Rive Gauche

Missoula friends Kim and Dave arrived Sunday and Monday we accompanied them to Notre Dame and then the Left Bank. They carried on, incredibly, walking first to the Eiffel Tower, climbing the first stage, and then on to the Arc de Tromphe. They're a good bit younger than we. Vicki and I tied up some loose ends on the Left Bank, had a nice lunch, and worked diligently at seeing a few more of the things we wanted to see.

Us in front of the cathedral

Left Bank view

Revisiting goofy St. Severin, with its glazed
triforium on the north side

And open triforium, almost a gallery, on the
south

I think this is maybe not the main entrance

One of the remnants of Phillippe Auguste's
12th century city wall

Inside the Roman arena of Lutetia, 3rd century

Incredible 360 degree panoramic view of the arena

Discovered in the late 19th, restored 1947-48

One of our favorite places--complex of places--on the Left
Bank is Au Vieux Campeur (the old camper), and we spent a
couple of hours exploring the now 30 Au Vieux Campeur
stores clustered around Boulevard St. Germain, Rue des
Ecoles, and Rue Saint-Jacques

This is the kiddie store (of course we got something for P)

At the travel accesories store, one of two
displays of money belts, hidden wallets, etc.

The other; one of the things we like is the
enormous selection; the French are really
big on gadgetry, and it is largely in stores
like this that you can see all of what is new

Store #31 about to open; it is quite a different
experience, unlike Decathlon or REI; you get
your hiking boots at one store; your compass
at another; your backpack at another; your
hat at another; we wondered how many of
the stores you'd have to visit in order to
completely outfit yourself for, say, the Tour
du Mont Blanc; probably only 12-15, I
suppose, but then you'd have the best of gear
and a great shopping experience too

Pantheon, 2

Continuing my tour of the Pantheon...

The largest of the heroic sculptures is placed where the altar
would be in the church...the National Convention, where
things really got rolling in 1792

More heroic sculpture...and St. Genevieve paintings

Finally, you descend to the crypt, where
Voltaire welcomes you...

And Rousseau

A Resistance fighter of note; and a writer and
minister of cultural affairs of note...the man
responsible for so much preservation of
French architecture, culture, etc.

Thus; will someone please explain to me the significance
of the cat?

Pierre and Marie Curie

Hugo and Dumas

Zola

Thus

Louis Braille...yes, the little yellow strip is en Braille

Jaures

In the crypt

Back on the main floor, looking up to the main cupola--alas,
Foucault's Pendulum (replica) has been taken down for the
period of renovation

What it would normally look like

Pantheon, 1

We'd never been to the Pantheon before. I suspect few non-French tourists visit it, since it's an entirely and intensively French thing, originally a neo-classical church commissioned by Louis XV, converted to a "temple" to the greats of French culture and history by the Revolution, then see-sawing back and forth between Catholic church and national temple through a variety of empires, restorations, republics, and more revolutions, empires and republics. French history is tres dificile. It wasn't until the death of Victor Hugo, in the 1880s, that the nation finally decided it was to be the Pantheon of (some) French greats. One suspects each succeeding regime and administration uses it for its own political purposes. Perhaps the one most noteworthy feature of the Pantheon is the nearly total absence of women...just Marie Curie. New honorees get disinterred from elsewhere and re-planted in the Pantheon every now and then, and ones hope this great injustice will be addressed.

It's a huge neoclassical building; the dome is under wraps now
since some significant structural problems have come to light;
the repair work will continue for some years

Under the gigantic porch

Nave view

Looking upwards from what would be the nave

The main floor has a good many colossal
paintings, mostly religious subjects; here's
St. Denis finding his head (he'd lost it...)

Mostly about Paris' patron saint, St.
Genevieve, here urging Parisians to keep
calm and carry on, despite the approach
of Attila

The entire port transept was given over to an impressive
display on the life, work, and influence of Jean Jaures, the
great socialist political leader who was assassinated on the
eve of WWI 

A selection of books on Jaures; he still looms large in French
political thought, and the exhibit was largely about his
continuing influence

L'Humanite was Jaures' newspaper; he was
working desperately to avoid the violence
that would become WWI, but was shot by
a nationalist

Jaures' induction to the Pantheon in 1924; one of the major
icons of French politics is a photo of Francois Mitterand
placing a wreath at the tomb of Jaures in 1980, just before
he was sworn in as head of the first socialist government
since WWII

Angela Davis presumably paying homage to
Jaures

Leon Blum, who evenutally replaced Jaures as socialist leader

Much of the main floor, apart from heroic paintings of St.
Genevieve doing miracles, features some similarly colossal
scultpure, mostly along nationalist themes

This one an homage to Rousseau

Viaduc des arts

The weather moderated Saturday, and we felt like a walk. Our stay in Paris was down to two weeks, and we were beginning to feel anxiety about seeing everything we originally had wanted to see. So we decided to walk from the apartment through Place de la Nation and along the Boulevard Diderot to the Avenue Daumesnil, along which runs, for a mile, the Viaduc des Arts. This is the underside of the Promenade des Plantes, which we walked a bit back in June. It's all part of a disused 1860s elevated railway, redesigned and up-cycled at the same time the Place de la Bastille was re-developed and the Opera Bastille was built. From there we would walk to Bercy for a look at the federal complex there, and then, near there, see Frank Gehry's Cinematheque Francaise, cross the river to the national library and then loop back to the Metro and a ride home. The heat hadn't moderated all that much, actually, and we were tired and hot puppies by the end of it. (I can never use the term "viaduct" without thinking of the classic Groucho/Chico "why a duck?" sketch from The Cocoanuts: http://www.metacafe.com/watch/4493024/the_cocoanuts_why_a_duck/; you have to watch about half of the extract here to get to "why a duck?", but the puns along way are well worth the wait).

The Viaduc des arts from Boulevard Diderot--looking toward
Bercy and then Vincennes; there are some 64 vaults, ranging in
size from 100 to more than 400 square meters--big shoppes,
cafes, etc.

Looking the other way toward Place de la Bastille

There are many high-end retails shops, cafes, and a few
restaurants; what really interested was the high-end artisan
shops--here, metal work

Thus

Here in a pretty incredible furniture-making
shop; there is also an umbrella/parasol shop,
making of musical instruments, restoration of
books and art works, jewelry, and much
more

Along the Avenue Daumesnil, other side, all
kinds of beautiful Belle Epoche buildings

Thus

And thus

Near Gare de Lyon, another bit of French flair--a simple
arch or something squared-off would be unthinkable

OK, maybe it is thinkable; here now in the federal district,
which reminded me a bit of  L'Enfant Plaza in DC

Still dramatic if only in size; this, and the previous, are parts
of the Ministry of Finance

Approaching Parc de Bercy

The Cinematheque Francaise

Thus

Sculpture in the Parc de Bercy, along the Seine

On the Simone de Beauvoir footbridge, crossing over to the
four open-book towers that encompass the Francois Mitterand
national library

Floating piscines used to be quite common--this, Vicki says,
is the last of them in Paris

Now on the Left Bank--fitting he should have a street so
close to the Cinematheque Francaise

I was cooking Thai the next night and needed a few
concombres; a street merchant was selling absolutely the
largest cukes we have ever seen; so we bought a couple

Finally, we arrived at our station for the ride back home,
a little more of Paris traversed and explored