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Jardin du Luxembourg
Jardin du Luxembourg is the most loved park in Paris. It is large
and has fountains, flowers, statues, tennis courts, concerts in
the summer and on Sunday, Tai Chi. Within the park is located the
Palais du Luxembourg, home to the French Senate. Next to the senate
is the Musee du Luxembourg, which often has art exhibitions. Nearby
on rue de Fleurus lived Gertrude Stein and her companion Alice B.
Tokas who opened their home to many famous expatriates, writers
and artists, including Hemingway and Picasso.
The Pantheon
Constructed by Louis XV in 1744 in gratitude for recovering from gout,
this massive temple to the great men of France houses the bodies of
Voltaire, Rousseau, Mirabeau, Marat, Victor Hugo, Emile Zola, and
Jean Moulin (hero of the French Resistance during WWII).
Musee de Cluny
Was once a medieval monastery, built on the ruins of a vast third-century
Roman bathhouse. Today, it is a museum
of medieval antiquities. The remains of the bathhouse
can be seen just behind the museum.
St. Sulpice
Work on the church of St-Suplice, at one time Paris's largest, began
in 1646, but is stilll ongoing. It has one of the world's largest
organs, comprising 6,700 pipes. The Chapelle des Anges (Chapel of
the Angel) has two frescoes by Delacroix which were painted in Delacroix’s
final years and were a high point in his career. Outside the Church
is a large square with the 1844 fountain by Visconti at its center.
It is the location of the annual Foire de Saint-German held at the
beginning of June and which lasts for a month. This fair has been
an annual tradition for centuries.
Arenes du Lutece
Built during the 1st and 2nd centuries, this amphitheater could seat
15,000 people, hosting gladiator fights as well as less bloody entertainment.
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