Visiting the Panthéon Paris
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During our time in Paris in the summer we wanted to see and visit as many monuments and tourist attractions as we could and, thanks to our Paris Museum Pass, we ended up seeing much more than we expected. One of the first attractions we visited was the Panthéon as it was just a short walk from our hotel.
What is the Panthéon?
The Pantheon was built by 1790 and had been intended to be a church. However, as the French Revolution had started by the time the Pantheon was complete, it was instead made into a mausoleum for the remains of distinguished French citizens and modelled on the Pantheon in Rome.
Some of the notable people interred or commemorated in the Pantheon include Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Jean Rousseau, Jacques-Germain Soufflot – the Pantheon architect, Victor Hugo and Louis Braille.
Where is the Panthéon?
Just a short walk from our hotel in the opera district of Paris, the Panthéon stands in the Latin Quarter in the centre of the Place du Panthéon. It’s just a couple of minutes walk to the River Seine, Notre Dame and many of Paris’ other attractions and easily accessible around the local area on foot or by public transport.
Visiting the Panthéon
We arrived at the Panthéon in the late afternoon and there wasn’t very much of a queue to get in. We just had to show our Paris Museum Pass and go through airport style security before starting to explore the monument.
Our first stop was downstairs in the crypt. This is the main part of the mausoleum where the tombs and plaques are. We wandered around, reading the names and information boards – and were most interested in Louis Braille’s tomb, with all the signs and plaques written in braille as well as typical writing.
Afterwards we made our way back upstairs to the main expanse of the Pantheon, immediately admiring the domed roof and vastness of the space. It’s a glorious building, in beautiful condition considering it’s age, and there’s so much to look at throughout.
We spent time at Foucault’s Pendulum, learning about physics and how the movement of the earth keeps the pendulum moving, with the trajectory changing as time moves on. It was fascinating to see – real life science, dating back over 175 years!
We only spent about an hour in the Pantheon, exploring the crypt, taking in the statues and artworks on the ground floor and watching the pendulum, but it was well worth visiting and such an incredible building to experience for ourselves.
You can find out more about the Pantheon over on their website and for reference the address is: Pl. du Panthéon, 75005 Paris, France
