Paris-9/24/2015 - 10-5/2015

Stroll in Paris

Stroll/Pantheon Shopping/Lunch

First stop is at Eric Kayser's bakeries located at 8 rue Monge in the 5th arrondissement.  This is Eric's first store which was opened on September 13, 1996 and it was an instant success, garnering much critical acclaim. The opening of many more bakeries in Paris and in various countries abroad followed very quickly.

Today, there are over 80 Maison Kayser locations worldwide. With 18 in Paris alone, more locations have opened throughout Greece, Portugal, Russia, Japan, Ukraine, Morocco, Senegal, South Korea, Lebanon, the UAE, Singapore,Mexico, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The products and services in the bakeries vary from country to country, each adapting to the local tastes and flavors. This dynamic touch has helped the growth of Maison Kayser throughout the world.

Display window at the store front!

Quick peek inside his store..

 

5th arrondissement

The Chapelle de la Sorbonne is a large chapel built in the early 17th century by order of cardinal Richelieu. The chapel is part of a complex of the reputed Sorbonne university. Inside, in the chancel, is Richelieu's marble cenotaph, decorated with a sculpture of the cardinal.

Sculpture of August Comte inaugurated in 1902 by Jean-Antoine Injalbert.  He was a French philosopher and founder of the discipline of sociology and of the doctrine of positivism. He is sometimes regarded as the first philosopher of science in the modern sense of the term.

Discovered by Louis XIV in 1682, the DALLOYAU "Officiers de Bouche" had dazzled the Court of Versailles until the French revolution. In 1802, the DALLOYAU family founded the first
"Maison de Gastronomie" at the 101, rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris

Over the generations, the family nurtured and conveyed the excellence of its expertise to all the gourmets in France and around the world.

Dalloyau most famous pastry is the Opera Cake (square cake on the left).

The Opera cake was invented in 1955 by Cyriaque Gavillon from Dalloyau. He wanted to created a new cake shape with visible layers and for which only one bite would give the whole cake's taste. It is his spouse, Andrée Gavillon, that named it "Opéra" in tribute to the auditorium of the Palais Garnier. The Opera is a rectangular cake composed of three thin layers of almond joconde soaked in coffee syrup alternating between layers of coffee butter cream and chocolate glaze topped with ganache.

 

The Pantheon

We are getting close to the Panthéon located in the Latin Quarter, 5th arrondissement.  Lots of coffee shops lining the streets.

 

The Panthéon was originally built as a church dedicated to St. Genevieve and to house her relics but, after many changes, it now functions as a secular mausoleum containing the remains of distinguished French citizens.  This neo-classic building is listed as historical monument in April 20, 1920.

 

In 1744, an ailing King Louis XV was miraculously healed by St Genevieve, the city's patron saint, and he thanked her by replacing her ruined church with a more fitting tribute  The architect Soufflot was commissioned to undertake this project. IN 1791, the monument was turned into the national Pantheon: the burial of Victor Hugo in 1885 enshrined in this secular use of the building.  The crypt holds the graves of the great men and women of the nation including Voltaire, Emile Zola, Jean Moulin and Marie Curie.

On the entrance pediment inspired by the ancient Pantheon in Rome, the revolutionaries carved the inscription: "Aux grands hommes, la patrie reconnaissante" -("To the great men, the grateful homeland")

By the time the church was completed in 1791 the revolution was in full swing and the church was converted into a non religious mausoleum honoring the "Champions of French liberty".

The revolutionaries covered up the church's window to display grand, patriotic murals. 

 

Neo classic architecture with tall colonnades.

The richly detailed Corinthian columns

 

 

From the Pantheon you can see the Eiffel tower in the distance.

 

Place du Panthéon

La Faculté de droit de Paris (Paris law Faculty) is located place du Panthéon (on the left of the Panthéon). The Paris Law Faculty was one of the four and eventually five faculties of the University of Paris. The structure is also designed by Jacques-Germain Soufflot (he designed the Panthéon)

 

Until the 19th century, the Paris Law Faculty was called "Faculté de décret" or "Consultissima decretorum".

 

Saint-Étienne-du-Mont is a church located in the 5th arrondissement, near the Panthéon.

 

The church the shrine of St. Geneviève, the patron saint of Paris. The church also contains the tombs of Blaise Pascal and Jean Racine. Jean-Paul Marat is buried in the church's cemetery.

The sculpted tympanum (the semi-circular or triangular decorative wall surface over an entrance), depicts "The Stoning of Saint Stephen", is the work of French sculptor Gabriel-Jules Thomas.

 

The main entrance of the church.

There was a wedding ceremony today and the church is filled with people.

You can see the nave, showing the rood screen, pulpit and ceiling details - the architecture style is French Gothic and French Renaissance.

 

 

As we were walking in the back of the Pantheon there is a huge sign talking about the restoration of the dome and the drum.

 

Over the pass 15 years the monument has shown significant signs of wear and tear resulting from several degradation factors: again of materials, the presence of metallic elements in the masonry and whose swelling due to oxidation is deteriorating the inner cladding,, these phenomena are mainly cause by the lack of sealing. Restoration of the external cover was conducted between 1993 and 2009.  The work that remains to be done, both on the one treated covers and on the interior structures requires considerable resources, estimated at 100 million euros and operations that span an entire decade.  The work currently undertaken focus on the upper part of the building the dome which includes the cupola and the lantern, as well as the drum and its colonnades, with the capital presenting significant structural disorders.

 

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