Arrival	Change	Nights	Departure	Cost	Status
	France Paris	Thursday 6-Sep-2018	---	2	Saturday 8-Sep-2018	---
City  Sightseeing Friday 7-Sep-2018 (12:00 PM)     Date: Friday 7-Sep-2018 --- Time: 12:00 PM Duration: Phone: Res/Confirm #: Cost: --- Pre-Trip Activity Notes / Checklist -Pantheon -Luxembourg Gardens (Lunch in the gardens - will buy something) -St. Sulpice -Paris Catacombs   Post-Trip Activity Notes   Photos (7) St. Sulpice The Église de Saint-Sulpice is a massive Baroque church in the center of the Left Bank of Paris. The church was completed in 1733, after 134 years of start and stop construction. Saint-Sulpice was built over the foundations of an older church which, in turn, was reputed to have been constructed on top of an ancient temple of the goddess Isis. The fact that the city of Paris was probably named after Isis ("par-Isis"), gives this church-upon-church-upon-temple edifice a unique historical stature. St. Sulpice Luxembourg Gardens The gardens are very large and have sculpted statues throughout the park. It is a very nice place to come on a nice afternoon to sit, relax and watch the people. This is one of our favorite place to come and just do nothing. Luxembourg Gardens Catacombs We toured the catacombs which are very deep underground. It's takes over an hour to go through the different tunnels. Each tunnel is lined with neatly stacked bones, some in various patterns. In 1786 a monumental project began here: the removal of the millions of skulls and bones from unsanitary city cemetery in Les Halles to the ancient quarries formed by excavations at the base of the three "mountains": Montparnasse, Montrouge and Montsouris. It took 15 months to transport the bones and rotting corpses at night across the city in huge carts to their new resting place. Just before the Revolution, the Comte d'Artois (later Charles X) threw wild parties in the catacombs, and during World War II the French Resistance set up its headquarters here. Above the door outside are the words "Stop! This is the empire of death." Catacombs Pantheon We had never toured the Pantheon before on previous trips to Paris. We are glad we finally did this time. We arrived just in time to attend a guided tour to the top of the dome. The Pantheon is based on the one in Rome and has 22 Corinthian columns. When Louis XV recovered from desperate illness in 1744, he was so grateful to be alive that he conceived a magnificent church to honor Sainte Genevieve. Work begin in 1764 and was completed in 1790. With the Revolution underway, the church was soon turned into a pantheon - a location for the tombs of France's good and great. Napoleon returned it to the Church in 1806, but it was secularized and then desecularized once more before finally being made a civic building in 1885.