This morning we dragged ourselves out of bed (such a soft, squishy bed), and set off to Notre Dame again. It's close to where the other girls live, and it's a very easy meeting place for all of us.
First though, we wanted to experience a proper bakery. There is one just down the street from our hotel. It's not a tourist trap - it's for locals, and that's my favorite kind of place to go to.
As you walk through the streets of Paris, you see people walking and carrying bread. Usually in the evening, it'll be a nicely-dressed businessman, or a random student, or a lady - it doesn't matter. They'll be carrying a baguette and strolling home. I guess that's a very French thing to do.
Inside it was dinky, just small enough to fit inside, but no room to stand and decide what you want, so we walked through a couple times until we decided. They had everything - sweet treats, baguettes, big braided loaves of bread as big as a basket - I think it's the best store I've been in while we've been in Paris!
Once you've picked what you want, you tell the lady, and she pulls it out of the case or off the shelf. Everything is fresh, and the place smells so good! You put your coins in a box, which counts them until you've put in the right amount, and then they give you your bread and you leave.
We stopped at a park near where our hotel is, and sat on a bench, munching our purposes. We got a baguette studded with chocolate chips, and a chocolate croissant.
That's me holding both of them. The baguette was good, but the croissant was to die for! I'd seen the chocolate croissants the girls got at more touristy convenience places, which were fine, but this was melt-in-your-mouth chocolate flavored flakiness that just made you want to fly! Wow.
We had a really good time, munching on our treats and watching schoolchildren play. There was a group that had a very intricate game going. There was a song attached to it - at first I thought they were just singing some pop song. It kept going though, matching and dictating the children's movements as the jumped up and down, tagged each other, and raised their arms in the air.
It was like the world's champion game of musical Calvinball. Miriam and I never could figure out how it worked, and I didn't take pictures because that's kind of creepy, taking pictures of other peoples' kids at a park.
After our breakfast, we headed to Notre Dame. On the way though, we got massively sidetracked by a sidewalk market. Hanging tightly onto our belongings, we decided to take a peek.
They literally had everything! It reminded me of Borough market back in London, only this was smaller and far less busy.
The vegetables and fruits looked tempting, but we knew we wouldn't be around long enough to eat them all. There were also lots of souvenirs.
None of the stuff was vey high quality - it was all traps for tourists, but it was fun to window-shop. Any time you stopped to look at a bag or a scarf or a ring, the shop owner would be there, breathing down your neck and telling you what a bargain you were getting.
Okay, this was the most disgusting part. There was a smell in the air - I couldn't define it, but it was really gross. We turned to go down one row of stalls, and the smell was so strong it nearly choked me.
The fish isle.
There, laying on beds of ice, were all kinds of fish, shrimp, clams - things I don't know the names of - you name it, they had it. They were all lying there in the open air, with flies buzzing all around and landing on them. The melting fishy ice dripped off the table into buckets, or onto the ground. There was a little wet stream across the pavement to a sewer grating. We were very careful not to step in it.
Well, there went my appetite. It was fascinating to see though!
We left the fish isle pretty quickly and proceeded on. You could still smell them, but it wasn't as bad. I don't know who in their right mind would buy fish like that! Well, I guess people who aren't worried about temperatures and flies. Maybe bears would buy fish like that.
If anybody reading this blog prefers to buy fish at open air markets, I'm not judging you, and I'm not calling you a bear. Instead, I have a very high opinion of your yuckiness tolerance.
There was an entire isle full of olives. I had no idea there were so many different kinds of olives! Purple olives? Whoever heard of purple olives? I never did.
Say cheese! Look at that wedge! I feel like it should be in a picture book or something!
And my favorite isle: the flower isle. Not only did it have cut flowers, it also had plants and bushes for sale. I wonder if I can smuggle any onto the airplane?
Probably not.
I'd probably get detained and thrown into the Atlantic.
Anyway, after the market, we proceeded on to Notre Dame Cathedral.
I had forgotten Pope John Paul had been made a saint until I saw this statue.
Okay, walking around Notre Dame, we almost ran into a trio of Frenh soldiers. You can't really see them very well in the picture - I took it after they walked past. I'm not a gun expert, but they were carrying what looked like big automatic rifles and walking intimidatingly slowly, scrutinizing everyone they walked by.
It actually set me on edge a little. I wanted to say, "stop staring at me - I'm a good citizen of the United States of America, and I keep the rules." I didn't, of course - I don't want to spend the rest of my time here in trouble, but I really wanted to.
Okay, remember back in England, I showed a picture of an arch over a doorway with empty slots where statues were supposed to go, before Puritans took them down? Well, this is what it was probably supposed to look like, statues and all.
