Last day in Paris-- Panthéon, Hôtel des Invalides, Fête de la Musique

Album of pics during the day:

Paris 2

1. The Panthéon:
   Having learned my lesson, I planned to leave a bit later in the day and start with the Panthéon, which is a short walk from where I was staying. I packed my three smallish water bottles and took my backpack. Unlike the day before, I was not stopped and asked (in French) for directions or what time it was, so I suppose I looked significantly more touristy.
   
   

   From Paris 2

   
   The Panthéon has an interesting history. King Louis the 15th (in 1744) was quite sick and vowed to build a big cathedral to the patron saint of Paris, St. Genevieve, if he survived. He did survive, and commissioned the cathedral to be built. Construction started in 1757, and it was basically done by 1790 (economy sucked, so construction was slow), which was the early stages of the French Revolution. Then it was ordered to become a resting place of the great minds of France. This went back and forth for a while, so the inside contains murals about the life of St. Genevieve, Joan of Arc, and the angel of death, as well as statuary glorifying the revolution. It's an interesting mix.
   
   Revolution-themed statuary:
   

   From Paris 2

   
   A model of Foucault's pendulum was set up and going, so I took a little vid:
   
   

   From Paris 2

   
   Apparently, they don't always have it installed. Foucault used his setup in 1851 to show that the earth rotated. Here are more details about the experiment.
   
   Included among those buried are Antoine de Saint Exupery:
   

   From Paris 2

   
   The Curies:
   

   From Paris 2

   
   As well as Lagrange, Condorcet (he has a voting method :)), Voltaire, Rousseau and others.
   
   I walked in right after the hourly group had gone up to the colonnade/exterior of the building, so I killed an hour wandering around. This was our first view when we went up:
   
   

   From Paris 2

   
   and then this:
   
   

   From Paris 2

   
   Pardon the weird angle. I was trying to take pictures quickly, and there was a very short woman kind of jostling me.
   
   The Panthéon exterior, from its roof:
   

   From Paris 2

   
   The Eiffel tower and the skyscrapers off in the distance, sharing a skyline:
   

   From Paris 2

   
   I was actually very pleased to see the skyscrapers. I'm glad that they were kept away from the historical neighborhoods, and I also had this satisfaction that they existed.
   
   I have heard of certain tapestry-makers (historically?) that purposefully added defects to their work, so as not to anger the gods (something like -- making 'perfect' things would make the gods jealous). The skyscrapers were for me akin to this.
   
   I liked that the entire group of people I was with looked out at the skyline, saw what I saw, and turned away to take cheesy pictures of the Eiffel tower. I like that this was not Disneyland-Paris (there is, by the way, a Disneyland Paris, somewhere in the outskirts).
   
   
2. Walking around, mainly St. Germain:
   Once that was over, I walked around the area of St Germain. Lots of neat little stores. Saw this, which amused me:
   

   From Paris 2

   
   Also, meringues. I saw some as big as my head. The ones I took a picture of where only the size of a fist or two:
   
   

   From Paris 2

   
   I walked a bit too much, but I did consider trying to take the metro. I was just unclear on which to take and where to take them.
   
   
3. Hôtel des Invalides:
   By around 17:00/17:30, I ran into the Hôtel Invalides, and figured, hey, I'm here. I should probably look around.
   
   

   From Paris 2

   
   Turns out, the gold dome is the building built to house Napoleon's remains. Behind it is the 'hospital' proper, which is now the museum of the army. I paid the extra 2 euros to see the special exhibit, which was a lot of cool armor from various European countries. The best pieces were from Sweden, including full armoring for a horse and its rider (former King of Sweden, Eirik the something). This was a helmet nearby:
   
   

   From Paris 2

   
   There was a mini tank (one of the earliest tanks) on display in the corridor:
   
   

   From Paris 2

   
   Done with that, I went to see the inside of Napoleon's tomb. There's a large floor and as you walk in, you see that there's a circular hole in the middle of it, containing a very large container and some creepy angels:
   
   

   From Paris 2

   
   Above the hole is the dome itself:
   
   

   From Paris 2

   
   
   Behind this hole in the floor is a gaudy and impressive altar, flanked by two orange-yellow stained glass windows which suit the gold quite well:
   
   

   From Paris 2

   
   There were rooms to the side containing various statuary or remains, with blue glass windows which gave awesome lighting:
   
   

   From Paris 2

   
   You take the stairs on either side of the alter down behind it to enter the downstairs/crypt proper. Above the entrance is the following inscription:
   
   

   From Paris 2

   
   I love this. I love that he asked to have his ashes spread along the banks of the Seine "to intermingle with the French people I have loved so much", and then, not only do they not follow his wishes, they flaunt it by putting the quote above where they stuffed his bones.
   
