Paris

Place de la Concorde
Pompidou Center
Pont Alexandre III

Sacre Coeur
St. Etienne du Mont
St. Merry

St. Sulpice
Rose Line
Shroud of Turin Replica

Place de la Concorde: Starting out as the Place Louis XV, for displaying a statue of the king, it was later changed to the Place de la Revolution and the statue was replaced by the guillotine. The death toll in the square in two and a half years was 1,119, including Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette. Renamed Concorde, the grandeur of the square was enhanced in the 19th century by the 3,200-year-old Luxor obelisk, two fountains and eight statues.

Pompidou Center: The center is like a building turned inside out: escalators, elevators, air and water ducts and even the massive steel struts that are the building's skeleton have all been placed on the outside. This allows for an uncluttered space within it for the Musee National d'Art Moderne. We did not go inside as the day we were there it was closed.

Pont Alexandre III: This is Paris's prettiest bridge, with exuberant Art Nouveau decoration of lamps, cherubs, nymphs and winged horses at either end. It was built between 1896 and 1900, in time for the universal Exhibition.

Sacre Coeur: Another one of our favorite places in Paris. We toured the basilica and climbed the stairs to the top of the dome. At the outbreak of the Franco Prussian War in 1870, two Catholic businessmen made a private religious vow. It was to build a church dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Christ should France be spared the impending Prussian onslaught. The two men lived to see Paris saved from invasion despite the ware and lengthy siege - and the start of what is the Sacre-Coeur basilica.

St. Etienne du Mont: This is a beautiful church located next to the Pantheon. We toured the church and had fun taking photos inside while avoiding the church patrols as photos were not allowed.

St. Merry: The site of the church dates back to the 7th century. St. Mederic, the abbot of St Martin d'Autun, was buried here at the beginning of the 8th century. The saint's name, which was eventually corrupted to Merry, was given the chapel built nearby. The building of the church was not completed until 1552. The church also contains the oldest bell in Paris, dating from 1331.

St. Sulpice: The Église de Saint-Sulpice is a massive Baroque church in the center of the Left Bank of Paris. The church was completed in 1733, after 134 years of start and stop construction. Saint-Sulpice was built over the foundations of an older church which, in turn, was reputed to have been constructed on top of an ancient temple of the goddess Isis. The fact that the city of Paris was probably named after Isis ("par-Isis"), gives this church-upon-church-upon-temple edifice a unique historical stature.

St. Sulpice - Meridian Line: There is a meridian line, on the left side of the church, called the Astronomical Gneomen. Apparently, it was commissioned in order to determine the exact date of Easter, and the winter and summer equinoxes.

Saint Sulpice has received a lot of attention recently because of its prominence in the DaVinci Code thriller. As a result, there is a note near the meridian line:

Contrary to fanciful allegations in a recent best selling novel, this is not a vestige of a pagan temple. No such temple ever existed in this place. It was never called a "rose-line." It does not coincide with the meridian traced through the middle of the Paris Observatory which serves as a reference for maps where longitudes are measured in degrees East or West of Paris. No mystical notion can be derived from this.

St. Sulpice - Shroud of Turin Replica: Inside the chapel, they have a life sized photograph of the shroud.

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