The Matt Faus Blog

Upon stepping foot into a chilly and dreary Paris morning after spending a large portion of the past 24 hours travelling, I was a little less than impressed with my surroundings. “Oh well”, I said, “I just need some coffee, but first, a bathroom.” So, we made our way out of the train and into the station where the only bathroom in site had a sign outside signifying that you must pay for each use, depending on what kind of business needs to get done. So, I paid my .5E and obtained relief. They were nice bathrooms, but it was a little weird because the cleaning lady was directly behind me just going about her business. Also, the urinals were in plain sight of the entrance to the antechamber. Over some much needed coffee and grub, we figured out the paths we needed to take through the Metro to the accommodations and we were on our way.

The Metro system in Paris is outstanding, but after the amount of travelling we had done and the overwhelming sensation of not understanding anything that anyone around you is saying, we had a bit of a difficulty with our first few rides on the Metro. Hesitations here, wrong turns there, and a few other events turned what should have been a quick trip into a 3 hour ordeal. Luckily an English woman with a baby strapped to her chest and several bags of groceries stopped and helped us out.

After freshening up a bit, we were ready to hit the city by 2pm. The first stop was the Pantheon. I still don’t fully understand what this thing is, but one of the information pamphlets stated that it was a “secular cathedral” used to honor great scientists and philosophers. Whatever it was, it was absolutely gorgeous within the walls. With several statues and grand murals, the hall was truly reminiscent of Great Men of the World.

The thing I found most interesting about the Pantheon was the pendulum that it housed. This pendulum was suspended from the very top of the dome all the way to the floor. With this much suspension, it takes very little energy to maintain movement, as the earth moves beneath it with each cycle. As the Earth rotates, the pendulum’s swing will change angles, thereby providing a means to mark time. For the past 100 years (or more, I’m not sure), this pendulum has swung in the center of this great hall, much like the beating heart of the iron-clad leaders the hall commemorates.

After spending several minutes in awe of the pendulum, we headed down into the Crypts. The crypts were really quite plain and uninteresting to view, but the fact that they housed the remains of the great philosophers Rousseau and Voltaire was pretty cool.

Emerging from the Crypts into a sunny and cheerful afternoon was just what we needed for the strength to carry us through the streets past the Cathedral of Notre Dame, the Concierge, and Hotel de Ville as we made the trek to the Louvre Museum. On the way there, we saw several artists selling paintings along the river, along with souvenirs and post cards. I bought a few things for some friends back home, and Ashley did the same, but we hurried a little as we wanted to have plenty of time at the Louvre and then come back to these sites the next day.

Upon arriving at the Louvre Museum, my perception of beauty began to radically transform…