Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Le dôme vue du jardin

Just as I was about to exit the Luxembourg garden on the west side (rue Guynemer), I turned and saw the dome of the Panthéon through the trees. From where I was standing, the dome is about 700 meters (just over a third of a mile) away.

Looking east across the Luxembourg garden toward the Panthéon.

The picture is taken into the morning sun which accounts for the misty quality, but I like it. The zoom lens makes the dome loom large in the photo.

The Panthéon was built as a church in the eighteenth century atop the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève, a high spot on the left bank named for the city's patron saint. The church was intended to receive the relics of Sainte-Geneviève, but before the building was consecrated as a church, the French government decided it would be used as the final resting place of great men of the Republic (post revolution).

7 comments:

  1. The only time I had been inside that "church" was to have a look at the Foucault's pendulum.

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  2. Now that's a building! That monstrosity tower from 1972 could take a lesson or two from this one.
    m.

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  3. Love the Pantheon in the fog. I like looking at the Eiffel tower from the steps of the Pantheon. There is so much magic to be seen walking in the 5th arrondisment.

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  4. There is something about the Panthéon that excites me every time I catch a glimpse of it. More so than la Tour Eiffel, Sacre Coeur or Notre Dame.

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  5. chm, me too! Many years ago.

    rick, and it wasn't cold!

    mark, I'll be posting another shot of the "monstrosity" soon... stay tuned!

    evelyn, true!

    starman, interesting!

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  6. what happened to Geneivieve?

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