Paris

A Museum devoted to Arab-Islamic art and civilization, from its origins to now. There are numerous art objects, calligraphy from the Koran, miniatures and a collection of contemporary Arab art. The collections are house in a building constructed on the banks of the Seine River in 1987 by Jean Nouvel and Architecture Studi. The symbolism and modernity of the architecture are the interpretation of Arab and Western civilizations. The exhibits are presented in chronological order and represent the multiple artistic expressions of this civilization.

The Pantheon was built as a church between 1764 and 1790. Its huge coupole dominates Paris from the top of the Sainte-Geneviève hill on the Seine left bank.
During the 1789 french revolution and shortly after its construction, the Panthéon was turned into a memorial to illustrous frenchmen.
It now houses among others the remains of Pierre and Marie Curie, the physicists who discovered the radioactivity, of Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Victor Hugo.

In the 1920's the St Germain quarter was the meeting place for the students, artists and writers of the Left Bank. After the German occupation it was the most fashionable district for jazz musicians, Jean-Paul Sartre and his existentialists, not forgetting Albert Camus and Boris Vian an artist of eclectic talents, a jazz trumpeter, a poet and novelist, who contributed greatly to the image of St Germain. The district became fashionable particularly because of the American Press, flattered at this acknowledgement of jazz, American music, much more appreciated in the City of Light than in the country where it was born.

At the top of the street there is an open and lively morning market.
It is open daily and it's easy to imagine that these scenes have been played over since the Middle Ages. The stallholders crying out their prices and neighbors meeting for a coffee of tea.
That is the Rue Mouffetard in the morning !
In the evening, a multitude of restaurants open their doors- Greek, Argentinean... all nationalities, for the pleasure of the tourists. It is very pleasant to walk down this street at sundown.
Stop at one of the sidewalk cafés on the "Place de la Contrescarpe", have an ice cream in the heat of a summer's night in one of the Italian restaurants or a pancake at the Crêperie just opposite the Greek sandwich shop.