Bon jour, mes amies,
It's starting to cloud over, and now that I'm back home getting ready for apero, I'd love it if it would rain. But the forecast says there's only a miniscule chance.
I'm getting used to the cool mornings. This May so far has not been very warm, but I guess the walking does me good. I set out for the Pantheon, and I got there with no problem, it being a fairly straight shot across the river--although I did have to climb a hill. And the Pantheon is impossible to miss. It's huge!
First some history because it's my blog, and you know you are going to get some. The Patron Saint of Paris is St. Genevieve, a visionary teenager who is credited with saving Paris from the plague and Attilla the Hun with her prayers. A church/monastery dedicated to her was built on this site and massively rebuilt in the Eighteenth Century. But during the French Revolution like many other churches, the building was secularized, renamed the Pantheon, and repurposed to be a memorial to distinguished or heroic Frenchman (and later French Women as well). The building is in the monumental Neo Classical style and is more or less a cruciform centrally planned interior with a huge dome capping the whole business.
Now what I remembered and wanted to see were the frescoed panels by Pierre Puvis de Chavanne with scenes from the life of St. Genevieve. I'd forgotten how big and glittering the place was. There are a lot of patriotic paintings and sculptures. There are also some (in my opinion bizzare) art installations. I mean who needs raggedy clothes or a bunch of rusted out bicycles?
Downstairs is the crypt reserved for the most distinguished of corpses. Being buried in the Pantheon is a Very Big Deal and a very rare honor. For example, we find Voltaire, Victor Hugo, and Emile Zola. Louis Braille is nearby. If you had a geiger counter you could find the radio active bodies of Marie and Pierre Curie. I don't want to forget the American Josephine Baker. She wasn't just an entertainer. The French revere her as a heroine of the resistance to German Occupation. Up stairs Foucault's Pendulum hangs from the dome. You can also find it at Arts and Metiers.
Leaving the Pantheon I set out down Rue Cujas and eventually made my way to the Luxembourg Gardens. This is a lovely green space in which to stroll around, or sit and contemplate life, or picnic. The park originated as a pleasure palace and grounds created by the Queen and Regent Marie de Medici. At the southern end sits the beautiful building used by the Senate of the French Republic, and the Medici Fountain, a pond where you could rent a toy sail boat and play with it. I did not do this. Instead I walked for a while under the chestnut trees, and then I could hear the cheese calling me, so I headed for home.
Apero is more of that lovely cheese I got yesterday along with some olives and rose wine. The cheese stinks up my fridge, but oh does it taste good! By the way, never eat cold cheese. I take it out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature. It's worth the wait. If the truth were told, I come to France to eat high quality saturated fat. I tell myself that all the walking makes up for it.
A demain
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