Another maoz meal

So my last post left off with us wandering the Latin Quarter attempting to locate the Pantheon.  Well, we did eventually find it.

Pantheon means “every God,” which is weird considering it’s (now) a secular sight.  But originally it was a church, built for and dedicated to St. Genevieve (the patron Saint of Paris). 

This Genevieve chick was quite the good luck charm for the French.  She protected Paris from the Barbarians in 500 AD and was then buried at the Pantheon.  Thousands of years later, Louis XV credited her for his recovery from serious illness and then pledged to dedicate the church in her name.  Cut to the funeral of Victor Hugo in 1885, and the monument’s religious use was done-zo…  How’s that for a history lesson?!

We arrived 15 minutes before closing time, thereby giving ourselves an even 7.5 minutes on the main floor and 7.5 in the crypt.  Ready, set, go!

A brief tidbit of info on this fascinating structure (complements of Laura).  The massive pillars you see are responsible for supporting the dome above it.  Uhh, no sh!t Sherlock.  I’m no physics major, but even I can tell that! 

[At this point Laura would want me to mention that this insightful comment was NOT her own and she was simply reading from the pamphlet we got at the door]

 

That’s Miss Genevieve herself.  It’s kinda odd that they consider the Pantheon a secular monument even though there are still crosses and other religious paraphernalia all over the place still.  But then there was this thing…

 

Science-y.  As per the pamphlet, Foucault’s pendulum demonstrates the rotation of the Earth.  Apparently the OG pendulum is displayed in some museum where it’s still in motion (except for last year when the string snapped and it came crashing down, ruining the marble floor and causing irreparable damage to the pendulum).  The replica that’s currently in the Pantheon is from 1995.  After pondering for quite some time (we are such nerds), Laura and I determined they must have had to stop it to exchange it. 

 

7.5 minutes later, we found our way down to the crypt.  It’s basically a mausoleum (indoor cemetery) containing the remains of distinguished French citizens, like Victor Hugo, Alexander Dumas, Voltaire, Rousseau, etc.

 

Cool?  Sure. 

If you’re confused by the above picture, Ethel and Kyle used to call me “bitches” as a term of endearment (as in awwww bitches).  Not that that makes any sense, but it at least helps explain why we took the photo. 

After leaving the Pantheon, we stopped in to the hotel, picked up the rest of the girls, and headed to the Luxembourg Gardens.  Or Jardin du Luxembourg if you’re digging my French lessons (but why would you be?).

 

We all got sidetracked when we saw a fruit stand.  It was a Sunday so most of the grocery stores were closed, hence the excitement over this small market.  Not many vegan options, but I did get some apples. 

 

I enjoyed one in the park, while we just vegged out and did some people watching. 

For dinner, we went back to the Latin Quarter and wandered.  Everyone wanted different things.  We stopped at multiple places, browsed multiple menus, and when it came down to it, the places that had vegan options weren’t the places the rest of the group wanted to go.  For fellow vegans, there are some couscous places that looked decent, but I ended up returning to maoz for round two. 

Falafel and hummus stuffed pitas are fine with me, even if lunch was the exact same thing.  

 

Ethel enjoyed a fried banana for dessert, which took a month to order due to the language barrier.  The problem was that the dessert options included fried banana, fried pineapple, and vanilla ice cream. 

Pineapple in French is ananas, which ridiculously close to banana.  Banana in French is banane.  Considering our American accents were butchering every word of French we attempted, you can see how some problems arose. 

Laura wanted fried pineapple and Ethel wanted fried banana.  Our waiter wanted to shoot them. 

 

Miraculously, the correct orders arrived!  And that’s how day three of Paris ended. 

When you travel to really old places do you like learning historical tidbits or do you just like to look and take it all in?  I’m usually big on research, reading up on everywhere I’m traveling to have some background knowledge, but this trip was my fifth time in Paris, so I was less into it.