Paris Day 6: Last of the Cathedrals..whew.

Thursday, July 8, 2010 at 5:27 PM
Today, we attempted to visit the Picasso museum, only to find that it has been closed for renovations since last year. Our spirits dampened but still strong, we headed for the Cathedral of Notre Dame. Notre Dame was pretty cool. We visited the Pantheon, and then drank some epic beers at a near by specialty beer pub. At night we had cous cous, and then a revisit of the Notre Dame area.

After leaving the closed off Picasso museum, we wandered past a church, Eglise de Saint Denis du Saint Sacrement of some sort. I actually can’t find it on google maps, but I for sure saw a sign in front of the church which said the name. Anyway, we took a look inside. This church was quite interesting. It was catholic, yet the church was built like an ancient greek temple. That is, there were no arches inside, no transcept. Just one long hall, with simple columns going up. No side chapels. Pretty strange. The outside looked like the Parthenon too. Just a triangle frieze (name still eludes me), with columns supporting underneath. Pretty weird.

Eglise de Saint Denis du Saint Sacrement. This was pretty much it of the church. Pretty non-standard.

Before reaching Notre Dame, we took one last pit stop at Eglise de St. Gervais de St. Protais. I visited this the day before, but this time I had a chance to wander around and actually look at the architecture. I think I already mentioned this, but I found it to be pretty boring. However, the stained glass was pretty interesting, in that they had some pieces that were old, from the 16th century, but then some other pieces that were clearly from the 20th century or newer. There was seriously modern art type stuff in this church. I’m talking waves, gooey-ness, and random shapes. I didn’t understand what the hell they were trying to illustrate.

St. Gervais. See the yellow and blue waves? What does it all mean??

Notre Dame is probably the most famous christian church, and a shining example of French Gothic architecture. The cathedral was built in the 12th century, during the late medieval age. The outside is studded with religious iconography, gargoyles, spires, and multitudes of other details. From afar, the twin towers of Notre Dame rise up as monoliths of spiritual might. Carved in dark stone, the cathedral impresses a foreboding and serious aura to the observer. From the exterior, Notre Dame emphasizes height, with its steep spires, narrow pointed arches, and thin flying buttresses.

Lots of crazy stuff going on, on the outside of Notre Dame. Very typically Gothic.


This is hard to see without clicking for a bigger picture, but the towers have lots of intricate carvings and gargoyles.

At first, I was actually quite disappointed with the interior of the cathedral. The masonry is actually quite austere, with little flourish and adornment. The only artistic part worth noting is the many stained glass windows in there. I’m not as familiar with stained glass, so I guess I didn’t get as much enjoyment out of them. However, on my second visit later that night, I noticed that the beauty of Notre Dame comes from it’s appearance and emphasis on height. When I stared down the central nave from the doorway, my perspective made all the lines in the cathedral bunch together to run straight up. It almost seemed as if the walls of the church stretched upwards into the heavens. The darkness of the stones and the lack of lighting just added to the cathedral’s towering feel. It was a pretty cool sight to see.
A very elaborate circular stained glass window in Notre Dame. Click for a bigger view.

The tourists in the cathedral were pretty obnoxious and disrespectful, in my opinion. They were walking around, using flash photography, talking loudly, all during Mass service.

And that’s about it on religious architecture, for now anyways. After the churches, we went to a beer specialty place, with half off beer, and over 150 different beers from different countries. USA got represented with: Bud. Rofl. Anyways, I consumed about 1.5L of some tasty stuff. This place even had special glasses for each of the beers on tap, so I got a really, really tall glass for my 1L house beer. The thing looked like a giant test tube, and it towered over my head on the table. It even had it's own wooden stand to hold it upright.

Left to Right: Abbey Leffe blonde, some sort of peach cider, Abbey Leffe blonde.

So for dinner tonight, I had cous-cous, which is a north African dish. It’s a sort of really tiny grain, which you eat with other stuff. It’s pretty dry tasting, so you usually have some sort of soup-like dish along with it, or at least dishes with sauce. I had someone back at school tell me about delicious cous-cous they had while they were in France, so I had to have some. It was really, really satisfying, especially considering the price. We spent about a third of what we normally spend at a nice French restaurant, but we were still full and stuff afterwards.

No dinner photos for today; I was too lazy.

-Howitzer

0 comments

Post a Comment

Howitzer | Entries (RSS) | Comments (RSS) | Designed by MB Web Design | XML Coded By Cahayabiru.com | Distributed by Deluxe Templates