Final Days in Paris = Final Days in Europe.

      I really cannot get my mind around the fact my Euro Trip is coming to an end. Just nine days from now and I will be on a flight back home to New York. How is it possible that I have been in Europe for four months already?! Although I cannot wrap my mind around it, I think my Bank Account has!
     Paris has been pretty boring this week. I think I have seen sunshine once...maybe twice in the last five days... which makes it difficult to sight see. Rain, rain and more rain has been consuming my life...along with Homework and Midterms. I am happy to report though, I got a 97 on my Metaphysics Midterm (which I thought I was going to bomb) and nearly all A's on all of my Art and Architecture work. Cross your fingers finals week treats me just as well!
      I apologize this post is not going to be as interesting as my Normandy post, but I will try my best to keep you engaged. Today I had a busy day, Metaphysics class this morning and a St. John's excursion to the Pantheon this afternoon, followed by an art field trip to the museum Musee Delacroix after that. Despite the pouring rain and chilly temperatures all seemed to go smoothly.
   The Pantheon happened to be a lot more interesting than I expected. It is very different from the Pantheon in Rome, but they are still both historically spectacular. The Pantheon in Paris was built originally to be a church in the 18th Century. It was built to replace a nearby church and the Pantheon was named St. Genevieve after the Patron Saint of Paris. I mentioned in previous posts Saint Denis is the Patron Saint of France, well the capital Paris, has a Patron as well. The Pantheon is no longer a church and instead houses famous relics and a crypt with the bodies of very famous French citizens.  In fact, you might be quite surprised with the people buried in the Pantheon.
    It has no windows, though the original Pantheon did. It was thought because so many people are buried here and it focuses on the dead the light within the Pantheon should reflect the mood. Therefore, the windows were all taken out. The Pantheon inspired the United States Capital in DC. It has three consecutive domes and at the time they were built they were considered to be spectacular...I still think they are pretty spectacular!

   

           Our visit inside the Pantheon was a fairly quick one. I had to run to a museum to meet my art class and other students had various other things they needed to get done. The inside of the Pantheon is gorgeous though and I could have spent the entire day inside just walking around and observing. The inside walls are coated with murals dedicated to multiple saints and kings.

 

Painting on the wall of the Pantheon of the Patron Saint of France - Saint Denis when his head was cut off...as the legend goes... he walked for miles holding his own head in his hands

One thing that truly makes the Pantheon unique is the famous pendulum located in the center of one of the three domes, which also happens to be the exact center of the Pantheon. The pendulum was a scientific breakthrough. The pendulum was created in Paris by Leon Foucault who was a physicist. Hence the name, Foucault Pendulum. The Pendulum rotates around a circle, giving the impression it is moving. In fact, it is not, the Earth is moving around the Pendulum.  It is rather confusing concept in my opinion...I have never been good at Science....interested in the Pendulum more? Click on the link below:

Foucault Pendulum - Paris, France

Next, our adviser Mike pointed out a message written in French on one of the columns located inside of the Pantheon. He explained it was a message written about the author of a book, "The Little Prince". Mike then asked if any of us had ever heard of the book. I was shocked and immediately my memory was jogged...when I was little my dad gave me that book. I remember trying to read it and my dad explaining that I will understand it a little better when I am older. I still have the book in my desk drawer, in fact, right before I left for Europe I held it in my hand. I was like, "Uh...I know that book!!!" Mike smiled and preceded to tell us about the author, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry whom also happened to be a French pilot. His plane was shot down in war and he was never seen again. I made a promise to myself right then and there...now that I am a little older...I am going to read that book. 

Next we made our down to the crypts. The first famous tomb we saw was of Voltaire a famous French writer and philosopher. I studied a lot of Voltaire's writings in my first Philosophy class at St. John's and again a little bit in Metaphysics which I am now taking. It was truly amazing to see the tomb of such an iconic figure who is greatly known for being influential during the Enlightenment. Voltaire was famously known in France for going after the Church and particularly the clergy. He was a controversial figure to say the least. When the Pantheon was turned back into a church for a short period of time it was highly debated whether Voltaire's body should be moved or not. It was decided his body would remain so that Voltaire would have to "suffer through two masses a day". Eventually, the Pantheon was no longer a church, and here Voltaire remains indefinitely.

Across the room from Voltaire was another famous philosopher. If you are not familiar with philosophy you may recognize his name from a character in the hit series LOST...a character is named after him! Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Once again, Rousseau is someone I have studied since I got to St. John's.

Next we headed towards the back of the crypt. There are so many famous people's bodies down in the crypt...I am only touching on just a select few. The next tomb we saw was of the only woman buried in the Pantheon, Marie Curie. She was a famous scientist most famously known for her discovery of radio-activity and radiation. She won several awards, including the Nobel Peace prize for her efforts in physics and chemistry. She is also widely known because she eventually died as a result of her exposure to radiation. 

