Catch Up

Wow these last 3 days have been insane. I've been trying to fit in everything else that I haven't yet seen in Paris, and I've been to some really cool places that you never hear about being in Paris for only a couple days.
First off: The Pantheon. It was originally designed to be a church dedicated to St Genevieve, the patron saint of Paris, who saved them from the Huns. The architect wanted it to rival the Sistine Chapel. But they finished it right as the Revolution was starting so the State seized it and turned it into the "Temple to the Nation."

It's kind of weird that it was supposed to be a church cause it really does look like a Greek or Roman temple. So the "Temple to the Nation" idea actually fits better than a church. But it's gorgeous inside. And they have the tombs of all the famous Frenchmen. So we got to see the tombs of Rousseau, Voltaire, Victor Hugo, Emile Zola, Alexandre Dumas, Louis Braille and the Curies!






Next up: the Arènes de Lutèce

These are almost the last roman ruins in Paris, and it's a huge amphitheater where they used to have gladiators fight all the way up into the Middle Ages. You can still see the niches in the walls where they used to keep the animals. Nowadays the people just hang out there, old guys play petanque and little kids play soccer. You can see them in the background of this picture with my friend Charmaine. We were best friends in elementary school and we got to hang out for a little while!





Wednesday night I went to the ballet at the Opera house! The dancing was super good of course, but I was in the cheap seats so I could only see half the stage. Plus it was contemporary and I was hoping for ballet. It was kind of funny to have contemporary art against the super classical interior. But regardless it was still super cool to dress up and be able to see a performance there! The Opera house is soooo pretty.

Well running out of time again....hopefully I'll post tomorrow. I'm off to Nice for the weekend!