   
4. Dinner! For my last day, I decided to have a nice dinner. My friend's boyfriend asked the price, and referred to it as 'gastronomy' (fancy food). I walked around for a while, looking at menus, deliberating. I started reading a menu at one place and realized it was in English(with a French version adjacent)! Also, the food sounded tasty, so I was sold. The place was called "Le Doucet". I had the 'brick salmon', which was a nice salmon fillet cooked wrapped in a sheet of super thin pastry, over thin green beans and with a white sauce that tasted very faintly like tartar sauce. I also had a glass of rosé with dinner as well as dessert. In ordering the dessert, I had a little trouble with language. The waitress was trying to tell me in English what their desserts were. The first thing sounded like "Beurre" tart. I asked several times, and still didn't understand. She drew a picture on my placemat. "Ah! Pear!" There was also the choice of tiramisu, and I stopped her at creme brûlée. The custard part was very light, a shade heavier than whipped cream. Total cost of the meal was 28.5 euros. Hey, I'd had several meals of cheese and bread (a whopping total of maybe 5 euros), so I wasn't breaking the bank :).
   
   
5. Fête de la Musique:
   Turns out, for summer solstice, Paris/France throws a huge party. Bands all over the city, in some regions as common as on every street corner. Here's more on the history. Apparently, it's been going on since 1982.
   
   The banks of the Seine, filled with music-makers and people enjoying the Fête:
   

   From Paris-Fete-Musique

   
   Notre Dame was open and free to the public, so we went in. They had a projector running lyrics to some chant music being played. Think new age music:
   

   From Paris-Fete-Musique

   
   
   The metro was free that night, but heavily re-routed, so it took some work to get on a train to go back to the apartment. I don't think I could've figured it out on my own.
   
   
6. On getting back in to the states:
   I got up the next day and went to the Charles de Gaulle airport to fly home. I was there early (somewhere between 8:30 and 9), and our flight was 3 hrs late, with a very long and slow line to check baggage (since they had to re-book everyone with a connection).
   
   There were a lot of beautiful people in Paris, although I found this marred by the sheer number of them who were chain smokers. The worst dressed non-homeless non-tourist was still better dressed than all of my students, who are the main example of American 'fashion' I have as a reference point these days. Taking the El from O'Hare to Union Station, I noticed how most people had ill-fitting clothes, big and baggy, even the guy in a suit. A man got on the train who was, at his widest, at least 4x my size. This trend was even more pronounced at the Amtrak station. Last time coming back, I noticed the poor. This time, the morbidly obese.
   

A (parting) word on photography. People have commented on my photos, so I thought I'd say something about how I take them:

1. Camera: This is the camera I am using.
   
   Here are its main advantages:
   (1) it is very small (about the size of a deck of cards)
   (2) because it is small, I find it easy to take everywhere (just stuff it in a pocket), which encourages me to take pictures
   
   I went from rarely taking pictures to taking lots of pictures, and experience really makes all the difference in taking decent pictures.
   
   
2. Flash/lighting: I almost never use flash. I still take nighttime photos by holding very very still, and I try to make the best use of what natural lighting is around during the day. This has the added benefit of meaning I rarely have to charge my camera battery.
   
   
3. Post-processing: When I started using Picasa (Gmail's photo interface), I noticed that they had a few options of stuff you could do to photos, and I started playing around with the settings. When I got my laptop, I saw that iPhoto has a similar setup. A few small touches go a long way. For the photos of Norway, I mainly darkened them because the light was so severe. I have done some tinting, especially this trip---the photo I took of the lake in the fog was step 1 of the tinting process in Picasa, which wipes the color to some degree, but is not quite conversion to black and white. Etc.