Last stop of the day was the The Pantheon. This was where I learnt that St Genevieve is the patron saint of Paris! So anyone could guess how excited I was to find statues and plaques to my namesake all around the building. And also because I was moaning to James the day before that I had yet to find anything related to my name in Paris despite its French origins :P. Apparently, Saint Genevieve, who protected Paris from the barbarians was buried herein 512 AD. In 1744, Louis XV attributed his recovery from serious illness to prayers made to St Genevieve and pledged to dedicate a prestigious church to her name and the building was completed in 1790. iN 1791, the monument was turned into the national pantheon. For two periods during the 19th century, this was home to Christian worship before finally being given over to secular use in 1885 with the funeral of Victor Hugo.
The bas-relief above the entrance shows a female figure representing France handing out laurels to the great men of the nation- the same way that Greeks and Romans honoured their heroes.
Church by the corner of the Pantheon which still houses some old relics of St Genevieve
View of interior of Pantheon from the top. Entry is only 5 Euros for under 26 years old and you get to go all the way to the top!
View of Paris from the Pantheon... notable buildings were Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur, Eiffel tower, Napoleon's tomb... I like this view best out of all the buildings I visited in Paris, as this gives me a proper 360 degree view of the city unless the other buildings such as Sacre Coeur and Musee d Orsay where I only got one side of it.
Murals of Saint Genevieve, her childhood, protecting paris and her subsequent death..
The National convention by Sicard shows Marianne surrounded by members of parliament and soldiers
The landmark discovery of the earth's rotation was made from the Pantheon. in 1851, French physicist Jean Foucault suspended a weight from the dome. The weight swung back and forth and as its position moved in relation to the floor below, Foucault was able to prove his theory. Today we see an example of Foucault's pendulum.
In the crypt below the church is where famous french citizens have been buried, like victor hugo (author of the hunchback of notre dame), Voltaire (FR philosopher), Louis Baille (creator of the coded system for reading for the blind)
It was quite a surprise for me to find the tomb of Marie and Pierre Curie as well.... I never knew that she was french!
Saint Genevieve! Protectress of Paris and of the French kings.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau's tomb.
After my visit to the pantheon I had about 45 more mins before I had to head back to the hostel, so I lounged around the Jardins de Luxembourg for a bit...If there's one thing that the French do well, it's definitely gardens.
I found another status of Saint Genevieve!!
Ok, so that was my trip to Paris. It was a pretty bittersweet journey for me. There were some parts of Paris which I loved and some which I did not like very much. But reflecting back, I do think that some of that might have been influenced by the company that I was with. But having said that, Paris is a very big city... and not as compressed like maybe London. So definitely would have to come back here again, but I think that next time I would probably do so alone, or with one other friend at the most.... Next stop: Amsterdam
The bas-relief above the entrance shows a female figure representing France handing out laurels to the great men of the nation- the same way that Greeks and Romans honoured their heroes.
Church by the corner of the Pantheon which still houses some old relics of St Genevieve
View of interior of Pantheon from the top. Entry is only 5 Euros for under 26 years old and you get to go all the way to the top!
View of Paris from the Pantheon... notable buildings were Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur, Eiffel tower, Napoleon's tomb... I like this view best out of all the buildings I visited in Paris, as this gives me a proper 360 degree view of the city unless the other buildings such as Sacre Coeur and Musee d Orsay where I only got one side of it.
Murals of Saint Genevieve, her childhood, protecting paris and her subsequent death..
The National convention by Sicard shows Marianne surrounded by members of parliament and soldiers
The landmark discovery of the earth's rotation was made from the Pantheon. in 1851, French physicist Jean Foucault suspended a weight from the dome. The weight swung back and forth and as its position moved in relation to the floor below, Foucault was able to prove his theory. Today we see an example of Foucault's pendulum.
In the crypt below the church is where famous french citizens have been buried, like victor hugo (author of the hunchback of notre dame), Voltaire (FR philosopher), Louis Baille (creator of the coded system for reading for the blind)
It was quite a surprise for me to find the tomb of Marie and Pierre Curie as well.... I never knew that she was french!
Saint Genevieve! Protectress of Paris and of the French kings.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau's tomb.
After my visit to the pantheon I had about 45 more mins before I had to head back to the hostel, so I lounged around the Jardins de Luxembourg for a bit...If there's one thing that the French do well, it's definitely gardens.
I found another status of Saint Genevieve!!
Ok, so that was my trip to Paris. It was a pretty bittersweet journey for me. There were some parts of Paris which I loved and some which I did not like very much. But reflecting back, I do think that some of that might have been influenced by the company that I was with. But having said that, Paris is a very big city... and not as compressed like maybe London. So definitely would have to come back here again, but I think that next time I would probably do so alone, or with one other friend at the most.... Next stop: Amsterdam