I'm going to cover a few more places that I visited during my two-month stay in Paris -- a couple from the beginning of my stay, and a couple from near the end.
One of the first places Ellen and I visited was the Grand Mosque, which was only a few blocks from the apartment. You pay a few euros to just walk around, with some areas being off limits to tourists. As we later discovered, the tea room is the most popular place (for tourists); the mosque itself was pretty quiet. Although parts of it showed signs of wear and tear, most of it was quite beautiful, especially with the wisteria in bloom (this was in mid-April):
An unexpected sight was a punching bag hanging in one of the back gardens! No other athletic equipment was in evidence...
The tea room has a separate entrance, and it took us a little while to find it -- it's right across from the Jardin des Plantes. There is no fee to get in, and there is a nice outdoor seating area where a number of people were drinking mint tea or Turkish coffee (no coffee with milk of any kind available). The mint tea was delicious. There is a restaurant as well, and a hamam (Turkish bath), but we did not take advantage of those.
Another attraction very close to the apartment, in the opposite direction, was the Pantheon. As I have pointed out and illustrated several times in previous posts, the dome was under wraps for the entire time I was there. The repairs and renovation are expected to take over a year.
The Pantheon is best known for being the resting place for many illustrious men, and one woman (Marie Curie), but it's also worth seeing for its splendid architecture and the numerous murals and sculptures on the main level, most dedicated to historical figures and events. Several of the murals tell the story of St. Genevieve, patron saint of Paris; the Pantheon was originally a church dedicated to her.
A wall was dedicated to Antoine de Saint-Exupery, author of Le Petit Prince, who disappeared while flying a reconnaissance mission during WWII.
There was also a plaque dedicated to unknown artists, rather like a tomb of the unknown soldier.
Foucault's Pendulum, which he used to demonstrate the rotation of the earth, normally hangs from the dome of the Pantheon, but it had been placed in storage for the duration of the repairs to the dome.
For the architecture buffs, there was a cross-sectional model of the building:
After exploring the main level, we headed downstairs to "the crypt", which was rather maze-like and spooky! Among the people interred there are Voltaire, Rousseau, Marie and Pierre Curie, Louis Braille, and Victor Hugo. Many of the tombs had displays nearby dedicated to the person's life and accomplishments; Hugo's included illustrations of the huge crowds that accompanied his casket as it was carried though the city to the Pantheon.
Below is Rousseau's tomb, where he holds the light he presented to the world:
On to the castles: I briefly mentioned the Chateau de Vincennes in an earlier post; it is in the Bois de Vincennes, to the east of the city, easily accessible by the Metro. It definitely plays second fiddle to Versailles-- there is no comparison, really-- and I read that Nicolas Fouquet, the owner of Vaux-le-Vicomte (the castle I visited with my landlady, Claire), was sent to live at Vincennes after Louis XIV had him booted out of his own castle, and that this was considered quite a step down. Ouch! Nonetheless, I think the Chateau de Vincennes merits a few photos.
The first shows the chapel (which was designed in the style of St. Chappelle) and a section of the "queen's apartments".
The other end of the queen's residence appeared to have a partial wall (with a partial window!) growing out of it:
I later learned that the wall surrounding the entire complex originally had nine towers, but that all but one of them (shown below) had been "lopped" (yes, that was the word that was used). The one remaining tower is now the main entrance (right near the Metro station).
In one of the photos above, you can also see part of the "keep", or donjon, which is probably the most photographed feature of the castle. Among the people "kept" there as prisoner was the Marquis de Sade.
Now on to Versailles: Don't go there on a Tuesday during tourist season! I had to get that out of the way. The guide book warned me, but scheduling constraints and the weather forecast compelled us to go on Tuesday. I eventually found myself thinking, does having the site closed for one day (Monday) create such a pent-up demand that people come swarming out there on Tuesday? --Of course, maybe the crowds were not that much out of the ordinary, for late May. My sister Susan had been to Versailles in the fall (not sure what day of the week), and she said the crowds were much, much less then.
While waiting in the long line in front (fortunately, the weather was not bad), my other sister, Ellen, suggested that we could pass the time by singing show tunes. I started up something from "My Fair Lady" or something along those lines, but she said, "No, this looks more like an 'Office Krupke' sort of crowd." So there we were, three American women singing this classic in a line full of tourists from many lands, as well as France... A friend I told this story to later wondered if we might be on a Youtube video somewhere.
Back to the crowds: What was truly amazing was that we went into the main chateau during the afternoon, *after* the crowds had greatly subsided, and it was still so packed that we could barely see anything in the rooms. You couldn't really pause for very long, either; we got herded through like sheep/cattle/take your pick.
There was some breathing room in the Hall of Mirrors:
Here I am with my camera and my sisters (the tall ones in the foreground).
The gardens were more enjoyable, since there is room for everyone to spread out.
Normally, the gardens are free. (This day was a "spectacle day" because the fountains were running (part of the time) and there was music every once in a while, so we had to pay extra.) So, you can go into the gardens without waiting in that long security line in front. However, if you go into the chateau (after waiting in the line) and then go into the gardens (or to the Petit Trianon and the "hamlet" way out in back), you cannot go back into the chateau without waiting in the big line again! We made that mistake, but, fortunately, by the time we got back to it, the big line had shrunk considerably.
From the gardens, Susan led us back to the hamlet, since she had enjoyed it before.
The hamlet was constructed for Marie-Antoinette so that she could feel as if she were in a quaint little village.
There were critters around too, like this swan and this nutria (we have those here in Oregon):
So, after returning to the chateau and squeezing our way through the selected rooms that were open for touring, as described above, we regrouped out in front. I took a couple of shots of the fancy, fancy gate separating the castle grounds from the townfolk:
Another aspect that surprised me a little, apart from the crowds, was that the castle is really right there in town. I had pictured it as being surrounded by countryside-- like Vaux-le-Vicomte. I guess that explains, at least partially, why Vaux-le-Vicomte was a LOT less crowded -- you can't get there on the RER.
My sisters and I also visited the Opera Garnier, which rivals Versailles in ornateness. The first photo below is of the grand promenade, where operagoers would go to be seen, and the others (which I took in 2010) are of the grand staircase and the ceiling of the theater, which was painted by Marc Chagall. Unfortunately, when my sisters and I were there, the theater itself was closed for rehearsal. When Ellen (my partner) and I came here in 2010, we were able to stand in one of the boxes and look around. (You'd think they'd charge less when the theater is closed, but no.)
Just behind the Opera Garnier is the Galeries Lafayette, aka the mall of the gods (this photo doesn't really do it justice):
But our objective was not to shop but to take the escalator up to the roof and get some great views of Paris! (of which I did not take any photos).
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