While France had no Puritans or Protestant movement to affect their churches, they did have this little skirmish called the French Revolution. While the leaders were against the idea of churches, most of the citizens didn't dare to desecrate the images of saints on their cathedrals.
However, they were very anti-monarchy. In the picture above, can you see the row of statues standing on each side of the doors? Well, they are supposed to be images of saints too, just like the ones over the door. The citizens of revolutionary France, however, didn't realize that. They thought they were statues of kings, so they went along and knocked off the heads of the entire row. It took years for replacement heads to be made and installed.
Yes, another picture of the inside. Don't you love the accent lighting that is focused on the underside of all the arches?
Okay, I know this picture isn't the best quality, but I'm including it anyway. You see, most of my pictures of Notre Dame are adjusted to the light so it looks brighter than it actually is. This picture is one of the few I took where it shows how dark the cathedral really is. Look back at my pictures of cathedrals in Britain, and you'll see how much darker this one is in comparison.
This time, Miriam and I sat in the seats near Joan of Arc's statue, and read Elder Faust's conference talk when he spoke about her as an example to young women. We too, can follow the path the Lord has set out for us, and accomplish seemingly impossible feats, as long as we are on God's side.
Oh, remember that yesterday I mentioned those carved panels of the life of Christ? Well, we found more today. These were really hidden and hard to see. They were behind some things, with no lights and in a sort of hallway area, where the tourist's eye is drawn by the next lit display, and they move quickly by.
Sorry how dark they are - like I said, no light at all. I'm impressed they turned out this well.
It's kind of sad, actually. Lots of great effort and care went into making these, but they're all but forgotten in lieu of the more brightly lit display on the history of the cathedral that is just a few feet on. I'm glad Miriam and I got to see and appreciate them, and I'm glad I can share them with you.
We said goodbye to Notre Dame as we left. We'll not be back again. It was sad. I'm glad we've been able to visit this place often enough to establish a connection and a familiarity.
Okay, so remember that Notre Dame is on a sort of long island in the middle of the Seine? Well, it's not the only church on that island. There's lots of buildings and streets and trees, and there's a second church building called Saint Chappell. That's the next place on our list.
While on this trip, I have discovered that I don't read pictogram. Can anybody tell me what this is supposed to say? Don't cross? Don't keep your child close to you? Don't hold hands with midgets in dresses? Don't hold hands with giants? Don't hop on one leg? I'll confess - the only part of this sign I understand is the "don't."
Okay, this is Sainte Chappelle. It's said "San-shapell," with the emphasis on the "pell." The picture isn't of the whole building. Guess why? Well, the church was built, and then the block rose up around it. It isn't visible from the street at all - only once you walk through a doorway and into a squidgy little courtyard can you actually see it.
It is famed for the fabulous stained glass windows. As you can see in the picture above, unlike Notre Dame, the flying buttresses are very thick and very close to the walls. They hardly even look like buttresses - they look like thick pillars. But that's what they are.
We walked in, and our jaws dropped.
Look at that color! Look at the color! It's so different from the British churches, whitewashed by King Henry VIII's command. Wow!
In the picture below, you can see a unique little design. This building has interior flying buttresses against the main arches. They're those little bridge-type things between the wall and the arch. Normally the wall would be built between the arch and the buttress, leaving the buttress outside, but here they chose to include the buttress inside the building. I like it!
Wow, we had a great time. Then it occurred to us - where was all the famed stained glass? After some investigation, we discovered we'd walked into the basement/gift shop. The actual chapel was upstairs.
Figures. That's so typical for us.
We walked up the narrow stone stairs, and were stunned speechless.
There's no accurate way to show you this. Even photos don't do it justice - they either show the colors in the stained glass windows, or the brilliance of the painted pillars, but they don't show both. We saw both, all at once, and the result was staggering. That's why I have so many pictures - some show the windows better, some show the paint better. You'll just have to combine them in your head.
At the head of the chapel is this tall stand. You can just see the tops of the gates to go in, on the lower right corner of the picture above.
What is this for?
I'll tell you.
Remember that red glass case with the crown of thorns that's in Notre Dame? Well, it originally was placed here. In fact, as soon as the king bought the crown, he commissioned this chapel to hold it. The whole thing was built in just a handful of years. The crown was placed in the top of this shrine, and only the king and the archbishop had keys to get in and climb up to see it.
The crown has since been moved to Notre Dame, but the shrine and chapel remains.
In the picture above, you can see Noah and his sons building the ark. The round panel on the right side shows the finished ark with the animals.
Every single bit of this chapel was incredibly detailed. Miriam and I walked slowly along, playing "guess the Bible story," and did surprisingly well. Not great, but okay. I think we had a lot more fun than other people, who walked in, oohed and aahed over the glass, took a million pictures, and then left. Oh, we oohed and aahed with the best of them, and I have an embarrassingly large amount of pictures, but we also grew attached as we hunted the glass for familiar stories.
