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View of one of the beautiful rose windows of Notre Dame Cathedral,
from the Seine River. I believe the tour guide said that something
like 65% of the glass in this window is still original.
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View of one of the beautiful rose windows of Notre Dame Cathedral,
from the Seine River. I believe the tour guide said that something
like 65% of the glass in this window is still original.
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Notre-Dame Cathedral was ordered by the Bishop of Paris in 1160,
and was completed in 1330. The architect is unknown. It was nothing
but an empty shell after the French Revolution (1789), but was
restored in the 19th century
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paris0204_056.jpg
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Ponte Marie. Make a wish as you cross the bridge, seal it with
a kiss, and legend says your wish will come true within the year.
This is the second oldest bridge in Paris.
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The Conciergerie. Built in 1310, it and the Sacred Chapel are
the last vestiges of the old Palace of the House of Capet Kings.
The Keeper's House got it's name from the Keeper of the King's
Household. It was a prison during the Revolution and is now a
museum, with several versions of guillotine on display.
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The Orsay Museum specializes in art following the period covered
by the Louvre Museum, and is particularly well known for its collection
of Impressionist art, including works by such artists as Claude
Monet.
The building itself is an expertly-converted former railway station
(note the huge clocks at each end of the building).
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paris0204_063.jpg
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I was unable to discover the name of this church along the Seine
river. If you know its name, please email me!
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The Bir-Hakeim Bridge. This bridge was completed in 1905. It includes
one of the two above-line railway lines in Paris, and is often
called the "railway on legs" because the line is supported on
a series of cast-iron girders that run down the middle of the
road (the rail line is about half the width of the lower road).
This bridge runs from the eastern end of the Alley of the Swans.
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Invalids, Napoleon's tomb. Invalids is a military hospital was
built by Louis XIV in 1671. It now houses two museums and Napoleon's
tomb, which is here in the Dôme des Invalides. When the church
was built by Mansart, it was designed to be equal in size to St.
Peter's Basilica in the Vatican.
We didn't go inside, but Napoleon is apparently is in a big red
sarcophagus; it is big because it contains six other coffins,
one inside the other. The standard joke is that this was done
to keep Napoléon from getting back out.
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The Panthéon, a former church that is now a home for famous dead
French people. There are more than 70 people entombed here, including
Marie Curie, Victor Hugo, Émile Zola, Jean Moulin, Voltaire, and
many others.
The Panthéon was originally built as a church and was completed
in 1789, just in time for the French Revolution, which caused
it to be converted into a necropolis for famous French people,
rather than a church.
This building was also the structure in which Foucault conducted
his famous experiment with a pendulum. A replica of his pendulum
still swings slowly back and forth within the Panthéon. Most of
the nave is walled off inside, so you can't actually get close
to the pendulum unless you take the guided tour.
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The observatory on the right is part of the Sorbonne, one of the
buildings that make up the Universities of Paris (Université de
Paris). It is located in the Latin Quarter. The Sorbonne, named
after Robert de Sorbon, the French theologian who founded it in
1257, was the most famous of the 40 or so colleges that constituted
the original University of Paris in the 13th and 14th centuries.
The observatory is no longer used because of light pollution from
the city.
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Taken out of the bus window as the bus was in motion, this is
the Saint-Michael fountain, by Davioud. This is the Latin Quarter.
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Another view of the facade of Notre-Dame Cathedral, from the bus.
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The Palms fountain at the Place du Châtelet (Little Castel Square).
There used to be a fortress here, but it was razed and replaced
by this fountian, which commemorates the victories of Napoleon
- commissioned by the same, of course.
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