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Published: June 13th 2006
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Dome of the Pantheon
The dome of the Pantheon. 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
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. 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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Sue Peters
non-member comment
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