The next tomb we got to see was actually a surprise to me. It was that of Louis Braille, the creator of the Braille system for the blind. There was even a little tribute to him written in Braille. 

     There were so many famous people down in the crypt, a lot were famous French war heroes or that discovered something important to French history or science.  It reminded me a lot of the crypt in the Vatican. 

    After the Pantheon our adviser Mike took us to see a famous square in Paris with lots of different shops and restaurants. It also happens to be the square where Ernest Hemingway used to hang out. It is called Contrescarpe Plaza. 

Adrian and I quickly walked down the streets to find a Metro station so I could head over to my Art and Architecture Class that was meeting in front of St. Germain Church in another part of Paris. Lucky for me, I actually ended up being fifteen minutes early. Adrian waited with me in the pouring rain until my teacher came...we got a delicious Crepe to kill time! Nutella and banana...my first French Crepe!

After I met up with my teacher we headed over to St. Germain Church. It was definitely not the prettiest church I have ever seen, but it was still very interesting. It is one of the oldest churches in all of Paris. It is now located in the center of Paris, but when it was built all of the surrounding areas was fields and grass. It is Romanesque style on the outside and Gothic style on the inside. 

      We walked around the inside of the church while our teacher explained a little bit about the history of the Church and the Architecture

        After our visit in St. Germain we made our way over to a nearby Museum. The museum is in an old apartment and is apart of the Louvre collection. It is called Musee Delacroix after the 19th Century romantic painter Delacroix. The apartment the museum is located in is actually the apartment where Eugene Delacroix lived and worked, it is also where he eventually died. He had a very particular style. After our visit I was rather confident I could pick out one of his paintings in a room filled of paintings. He enjoyed painting portraits of people and animals. The museum also contains a lot of his old furniture and history from the time period he painted during. The reason he chose to live in this apartment was because it was close to the church St. Sulpice, which our class visited later on, where he was painting murals on their walls. Here is a few photos of his home and his paintings.

 This painting was my favorite because it was of the Cathedral in Sevilla that I spent a lot of time at...Delacroix visited Morocco and Sevilla several times and a lot of his artwork reflects those visits. 

      

 After spending over an hour in Delacroix house we made our way to the second largest church in Paris, St. Sulpice. The rain stopped for a few minutes so I was really able to admire the beauty of the trees and fountains outside of the church. You may recognize this church as it was featured in the book and movie, "The Da Vinci Code".

The inside of the church was breathtaking.

Also, the reason this church is very famous is because of its Gnomon also known as an Obelisk Clock. The obelisk is used to determine the date of Easter each year and was used by the Monks to determine time by where the light would reflect on it. I really did not understand how it worked exactly, but it was a important scientific discovery at the time. 

        After our visit at St. Sulpice it was time to head back to campus. As you can tell from this post, it was a long day! Very informative though. It began to pour just as we were leaving and we trekked back to campus in the rain. 

      Yesterday, I got out of a three and a half hour class rather exhausted. I walk into my room to find my bed (which I left completely disheveled) made and my messy room with everything picked up and neatly put in place. I sent Adrian a Facebook message asking him if he did this and where he was. I did not receive a response. Five minutes later Adrian walks through the door of my room smiling with French Macaroons (a French dessert everyone has been convincing us to try) in hand. He had cleaned my room and went and got the dessert! It really meant a lot to me. Adrian and I have a little over a week left together in Europe  together and then we will be spending another four months without seeing each other. I have learned over the last year with him that sometimes it is the little moments...that end up being the big ones later on. 

    

     P.s. The Macaroons were delicious!! Strawberry is my new favorite!  
    As many may already know France is in the midst of electing a President. It has been interesting to observe the French, over hear conversation and discuss in my European Union online class what this election means to France. I feel privileged to actually be in France during such a historical election. France has not had a left President in nearly 17 years...this may be the election that changes everything. Also, a female candidate in the election is holding her own in the race. My political opinions aside, I am interested to see where this election takes France. Being in Europe has taught me SO much about European Politics that I had no clue about before. I really enjoy learning about the European Union and different governing systems each member-state has. France in particular, during these last few weeks has really fascinated me. I look forward to the outcome of this election.
   I cannot believe my days in Paris are down to the single digits. Just nine days and I will be back in New York. Time truly flies. 
   Well, once again...I hope this post did not bore you too much!!! I will write more tomorrow hopefully...today I went to see the Paris Opera! I have a lot of homework to tackle right now though. Have a great weekend!!!

XOXO

Shann