Okay, look at the walls. Not the windows, the walls. There are hardly any, see? This is in direct contrast to the other church on this island, Notre Dame. It has walls upon walls, and is very dark. Sainte Chappelle has hardly any walls, and it is very, very bright, even on a cloudy day like today.
So what holds the roof up? Well, remember those thick, tall flying buttresses? They hold up the weight of the roof almost entirely, allowing the rest of the walls to be made out of windows.
Okay, blurry picture, but it shows the color! Now just imagine the brightly colored windows in the picture below, inserted into the brilliantly painted room in the picture above.
Yes, that's what it looked like.
Wow, we hated to leave. But Paris waits for nobody, so off we headed, to find ourselves in front of this random building. It's one of the ones that fences off Sainte Chappelle from view.
After consulting our guidebook, we discovered that this was the building where aristocrats were condemmned to death during the French Revolution!
I shouldn't be so excited. I really shouldn't. The revolution, while it had merit, devolved into a crazed bloodbath for some leaders. My own ancestors had their daughter smuggled to England in a barrel, hoping they could follow her.
They never made it.
As far as we know, they died in France. They could have walked through this very courtyard.
All the same, it was neat for me to be there. I happen to be a huge, huge Scarlet Pimpernel fan.
If you've never heard of it, you are missing out. It's a historical fiction book by Baroness Emmuska Orczy about the French Revolution. Actually, it's a whole series, but most people have never heard of the rest of them.
I have read all of the books. Multiple times.
I have also seen the musical based on the books, and three of the four movies made of it. (The fourth is the most recent. It was awful. We turned it off after ten minutes. Watch the one with Jane Seymour and Ian McClellan. It's the best.)
None of the movies or plays hold a candle to the books, though. Baroness Orczy did her best to make the books historically accurate, including real events, people, and places. As I read the books, I looked up and studied everybody she mentioned. That's why I can say, with complete honesty, that everything I know about the French Revolution, I learned from the Scarlet Pimpernel.
That's why I was so excited to see this building, and the following ones. It was like stepping into one of my favorite books!
Okay, this is the building where Marie Antionette was imprisoned before her execution. To my surprise, as I walked a little further out on the bridge, I recognized it! Look at the picture below. It's the same one as the one I was admiring the other day - the one with the Disneyland-type towers. That's the old jail.
SPOILERS for the Scarlet Pimpernel book El Dorado in the next paragraph. Beware!
That was also the building where Sir Percy Blakney was confined, in the same cell the late queen had occupied. And it's the same building where he said goodbye to Marguerite. It was so neat to actually see the building I've imagined so many times! I'm tickled to death!
Okay, SPOILERS OVER.
We headed off to the Champs Élysées again, this time with a shopping list. As we walked up the street, I noticed a plaque on the wall. Well, far be it from me to skip a historical plaque! I stopped to puzzle out the French. Surprisingly, I recognized the name.
Thomas Jefferson, author of the Anerican Declaration of Independence, and Anerican patriot lived here.
I was impressed to see this evidence of their regard for one of our Founding Fathers. I guess it's not all that strange though, in retrospect. Jefferson supported the idea of the French Revolution, if not the means taken to accomplish it. With the horrified monarchies of Britain and Germany as their neighbors, and Marie Antionette's homeland of Austria nearby, they must have been very glad to get the recognition and tolerance of the new United States of America.
This is us walking up the Champs Élysées, possibly one of the more famous streets in the world. I just had to snap a selfie.
No idea what this buildng is, but it's very fancy-looking!
Anyway, the Champs Élysées is a road that goes between the Arc de Triomphe and the Place de la Concord. The Place is where the guillotine was set up, and where their king, queen, and countless aristocrats were beheaded during the Reign of Terror - the French Revolution.
I wanted to go, of course, so we went.
Does it look familiar? Yes, this is the obelisk I went crazy about the other day. I didn't know this then, but it was erected on the Place de la Concord after the revolution. We walked right by here, but I hadn't realized the significance of the location!
You can see etchings in gold on the pedestal for the obelisk. It took a huge amount of engineering to figure out how to set up a stone pillar without breaking it, and they were so pleased when they succeeded that they etched the designs and equipment onto the base.
Below is a wider angle picture of the Place. I was excited to be here, not because of the tragedies in the past, but because of the historical significance and (of course) the Scarlet Pimpernel. I can't count how many times he comes through here in the books. And it's always in disguise, or with a cart to steal aristocrats straight off the steps of the guillotine, or some daring thing like that.
