.

The view down the corridor from the gunner’s nest.

Once past the heavy fortifications you see the workings of the fort. They have the guns, a filter for radioactive material, air shafts, devices to monitor the air for poison gas, storage depot and more on display.

You can actually play around with this gun. He maneuvered it into a decent spot and dutifully posed for a photo when he wanted to play. Hence the hurry up and take the picture smile.

A close up of the gun’s targeting system

The largest problem with these gas masks was the limited range of motion allowed by their connection to the ceiling’s purified air hookup.

This infrared light replaced the old spotlight when the fort was retooled during the Cold War

While the infirmary resembled any 1940’s hospital movie set, the bunk house and dining area looked remarkably like many Swiss ski lodges.

Since they were storing munitions in the bunker, smoking was forbidden…in some areas. It must have been like prison, where the talk of banning cigarettes leads to mutiny and so it was only limited in essential areas. After all, the living quarters were gas-proof.

The Swiss had good reason to build defensive outposts like this one. Hitler’s plans to invade Switzerland were uncovered post-World War II. The Soviet Union’s also recommended invading the country.

One fortress down, only about 14,999 to go.

No smoking! If you went down the hall and through a door to the residential area, there are ashtrays hanging on walls. Go figure.

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Our Basement Bomb Shelter, Otherwise Known As Our Storage Unit

Posted on February 18, 2012 by Schwingen In Switzerland

Switzerland. Swiss Army Knives. The Swiss Guard. Serious Military Defenses. Our Basement? Switzerland’s commitment to neutrality, their position between historic enemies of France and Germany, and the meticulous, rule oriented, precise Swiss nature mean that our basement is a bomb shelter.

All Swiss residential buildings have bomb shelters in underground. Until Swiss law changed at the end of 2012, all inhabitants were required to have access to shelter space. Given the Swiss focus on quality, these are serious, heavy-duty bunkers.

Our apartment is in a building that predates the mandatory bomb shelter law, so our basement’s shelter is on the rustic side. Newer buildings contain way more impressive looking shelters. Ours looks as though it is where the vampires from True Blood sleep during the day. The first time he went down there, he did it alone, at dusk, after a True Blood marathon.

You see heavy, vault-like doors on public parking structures. They serve as public shelters. The parking structures have thick concrete walls. In theory, the shelters have air filters inside to provide fresh air in case of nuclear, biological, or chemical attack. I am unsure if the age of our building exempts us, but there aren’t any signs of air filters in our building. Come to think of it, I haven’t seen any supplies down there either.

To get into our “bomb shelter”, you enter through an old wood door. It doesn’t look as high-tech or safe as the door above, but hopefully we won’t have to put it to the test. You descend an old, windy staircase, past bricked over doors down into the basement.

You can’t exit through this door

It is so narrow and steep that the wall warns “stopping is prohibited, serious risk”.

The basement, ahem, sorry, the bomb shelter is partitioned into sections for each apartment using wood slats. Each partition is approximately the size of a twin bed (give or take a couple of inches).

Some people hide their belongings from view

In French, basement translates to “cave.” It feels a little funny to say I’m going to the cave. Who am I, Batman? While our cave is filled with extra suitcases, beat-up sports equipment and camping gear, many people here use theirs as a wine cellar. A German friend uses his to store cases of German beer.