Le Pantheon

In 1744 Louis XV vowed that if he recovered from an illness he would replace a ruined church with one glorifying the patron saint of Paris: St-Genèvieve (pronounced jen-a-vee-ev, not jen-a-vive.) Well, guess what? He recovered, thus began the construction of the Panthéon.

It was completed in 1789, but soon after the Revolution was underway and the new government changed its mission from "church" to that of a mausoleum for the remains of great Frenchmen. Among those buried in its necropolis are Voltaire, Rousseau, Victor Hugo, Emile Zola, Marie and Pierre Curie, and Soufflot its architect.

In 1851 physicist Léon Foucault demonstrated the rotation of the Earth in his experiment conducted inside the Panthéon, by constructing a 67 meter pendulum beneath the central dome. It is still there if you'd like to see it today. Cool, non?

While we were there we had the pleasure of experiencing artist Ernesto Neto's "Leviathan Thot" installation. Nylon stockings filled with sand and styrofoam strung at various lengths all around the interior. Pix of it here.

Also someone's statue modification outside. :)