Another Place I’ve Never Been
Paris is a place I’ve returned to again and again, and there’s always something new to see. I decided to make this trip mostly about those places new to me, and today it was the Panthéon.
Commissioned by Louis XV just before the French Revolution, this impressive building, originally styled as a church honoring Sainte Geneviève, evolved to become a national necropolis honoring illustrious men (Voltaire, Rousseau, Victor Hugo, among others).
After becoming a church again, then Temple of Humanity, then a church once again, it finally became what it is today, a monument honoring the greatest citizens of France. Tapestries, murals and sculptures decorate the cross-shaped nave.
The special exhibit this year tells the story of Missak Menouchian, an orphaned survivor of the Armenian genocide of 1915. He was a poet and Communist who loved France and admired the French Revolution, but his two applications for citizenship were denied. Nevertheless, he joined the Resistance, leading a group that carried out assassinations and bombing of Nazi targets in the region around Paris. He and some of his comrades were arrested in late 1943 and executed by firing squad in 1944. Considered a hero of the Resistance, his ashes and those of his wife, Mélinée, were buried in the Panthéon in February 2024.
From the Panthéon I continued deep into the 6th arrondissement to the Mouffetard Market. During my last visit it was a bustling place, with vendors of all stripes displaying their tempting wares. It was much quieter today, perhaps because it’s early May instead of early October, but I was able to satisfy my yen for French onion soup and warm up in a friendly café.
It was too cold, and starting to rain, when I decided to return to my hotel and put my feet up. After falling asleep to the soothing sound of rain on the pebbles in the courtyard outside, I awoke refreshed and ready for an early dinner.
Turns out there’s a Michelin-starred restaurant just up the street — one star, and not expensive. But oh so tiny! I counted 12 tables crammed into a space about the size of my living room. They don’t take reservations but are open continuously from noon to midnight, so I opted to dash through the rain around 6, very early by French standards. Escargots and seared tuna with fennel and a sauce of piquillo peppers, plus a glass of white grenâche. And a stop at the gelato shop on the corner for a boule of stracchiatella, just to settle my stomach.
Need to get an early start tomorrow, as it’s my last full day in Paris. And the weather is supposed to improve!