Ramblings of a French Student: Le cinquième arrondissement, Le Panthéon, Le Jardin du Luxembourg, et Le Notre-Dame de Paris

Jan 8, 2014

I did a lot of sight-seeing today and it was great!

API Diderot students met in the cinquième arrondissement (5th district) of Paris for a tour. It's one of the oldest areas of Paris so the streets are very narrow, but it's beautiful! The tour started off at Les arènes de Lutèce, the remains of what was once the largest amphitheater in Europe. It was built by the Roman empire in 1 AD and it could seat 18,000 people! Gladiators used to have battles there. Not much of it is left, but it was still really cool to see. The cinquième arrondissement is also the location of le Jardin des Plantes, which is a public park and museum. Originally it was where the monarchy would grow medicinal herbs. It was really cool. I definitely want to come back in the spring though cause there will be more plants outside. We also stopped by La Grande Mosquée de Paris, which is the biggest mosque in Paris. It's open to everyone -- the only area that is off limits is the room of prayers. We got to go inside and take a look at its courtyard which is absolutely gorgeous!

After the tour of the cinquième arrondissement ended, most of the others went back to the API to cook some French food with other students and API staff. Alison and I didn't feel like doing that though, so we did some more sight-seeing.

On the tour we passed Le Musée du Moyen Âge (the museum of the middle ages) but we didn't go inside during the tour, so Alison and I decided to go check it out ourselves. Student admission was 6€ but it was definitely worth it. I loved a lot of the art, especially the stained glass. I took a ton of pictures.

After we saw all the exhibits in the museum, we went to see the Panthéon. We had to pay 4,50€ to get inside - also worth it. I took a lot of pictures then bought a souvenir at the gift shop. I bought a box of cards with pictures of famous places and monuments in France on them; hopefully by the time my semester is over I'll be able to look at the cards and say "I've seen that, I've been there!" to most of them!

We also wanted to see Le Jardin du Luxembourg, which is also another public park. It's also the location of the Palais du Luxembourg (Luxembourg Palace), which is used as a French government building now. Just like with the Jardin des Plantes, I need to come back here in the spring -- maybe even have a picnic there!

Our final stop was the Notre-Dame Cathedral. Getting inside was free, but there was an optional treasury room that cost 2€, which we paid, to get into. The Cathedral, inside and outside, is gorgeous and I'm really glad I got to see it.

I won't post all of my pictures (160+) here but I'll post some of them. Enjoy!

Les arènes de Lutèce: