Life in Paris

Salut,

This has been kind of a busy week with lots of classes, but I've been finding time to explore. Today, as part of my class, we went on a walking tour of the Latin Quarter. It's full of schools and universities and churches. There are some thermal baths leftover from the Roman era still there. I didn't bring my camera today because I had too many books, but I'm going to go back and take pictures.

We also went to the Pantheon. It's a huge building originally constructed as a kind of basicilia for St. Genevieve, the patron saint of Paris. Over the years, it went back and forth, back and forth between being a  church and being a secular symbol of the state of France. Today it is a national landmark. It has a ton of religious paintings on the walls paired with secular monuments in front of the paintings (for the Unknown Soldier, etc.). The most interesting part is in the basement. There is a crypt underneath the Pantheon that is home to some of the most important influential French people and people with links to France. Just to name a few, Rosseau, Voltaire, Victor Hugo, Marie and Pierre Curie, and Emile Zola are all buried in the Pantheon. Very cool. I didn't have enough time to figure out why, but in the crypt, there is also a monument to the "Righteous Gentiles", as we say in English. The "Righteous Gentiles", or in French "Justes de France" or "Justes parmi les nations", are people who were not Jewish but helped/tried to save Jews during World War II. Again, I've got to go back and take pictures.

After class, I visited la Memorial de la Deporation (same name in English). It's a very small little monument for the French Jews who were deported during the Holocaust. It was very cool because it's right next to the Seine, and it is essentially on the same level as the river. Through windows with bars, you look right out onto the Seine. It's very small and almost hidden behind Notre Dame, but nice nonetheless.

I finished out my little excursion today with a trip to the best ice cream shop in Paris, Berthillion. Everyone who spends any serious amount of time in Paris knows Berthillion. I went about 4:30 PM on a Wednesday afternoon, and there was a line. I'll just say it was delicious. I got chocolate and fig. It's very close to my classes, so unfortunately for my wallet, it just might become a regular hangout.