Day 3 begins and already we can tell it’s a day to do interior-based entertainment – the skies are intermittently dropping some rain on the streets. Unfortunately it’s a Tuesday and the Louvre is closed, so we decide to head down to Ile de la Cite and take in the sites. Apparently other folks had this in mind as well, as it was pretty crowded. We took the Metro line 2 from the hotel at Courcelles over to Barbes-Rochechouart and then transferred to the Metro line 4 to Cite, and popped up right at a floral market.
Our intent was to visit the church at St Chappelle, which houses some magnificent medieval stained glass – in fact, the oldest and probably the best of that in Paris and perhaps Europe. As luck would have it, the chapel was closed from 1300-1415, so we crossed the street to Cafe American for a warm cup of cappuccino, a croque monsieur, a salad, and to pass the time. The cafe was bustling with activity. Waiters dashing about, people coming and going, the general din of two dozen indistinct conversations in English and French, and of course, eating and drinking. Thus far on the trip we haven’t found many rude Parisians, but perhaps that’s because I at least attempt some French, which they seem to appreciate, and I happen to enjoy. Around five past the hour, we headed back across the street to resume standing in line for St Chappelle. Incidentally, my recollections of Paris from 1998 were that the crowds were non-existent, however this time around it is definitely mobbed. Probably not as bad as during the spring and summer, but we are definitely not alone. We were about 40 people back and the line was pretty quick-moving, once the place was open. Let’s just say that in France, opening times are much less exact than closing time.
The Inside of the chapel, which was once the private chapel of the medieval royalty and courtiers of Paris, is definitely not an active church. The lower level consists of a shop selling books and tourist what-not, and some saint effigies. Upstairs, things get much more interesting. The upper chapel is lined with glass which illustrates scenes from each book of the Bible, and an imposing high-set blue altar which at one point held some saintly relics and supposedly some wood from the Cross and the Crown of Thorns. Seems every church has that stuff.
If you find yourself wanting to study the stained glass in detail, bring a pair of binoculars or a really good telephoto lens on your camera. I have a 300mm lens and was able to get the detail shot above. Also, if you can make it on a sunny day, the lighting inside is even more spectacular.
After exhausting the sights in St Chappelle, we crossed over to the most magnificent of all the Gothic cathedrals, at least in Victor Hugo’s words. Interestingly, when I was here last, the cathedral was rather drab, what with hundreds of years of weather and most recently, pollution. Not so today – as we found out much later, there has been a years-long process of cleaning to remove the crap from the cathedral using lasers of all things! These days the cathedral is quite a sight to behold in all its clean splendor. This time around we made it to the archaeological crypt, which is fairly interesting, and to the interior. We did not venture up the towers to see Quasimodo or any of his gargoyle buddies, unfortunately. It just wasn’t in the cards for this trip. I’m not too sad about it as I did that back in 1998 so I wasn’t missing the 400+ steps to get up there. By the way, that still isn’t the most steps you can climb in Paris.
The Crypt of Notre Dame is interesting if you want some history on the original settling of the area, and the founding the island city of Lutecia (as called by the Romans), and then later the unification of the location people under Clovis I, who renamed the city Paris for the Parisi tribe. It appears to be an active archaeological dig to some degree and shows bits of the original Roman roads and the pre-medieval roads and buildings on up to middle ages and beyond. Photographically it’s not too terribly inviting, and most of the signage is in French/English which is helpful, however the special signage is all in French, which is not helpful. Let me also point out that, in general, most things are not bilingual in France. The French are very proud of their heritage including the language, and there is probably still lingering resentment over the fact that French is not the lingua franca of international politics as it once was. We also found out later that the Academie Francaise has 50 members which are appointed for life, get to wear green jackets like PGA tour champs, and decide on the grammar and etymological definitions for all things in French (e.g. coming up with French words for new terminology.. I hear they are still upset that the people are still using “hot dog” and “weekend” (e.g. “bon weekend! au revoire!”).
Anyway, I digress. The Crypt was a nice hour diversion from the crowds as it was nearly devoid of people, save for about 20 folks interested in the goings-on underground. After we completed the circuit there, we popped up in the Notre Dame parvais, and decided to wander into the church, which by the way is still active. Here, I ran into one of only a few rude Parisians – I asked the clerk behind the desk what time the church closed for visitors and she replied, “it’s closed.” This was confusing as there were throngs of people going in behind us, so we just continued in anyway. I guess in retrospect she might’ve thought I was asking about the audio-guide rental facility. Oh well.. we wandered around the interior of the cathedral, which was as I remembered it, except this time it was utterly crowded with people.
We paid an extra 3 euro to check out the Treasury, but let me tell you that it is so meager in comparison to the treasury at St Peter’s in the Vatican. If you are a Notre Dame history buff, or a Napoleonite, then it might be worthwhile, as there is some sort of vestment worn by Napoleon and some gifts bestowed by him. Otherwise, there are some bits and trinkets to look at, but nothing really exciting. There are also some relics here if that’s your thing too.
What was more interesting were the goings-on inside the church itself – seems there was a service going on right at the time we exited the Treasury! We went in and sat for a bit but it was all in French and was not the usual Catholic mass setup I’m used to; there was a singing introduction and procession, and then a lack of activity for 15 minutes until something else happened. So basically we sat in for the intro and then bailed. It was pretty interesting, hearing the organ going and watching this mass in a medieval cathedral!
Afterwards we hopped out back and walked around the gardens and admired the flying buttresses, and also got a cheese:
That was it for the evening, so we made our way back towards our side of the Seine for dinner and preparation for our trip to Amsterdam!
