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attraction · Paris
Sixteen Euros, Free Under Twenty-Six, and Foucault's Pendulum Still Swings
Review of Pantheon
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Share your experienceThe Pantheon charges 16 euros, with free admission for under 26-year-old residents of the EU. Three things are worth your time inside. The nave holds a working replica of Foucault's pendulum, the 1851 experiment that demonstrated the rotation of the Earth in front of an audience, and it still swings. The crypt below holds Voltaire, Rousseau, Hugo, Zola, the Curies and Josephine Baker, which is the French republic deciding in public who it wants to have been. And in season there is a dome colonnade you can climb for one of the better views over the Left Bank. It is a colder building than Sainte-Chapelle a mile north, and deliberately so. This is the republic's answer to a cathedral.
What was great
The pendulum is a genuine scientific artefact rather than a display, and watching it move is oddly affecting. The crypt is a direct statement of national values, argued over for two centuries and still being added to. Under-26 EU residents get in free, and the dome climb in season is one of the best paid views in Paris.
What nearly ruined the trip
The main space is enormous, cold and largely empty, which some visitors find impressive and others find a waste of sixteen euros. The dome climb is seasonal and closes in bad weather. The crypt is dimly lit and the labelling assumes you already know who these people were.
Value for money
★★★★☆ Good valueSafety
★★★★★ Felt safeMore from Paris
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