The Adventures of Kerri & Matt

Today we went to the Pantheon to watch the world spin.

Of course we had seen the world spin many times before, but this is the very first place in the world you could watch the world spin. I mean other than Foucault’s first model in his basement and the one in the observatory where he proved it to people. But this is the first place the public could watch the world spin. Which was totally worth taking the train all the way across town for.

You watch the world spin by hanging a heavy ball on a very long string and starting it swinging. So you need a very high roof.

Then the ball continues to swing in the same direction while the earth spins beneath it. We got there just before 4:30PM.

For some reason Matt didn’t like just sitting and staring at the spinning world, so we explored the rest of the building.

This is an exhibit on how the building was built. If you thought the dome outside didn’t match the dome inside, you’re right!

Then there were tombs of famous dead French people, like Marie Curie.

And Voltaire.

When we got back the earth had spun almost all the way to 5:00PM.

This is a creepy sculpture from Mexico in the Teotihuacan style.

This is an 18th Century Hawaiian sock puppet.

This is an 18th Century Indonesian skull chair. For when your skull gets tired and needs to sit down.

This is a 19th Century porcupine from the Congo. Or possibly a dog that decided to roll in a bucket of nails.

We saw the Eiffel Tower during the day too.

It is much less sparkly during the day.

But you can see the names of all the scientists they carved in there to make it seem sciencey so that the  government wouldn’t make them tear it down when the lease expired.

The Mona Lisa room was really crowded, so we skipped it.

Here is something you’ve never seen, the other side of the wall the Mona Lisa’s mounted on!

Just kidding, we were there at 8PM on a Thursday night in late October.

We walked right up and took a cheezy selfy.

Then spent a few minutes wondering what the fuss is about. It’s tiny and you can see it better in a picture than from behind the railing and through the glass.

Here is the marble version of the Venus de Milo gummy.

She is crosseyed and her nipples point in different directions.

Athena stands across from her trying to figure out why she gets all the attention. She has arms and everything!

This Assyrian gate is probably the next most famous thing in the most famous museum in the world, and you’ve probably never heard of it.