Sunday, May 23, 2010

Conciergerie and The Pantheon

Hi I'm back with another part of my Paris vacation! This time it will be about the Conciergerie and The Pantheon.

Conciergerie

This was very interesting because it served as the Residence of the Kings of France, then became the Palace of Justice and Prison. During the French Revolution, many suspects were arrested because they were believed to be enemies of the Revolution... including Queen Marie Antoinette. We took a tour of the prison and tried to imagine how it was like walking through the halls during that time.

This is the front of the building where the Conciergerie is part of. I do not know what it is used for now but I know people do work there.

This is called The Hall of Men-at-Arms once entering the Conciergerie. The arches are lovely...

Cool stairs but we weren't allowed to use it.

Marie Antoinette's Chapel which was built on where her prison cell was.

The Women's Courtyard where prisoners used to wait here to board carts headed to executions.

The Pantheon

This was a Christian basilica and is now the temple of the nation. Many great men and women's remains are buried here including Saint Genevieve, Joan of Arc, Victor Hugo and Marie Curie. The architecture is quite stunning here.

It was too difficult to take a picture of the dome but this is still pretty.

Picture of the dome from the inside.

Foucault's pendulum showing the rotation of the earth. This showed how the people had more access to scientific knowledge.

The National Convention showing Marianne surrounded by parliament and soldiers from the year II.

Ok sorry for the picture spam. I had to narrow some pictures down and these were it. All the historical info were from those pamphlets from each of these historical monuments. I learned a lot actually. I hope you did too! Good night!

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris

Hi! Im back from Paris. The week went by so fast. I've been trying to adjust back to local time but it's quite hard. I'm so sleepy in the afternoon... I think I'll be ok by tomorrow. I will be updating the trip by parts. I had so much fun and took many pictures but I will pick and choose the ones that I like. I want to post pictures of Notre Dame Cathedral first. I only have the outside shots of Notre Dame. My BF has the other half of the photos. Strange right? I have half and he has half haha! I will update this post with pictures of the inside of the cathedral. It's a very beautiful place. It's on an island in the middle of Paris. You can find it on google maps or something.

In front of Notre Dame Cathedral. It was so cold!

The back of the cathedral.

So much detail on the buildings.

We were able to go up all the way to the top but it was all stairs! Wow so tiring. I got dizzy because going up these stairs was like walking around in circles.

It was worth going all the way up. We saw some amazing views! Quite windy and cold though.

Famous gargoyle near the top of Notre Dame.

View of the Sacre Coeur from Notre Dame.

So that's it for Notre Dame. Sorry I don't have any pictures of the inside. I will update this post with those pics when I get it. Ok byebye.