The shop is incredibly intimidating. There's a man in black standing by the door. In fact, we've noticed it is standard over here. Every store you come in to, you're supposed to greet them or the store host by saying, "bonjour." When you leave, thank them or say goodbye. I usually forget how to say goodbye, so I'll smile and nod or say, "merci." It's a common courtesy sort of thing, and I noticed they were friendlier if I tried, even if I horribly messed up.
On that note, it's the third day here, and I finally realized that after noon, you're supposed to say "bonsoir" instead of "bonjour." I think it's like saying "good afternoon" instead of "good morning." I don't know, but I've got some not-so-hidden smirks when I forget and say the wrong one.
This shop was very grand. I'd tried to dress nice, as far as my travel wardrobe would allow, but I still felt very out of place.
Shop attendants were everywhere, all dressed in black and ready to help sell you things.
Now this specific store is very old - they made perfume for Napoleon's wife. Not Josephine - the other one. If I remember right, Josephine couldn't have children, so Napoleon divorced her and married Eugenie.
Yes. Very fancy, very posh. I stood awkwardly, trailing around after Miriam and sniffing pieces of paper that she sprayed with test bottles.
Finally a decision! Miriam got a really nice one, unique to this store. They assured her it will never be sold anywhere else in the world. She has an exclusive.
Obviously, she was beyond thrilled!
The rest of the girls were leaving in the morning, so we'd agreed to meet at the Eiffel Tower with snacks and have a little farewell picnic as the sun set and the lights came up.
I walked under it one last time. I keep being astonished at how huge it is. You could fit my church building under there. You could probably fit four church buildings under there.
This is the Eiffel Tower. I'm looking up through the exact middle towards the top.
Here you can see the sunset behind the Eiffel Tower. That orange glow covering the tower is actually the electric lights turning on.
Some of the girls had brought a blanket from the hotel. We sat on one of the lawns that didn't have tick warnings, but spread out the blanket first, just in case. Also, blankets are nicer to sit on than cigarette butts and bottle caps.
Some of the girls had brought a blanket from the hotel. We sat on one of the lawns that didn't have tick warnings, but spread out the blanket first, just in case. Also, blankets are nicer to sit on than cigarette butts and bottle caps.
We weren't the only ones camping out. All over the lawn were people with or without blankets. One group had little Christmas lights around their blanket, with balloons tied to something heavy so they wouldn't blow away.
Oh, I found out where the bottle caps come from. Despite the signs that say, "no alcohol," there were people drinking it everywhere. I felt particularly bad for a teenage group near us, swigging down their whatever-it-was like there was no tomorrow. Those men were back, making a thriving business selling selfie sticks, Eiffel Towers and alcohol.
One of the girls had brought milk and paper cups. We had a little toast, "to friends" or something like that. Immediately we were stormed by people trying to sell us bottles of alcoholic beverages until we finally explained it was milk, and we don't drink alcohol. They looked surprised and vaguely disgruntled, but they drifted away again.
It was fun to spend this last little bit of time with the girls before they left. Miriam and I are spending another day, and then going home on Saturday, but they're all leaving tomorrow. It's kind of sad - we've hung out and done things for the past six weeks. All three of the girls in the picture were in our Room 2 at the London Center, and we've gotten to know them really well.
After this, we'll all be split up. I'm starting my Master's program at BYU, and Miriam is getting ready for her last few semesters and then student teaching. Amy, the girl on the left, is interning at Salem Elementary this fall, so she won't be around on campus. Maddie is the one in the middle. She's leaving for an LDS mission in Arizona soon after she gets back. Rebekkah is on the right, and she's coming back to BYU, so I might still see her around, as well as the other friends we've made - Anna, Shelby, Cambry, Christine - there are so many girls I could name, and I'm really going to miss them all. I hope I see them around!
It was a perfect night to watch, although it did get increasingly chilly. Neither Miriam or I had brought our jackets - we meant to stop back at the hotel for them so we wouldn't have to carry them all day, but it hadn't worked out. So we snuggled up and watched the sky get dark.
At ten-o-clock, little twinkly white lights show up all over the tower. It's almost like Christmas, and people around us clapped and cheered as they finally came on. They blinked for about five minutes before going out, and that's when we knew we needed to go home.
Shaking off the blanket proved to be well-nigh impossible. We each grabbed a corner and flapped it up and down, almost certainly providing entertainment to the half-drunk people around us. Dead grass and bottlecaps stuck to the fuzzy cloth. We got the bottlecaps off, but the dead grass clung fast. At last they folded it up, joking that they'd shake the blanket some more out their hotel window.
I'm just glad it wasn't my hotel's blanket for me to worry about.
We split up then, calling goodbye and walking away through the growing dark. I'll miss them. I hope they catch their plane safely tomorrow morning.
For now, I need my sleep. More exciting fun tomorrow!
No comments:
Post a Comment