Day 4: Pantheon, and other cool sites

Saturday morning, we got up and left in a different direction than we had been going.  We stopped at this beautiful bakery for some breakfast.  We had some quiche, a croissant and hot chocolate.  The hot chocolate was SO delicious, thick and oh, so good.  The croissant was actually the first I had had while in France, and WOW!!  I thought I had had croissants, here in the States.  This one was so flaky and buttery, and just wonderful.  The displays in the windows were so pretty that I had to take some pictures.  I wish I could spend all day making pretty things to eat all day.

The bakery was across the street from Luxemburg Gardens, but we didn't visit them yet, we went back to them later.

Walking down a street in Paris.  I never tired of seeing these streets.

First stop, the Pantheon, a originally built as a church dedicated to St. Genevieve, the patron saint of Paris.  Shortly after the French Revolution, it was changed from a church to a mausoleum for the interment of great Frenchmen.  Since then, it has gone back and forth between a church and a monument to secularism in France.  Both were evidenced when we visited.

The dome is beautiful and impressive.  Foucault first displayed his pendulum him, on a large scale, and there is still one today.

In 7th grade, I did a report on Joan of Arc, and have been intrigued by her ever since.  Here I am standing by the first in a series of large paintings depicting her life.  You can see another of the paintings as well.

Dallin was excited to visit the crypt, where many famous scientists, mathematicians and philosophers are buried.  Here he is at the tomb of Berthelot, a French chemist.

Marie Curie, and her husband, and Monge, a French mathematician.

Victor Hugo.  I'm working on reading Les Mis, a task I had once hoped to complete before going to Paris.  Now I'm just hoping to complete it : ).  I'm thoroughly enjoying the book, it's just hard to find the time to do that much reading.

Next we visited the Gardens and Palace of Luxemburg.  It was beautiful.  Here, Rick and I are standing in the gardens.

The palace.

Outside the palace is this pond where children play with these boats.  We had a lot of fun watching them for some time.

Pretty flowers.

Rick and Dallin by a random fountain in Paris, and the tomb of DeCartes, the father of analytical geometry.

We stopped and watched this band perform some jazz music.

Next up was the Musee Rodin.  Dallin and Rick posed by the Thinker.

Here I am outside the museum.

Again, the gardens were phenomenal.  They sure know how to do those right.  There was some impressive artwork inside as well, including a few Van Goghs and Monets.

We stopped by to see Napoleon's tomb.  I left Paris mostly thinking this guy was pretty full of himself.

A medieval military museum.  It was pretty interesting, and we knew that Daniel would want lots of pictures of all the knights and swords and stuff.  Here, Dallin poses with some suits of armor.

Those are some bog ol swords.  The knight and horse armor was impressive.

Dallin and I could not stop laughing about the helmet on the left.  There's a spot for his mustache!!  Really?  I just found that so humorous.

That night for dinner we had fondue at this fun restaurant where the help was very friendly and entertaining.  It was all delicious!!  Another good day in Paris.