When I first got to Paris, I presumed the Latin Quarter to be the place where all the spanish-speakers would be. Call it a NY view of the world. Turns out, it's where many of the universities are and is so-named because schooling was done in latin way back when. Anyway, against the advice of my doctor (Dr. PingPing) I ventured out on Saturday while still recovering from a battle with the flu. I jumped on a bus and got off at the Blvd St. Germain and immediately saw a lovely view of the Pantheon looking south up rue Des Carmes.
I zigged and zagged my way towards the Sorbonne and as I got close I snapped a shot of what I believe is a faculty building. I am not 100% sure of it, but it sure looked like one. Not bad.
At the Sorbonne itself, tight security all around. There were guards at all the entries, checking ids. I slowed down to look through the doors but that's as close as I could get to the insides. Instead, I made my way to Place de la Sorbonne, shown below. I had a relaxing breakfast at a cafe there. The building in the distance is the Sorbonne itself - they're doing some kind of construction work on it.
As I made my way to the newsstand to buy a paper I caught site of a half-naked woman staring at me from the cover of a magazine ad. This is where the French are different from us Americans - nudity is no biggie here. Matter of fact, I've seen more pairs of tits here in three months than I've seen in my entire life. They're on magazines, tv, advertisements.....
As I rounded the corner onto rue Soufflot, the mother shot - the view of the Pantheon, looking east. It's a beautiful building , truly majestic. It is where many of France's beloved sons are buried: Voltaire, Rousseau, Victor Hugo, Emile Zola, Alexandre Dumas and many others. It's also the place where Foucault demonstrated the rotation of the earth by hanging a giant pendulum from the peak of the inner dome.
Continuing along, I found a nice plaza with many restaurants. I show the location of it on the map that follows, not sure of the name of it exactly. I will go back in future to try some of the food there.
Just off the plaza, there was a crowd waiting to get into a cafe for brunch. They were too sharply dressed for a Saturday so I figured they may have come from a wedding - I saw one letting out of a church near the Pantheon thirty minutes earlier.
The Jardin de Plantes was nearby so I took a walk through. It is a large botanical garden that has both walking gardens and indoor greenhouses. All the flower beds were empty - as you would expect this time of year. When spring arrives, this would be a nice place to visit.
As with most trees here in Paris, theirs were shorn geometrically to a precision that I find fascinating.
They make good photo fodder.
The Map
2 comments:
Hmmm... Judging from the map of your trip, u seem to have covered a huge area... when you are supposed to be resting. Seems like someone has been naughty!
Guilty as charged, Ping-Ping. In my defense, a lot of it was on bus and metro.....
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