Last Day in Paris: Day-5 in France

How time flies when you’re having fun! The last day of our vacation arrives, and we still have not seen some sights in Paris. We plan to see the Luxembourg gardens and Pantheon. So once again, after breakfast at our hotel, we set off to the nearby Metro station. It happens to be a Sunday, so the metro is not too crowded. However, we have to change the Metro line at Gare du Nord to RER-B, since that’s the only line that goes to Luxembourg gardens.
We get off at the metro station, and it’s one of the dirtiest and most dilapidated ones that I have seen in Paris so far! But, once out of the station, the garden is quite beautiful. It’s about 9:30AM in the morning, and there are joggers and dog-walkers all over the park. There is a lovely mansion house at one end of the gardens, which I later found is the French senate.

Jardin du Luxembourg, with the palace on the right.

Admiring the gardens

 
Our next stop is the Pantheon, which is a short walk from the gardens. I had no idea what the Pantheon was, and while we waited for the gates to open, I read the plaque outside this place. It seems like the place started off a church in honour of Saint Genevieve, and after the French revolution, it was converted into a secular building, housing the tombs of French national heroes, and a tribute to science.

Pantheon, from a distance.

The gates opened at 10:00AM, and we headed straight to the ticket counter. But surprise, surprise! The guard just waved us on without tickets. I then realized that it was Sunday, 4th December. Entry to museums and other monuments is free on the first Sunday of every month. Man, had I planned my trip around this Sunday, I would have saved a fortune in entry tickets!

As you enter the place, the first thing that greets you is a large pendulum which is suspended from the top of the dome of the building. It is a recreation of a famous 19th century experiment by French scientist Foucault. This experiment proved that the Earth is spinning on it’s axis. I realize now that I dont have any pictures of this pendulum - it may be that I was just too engrossed with learning about the experiment to take any snaps. But there is a pretty good description in wikipedia, along with pictures.

Inside the Pantheon.

Inside the Pantheon.

As I mentioned earlier, the Pantheon also houses the tombs of French national heroes, and there is a spiral staircase leading down to the crypt.

Towards the crypts.

I am unfortunately, not very familiar with French history, so I could not recognize the tombs of most of the heroes buried here. However, I do recall the poet Voltaire.

Tomb of Voltaire, the French poet, and reformist.

At this point my wife hissed at me, annoyed why I was acting like a senseless tourist, clicking pictures of tombs, when we should allow the dead to rest in peace. Well, I think she was right, so I respectfully pocketed the camera.
As we exited the Pantheon, I realized that we may just have time to squeeze in one more place. On my phone’s map, I could see that the Church of Saint Sulpice was just 800m away. So, guided by the navigation service on my phone (I tried not to think of international roaming data charges just then!), we start walking down to the church. Some readers would have already guessed why I wanted to see Saint Sulpice - it’s the church that features in Dan Brown’s "Da Vinci Code". For those who have read the book, this is the church where Silas digs in search of the holy grail, but finds a reference to a passage in the Bible saying "Thus far and no further".

Saint Sulpice, from the side street.

Front view of the church.

There was a nice water fountain outside the church.

Saint Sulpice fountain.

The fountain.

So having seen three more sights in Paris, we head back to check out of our hotel in Montmartre. Our flight back home is from Charles De Gaulle, the next morning, and I have booked a hotel near the airport for the last night. We head off to the airport hotel in the RER train, taking back loads of memories of the beautiful city of Paris, and Mont Saint Michel.
"I’m sad to say, I’m on my way,
Wont be back for many a day,
My heart is down, my head is turning around,
I left a little bit of myself in Paris town!"