Week 21: The Panthéon

This week we moved from one national treasure to an entire building full of them, swinging by ancient Rome on the way. Confused? Jolly bon, that's just how I like my readers! Don't worry, I'll explain.

This shoot was at the Panthéon, (which literally means "Every God") a HUGE mausoleum which sits in the Latin Quarter (how apt) in the 5^th arrondissement. It started off life as the church of Saint Genevieve after her remains were interred there in the 6^th century. In 1744, when King Louis XV was very ill, he promised to re-build the church if he recovered. This he duly did and construction began on the new Church of Saint Genevieve in 1758. Designed in the Neo-Classical style by architect Jacques-Germain Soufflot, this building was modelled on the original Pantheon in Rome and was finally finished in 1790 at the onset of the French Revolution.

In 1791, the statesman, orator, and highly important Revolutionary figure Mirabeau died. The ruling body at the time was the National Constituent Assembly, (of which Mirabeau had been a key member) who decided that the Panthéon should be transformed into a secular mausoleum and a monument to the great men of France. It now serves as the final resting place for some of the country's greatest thinkers, speakers and writers, including Rousseau, Victor Hugo, Marie Curie (who was also the first woman to be interred on her own merit), Alexandre Dumas, Emile Zola and – my historical-philosopher crush – Voltaire.

Now, plenty of incredible things have happened in Paris, but it can be easy to forget that amazing things are still happening in a city where- every day- you go to work, get shoved on the metro, get rained on, and have to pole-vault over tourists taking pictures of the Arc de Triomphe with their iPads in the middle of a main road (no, but seriously, I saw this happen. The person in question was totally oblivious to the cars until they almost ran her over… *NB: No creature was hurt in the recounting of this anecdote*) While doing my research for this post, I came across something which has restored my faith, wonder and love of Paris, I came across "Les UX".

The UX (Urban eXperiment) are a "cultural guerrilla movement", a secret organisation who know their way through the tunnel networks under Paris and use this knowledge to preserve and enjoy culture. The group is organised into teams: The Mouse House (all-female infiltration team), a team who organise shows, a team who photographs it and "Untergunther", who focus on restoration. This last group is who I'll be talking about today, though I wish I could dedicate an entire post to the UX, they're fascinating (in fact, let me know if you lot want to hear more about them, maybe I will do a UX-based post!)

Anyway, in late 2006, Untergunther set up a secret workshop in the Panthéon and spent months restoring the building's 19^th-century clock, which hadn't chimed since it was sabotaged in the 1960s, and which was teetering on the edge of total decay. How incredible is that?! You'd think the Panthéon's director would have fallen at their feet in gratitude for having saved such a precious bit of history, but no. He called the police. Sigh. Anyway, no one was prosecuted (one of the prosecutors actually said the whole thing was "stupid"…) but the clock still doesn't chime, even though it's in perfect working order.

People eh? What are they like?! This week's outfit was meant to be simple and chic – another bow to the white-craze that is still consuming fashion bloggers the world over – and I wanted to capture a little Roman/Grecian essence to go with the building's inspiration. But, this is me, so does it stay elegant and understated as intended? Does it heck?! One look in the mirror and I concluded that it was altogether too pretty and French so I… put a necklace on my head and did something bonkers with my hair.

I am a big fan of putting things on your head. I think there are few inanimate objects which could not also suitably double as hats/tiaras/fascinators. Though I do accept that wearing this torque on my head did tip the outfit from "Dressing up in Paris" to "Playing Dress-up in Paris like an excitable 7-year old". Still, the classical theme gave me an excuse to wear my super-duper new espadrille-sandals. Which I love. Like, a lot.

Top - Esprit
Skirt - Asos
Scarf - Edinburgh Grassmarket
Espadrille Sandals - Asos
Bird Necklace - Accessorize
Earrings - Edinburgh Grassmarket
Torque worn on head - Asos
Bracelet - Present

Right! I've made up for my lax attitude with a stupidly long post so I'm signing off here y'all. Enjoy the rest of the week and I vow to be more punctual in future.