This is Part II of my Paris travel series. Part is here.

I have heard and read about Notre Dame (Our Lady of Paris) so much that just anticipating it was fun. It was a rainy day, which sort of reflected the building itself, since it a very Gothic, dark-looking church. Even the inside of the church although adorned with stained glass windows, is very dark. Particularly interesting are the gargoyles of Notre Dame, all of which seem to be chimeras/grotesques, with beastly bodies. And some even seem to almost be leaping off the roof.

The word gargoyle comes from the french word for throat because gargoyles were originally created to act as rain-water spouts. Pipes run through the creatures draining water from the roof top. Think olden-day guttering systems – but oh, how creatively designed !

This is the statue of General Charles de Gaulle at the Place Charles de Gaulles. Behind the statue is the Grand Palais (Grand Palace). The Grand Palais and the Petit Palais are located right opposite each other, and you can see the greeen sculpture adorning the Grand Palais. A lot of the sculptures on Parisian building are like that – figures of humans and animals leaping off or marching off into thin air.

Here’s another view of the Grand Palais.

The Madeleine is another church, although it looks like a classical Greek temple, with it’s huge Corinthian columns. Although spare and bulky looking from the outside, it is minutely decorated on the inside.

The Pantheon which looks similar to the Madeleine, except for the dome on top, is located far from the Place de la Concorde. Note that most of the “touristy” building on the Right Bank are within walking distance of each other, so you could walk from one end to the other and see the Museum, Madeleine, the Petit and Grand Palais and Champs Elysee. However the Pantheon you must really want to see, since it is on the Left Bank and requires a considerable detour by a bus/train.

The interesting thing about the Pantheon, besides it’s gorgeous domes, columns, and art, is Foucault’s pendulum, suspended from the center of the dome.