Allez, allez, allez!

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France is playing Switzerland in the World Cup tonight and it will be interesting to see what the reaction to their winning or losing may be... our neighborhood is pretty lively at night anyway, so it may get pretty rowdy tonight. We have noticed some interesting things about Parisian people. First of all, it's kind of strange to see men in business suits riding motorcycles, but that's very typical. Parisian women appear to spend very little time on hair and makeup and yet because they dress to the nines they are very beautiful. And their shoes! It's enough to make any girl emulate Imelda!! When walking anywhere, especially crossing a street, the key is not to hesitate and just to keep moving (this also appears to be the philosophy behind driving)... Anyway, just some cultural differences we have found interesting.

This morning we headed through the University of Paris/Latin Quarter to the Pantheon, a massive domed building where the "Great Men" of France (and only one woman) are buried. We climbed the dome and went down into the crypt, and viewed the amazing paintings and architecture. Some of the tombs we saw were those of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Victor Hugo, Emile Zola, Alexandre Dumas (who was not interred here until 2002!) and... did you figure out which French woman would be worthy of this company?? Marie Curie (and of course her husband Pierre - they are together). Suspended from the dome is a copy of Foucault's pendulum, swinging away. We also visited St. Etienne du Mont, a church with a real conglomeration of architectural styles, and whose interior is very bright and beautiful.

Lunch was a picnic in a medieval style garden - all the plants were ones that could be identified from medieval tapestries - just outside the ruins of the Roman baths. We walked on through the St Michel quarter, finding the church of St Severin and its cool column, Shakespeare and Company, an English-language bookstore once run by Sylvia Beach, friend of such writers as Joyce and Hemingway. We also came across the Rue du Chat qui Peche before finding our way home to escape from the heat. Maybe tomorrow it will rain...

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Photos

Dome of the Pantheon
The dome of the Pantheon.

Interior of the Pantheon at the bottom of the dome
Looking across under the main dome - this is as high up as we could go inside.

Foucault's Pendulum
Looking down on Foucault's Pendulum and the beautiful marble floor.

Foucault's Pendulum, Take 2
Foucault's pendulum from the ground. You can just make out the brass ball at the bottom of the pendulum. At the top of the photo, the widest white line shows where the other photo was taken from.

St Etienne du Mont
St Etienne du Mont with its asymetrical facade, from the roof of the Pantheon.

Interior of St Etienne du Mont
Notice the beautifully carved staircases.

Dan at the Cluny Baths
In the background you can see the ruins of the Roman baths, with interesting red accents in the masonry.

Column in St Severin
Cool twisted column in St Severin. Our understanding is that first they construct the columns, and then they carve any fluting or design. This is the only one like it in this church, and it's right behind the altar. Really a beautiful focal point.

Dan with roses
Dan in the square behind St Julien le Pauvre with Notre Dame in the background.

Cathleen & Shakespeare
Cathleen in front of the Shakespeare & Company bookstore.

Rue du Chat Qui Peche
This is the narrowest street in Paris, its name translates as Street of the Fishing Cat (the river is just on the other side of the street on the far end). Presumably most Paris streets were like this one during the Middle Ages.

Comments

[Sue Peters]

Lots of fun, lots of work!
Looks like you are having a wonderful time. I didn't see all of this in my 12 hours in Paris!! Keep it coming, although I'm sure this is a lot of work to put together each day. Sue

[Tim Stotler]

Love the blog...
Enjoying the blog, thanks for putting in the effort to update it. You guys take some great pictures and we love the comments and observations. Eat some escargo for me...