Our motto for our first day in Paris was “keep moving” so we wouldn’t crash. We left Phoenix Friday morning and arrived at CDG at 6:30 am on Saturday. We got a cab and headed to our home for the week: Hotel le Clement in Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Lucky for us our room would be ready in an hour or so, so we left our bags and went out to explore for a little bit. It was very quiet early in the morning and it turned out to be a nice time to visit a few churches - they were empty and we got to admire the architecture and details at our leisure.

First up was Église Saint-Sulpice, the third largest church in the city. St. Sulpice is the second church on the site and construction began in 1646 (the first church was constructed in the 13th century). Fun fact: St. Sulpice was one of the Paris filming sites of The Davinci Code. We couldn’t resist the lure of pastries and a hot drink and stopped at our first boulangerie for a quick snack before continuing to Église Saint-Germain-des-Prés. St. Germain is the oldest church in Paris, built in 1163 (the first church built on this site was erected in 558 AD). We were wowed by the gorgeous, colorful interior, which is consistent with the medieval style of bright colors. Outside the church we stopped in Square Félix-Desruelles to see the Portique de Sèvres. This is an Art Nouveau portico commissioned for the Universal Exhibition of 1900 to showcase products from the Manufacture nationale de Sèvres, a famous porcelain factory in Sèvres. This is why there are two dates on there: 1900 for the exhibition and 1753 when the Manufacture nationale de Sèvres was established.

We checked into our room and took a moment before we set out for the rest of our day exploring Saint-Germain-des-Prés and The Latin Quarter. We wandered around the neighborhood, walking down streets that looked interesting until Crêperie Little Breizh opened for lunch (I’m glad we got there when they opened as it didn’t take long for them to fill up and a line to form). The crepes were delicious, although it was risky to sit down for lunch - Norah nearly fell asleep at the table and pleaded for a nap. She perked up though once we were moving again and we walked a route to take us by multiple points of interest:

Cour du Commerce Saint-Andre: one of Paris’ quaint passageways that gives a glimpse into a pre-Haussmann Paris with its original cobblestones and narrow lane lined with shops and cafes. One of these is Le Procope, a bistro founded in 1686. There is also a darker history to this lane. A German harpsichord maker named Tobias Schmidt lived on Cour du Commerce when he built and tested a new device named the guillotine.

Place Saint-Michel: A public square in The Latin Quarter that is a major landmark of the Left Bank and home to public demonstrations throughout the years, such as citizens fighting against royalist oppression in the 1800s and the French resistance to the Nazi occupation during WWII. In 1968 students occupied the square during the protests and dug up the cobblestones to throw at the police (the cobblestones were later replaced by pavement to prevent this happening again in the future).

Rue de la Huchette and Rue Galande: Two of the oldest streets in Paris.

Shakespeare and Company: An obligatory stop for any tourist (especially if you are a reader)! Shakespeare and Company is an English-language bookshop that opened in 1951 and became a Left Bank institution. We did have a short wait to get inside (where pictures aren’t allowed) and enjoyed browsing for a bit. It is a cute store.

Sweet eats at Aux Merveilleux de Fred and Le Bonbon au Palais: Le Bonbon au Palais was on Norah’s list before our trip and it was a super cute candy shop. We passed by Aux Merveilleux de Fred and were intrigued by the treats in the window and watching the workers make them. We had no idea what they were, but discovered they were meringues and they were delicious!

In the late afternoon we visited the Grande Mosquée de Paris, the largest mosque in France and the third largest in Europe. The mosque, completed in 1926, was commissioned by the state as a thank you to the Muslim soldiers from the colonies that fought for France in WWI. During WWII the mosque helped shelter Jewish refugees, aided by the network of tunnels underneath the complex. The Moorish design of the mosque is unique compared to the other architecture we saw in Paris. North African artisans worked with traditional materials to create the intricate, decorative features throughout the space. We enjoyed taking in these details while walking through the gardens and buildings. There is a tea room with mint tea and various pastries we thought we might visit, but decided to continue on with our walk in nearby Jardin des Plantes.

Jardin des Plantes is a large park with a number of attractions, although we only saw a little piece of it as we headed to the Panthéon . We walked through the labyrinth, which is a spiral path around a mound that is basically a former medieval dump covered with earth in the early 1300s. This mound was converted into a place for walking when the garden (originally Jardin du Roi) was created in 1626 by Louis XIII. A gazebo was built on top in the 1780s in honor of Buffon and is one of the oldest all-metal structures in the world. We sat here for a bit and then headed to the Panthéon.

The Panthéon was the inaugural use of my Paris Museum Pass (PMP). There was a special line for PMP holders, which was nice because we walked right in and bypassed the longer line of people waiting to purchase tickets. The Panthéon is a Neoclassical monument celebrating France’s history and people, although throughout its history it alternated between a religious institution and a secular monument. King Louis XV was ill in 1744 and he promised that if he recovered, he would replace Saint Geneviève’s ruined church with a grander church as tribute to the patron saint of Paris. He made it, but the project didn’t begin until a decade later and by the time it was finished in 1791 King Louis XV was long dead and the revolution was in full swing. It was decided to convert the church into a non religious mausoleum honoring distinguished French citizens (modeled on the Pantheon in Rome). The Panthéon was twice restored to a church in the 19th century until in 1881 it was finally decreed to be exclusively a mausoleum.

We walked around to take in the murals, statues, and the Foucault Pendulum suspended from the dome on a 220 foot cable. In 1851 Foucault used his pendulum to demonstrate the earth’s rotation on its axis. The original pendulum is housed elsewhere and a working copy is on display at the Panthéon. We eventually made our way to the crypt downstairs. Internment in the crypt is allowed only by a parliamentary act for “National Heroes” (and some internments are symbolic, like Josephine Baker). Some of the famous Frenchmen/women interred here include Voltaire, Victor Hugo, Émile Zola, Jean Moulin, Louis Braille, and Marie Curie.

Our original plan for the day included a potential visit to Montparnasse Tower for sunset, but our energy reserves were dwindling (plus it was an overcast day, so we didn’t think we would be missing a stellar sunset). We decided to walk through Jardin du Luxembourg on our way back to our hotel. There was a nice market close to our hotel and we stopped to grab some food and drinks before retiring to our room for the evening. We always enjoy visiting grocery stores/markets when we travel and in addition to checking out the local goods, we got a kick out of the English section (seriously, Twinkies?). We had a fun day and it was a great start to our week in Paris!