Despite not having air conditioning, and being in a room one-half the size of a cruise ship stateroom, we slept really good. We were out of the hotel at 8AM and made our way to Notre Dame. We have early access tickets for 9AM, but when we arrived at 8:30AM, there was no waiting anyway. We both had the same thought when we walked in after 7 years. They did a great job of keeping things like they were, while upgrading the lighting and making everything brighter. In some respects this almost felt like we had been transported back to the original opening of the Cathedral with how bright and clean things were. Jennie wanted to attend Mass and found her way to a nice place towards the front. I decided to wander around and take it all in.
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| No lines. |
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| It would be great if they still used this |
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| Remember the first photo after the fire? |
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| Praying from her prime seat |
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| The restored organ |
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Our Lady of Paris. I still remember watching
them move this back to Notre Dame on the
Feast of the Immaculate Conception |
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| So clean now |
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| How they catechized the faithful |
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| Umm, yeah, I'll pass on that one |
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| St. George the dragon slayer |
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| Genevieve in Paris |
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| St. Paul Chen, Chinese Martyr |
Not everything was great, especially the hideous display of the relics of Crown of Thorns. I really can't understand this display. When we visited in 2018, they had the relics attached to the Cross and that seemed much more reverent to me. The Cathedral was very crowded, even with little to no wait to get it. If only that many people attended Holy Mass every week. We spent 1.5 hours in the Cathedral and left to find the subway for our ride to the Cathedral Basilica of St. Denis.
I read about the Cathedral Basilica of St. Denis on our first visit, but we ran out of time. St. Denis of Paris was the first Bishop of Paris, and one of the most courageous missionaries of the 3rd century. He was sent from Italy around 250AD during the reign of Emperor Decius of Rome. Pope Fabian recognized the need to evangelize the Gallic people and Denis was sent to Gaul. He found Paris a city entrenched in pagan worship and Roman culture. He converted many people and established a strong Catholic foundation in the region. Not surprising, his success alarmed the Roman authorities and he found himself on the outs. He was arrested after refusing to renounce his Catholic faith and was executed by decapitation along with his companions Rusticas and Eleutherius. Tradition holds that they were executed on the hill of Montemartre, literally "Mount of Martyrs". Tradition also holds that after being beheaded, Denis stood up, picked up his own head, and walked several miles while continuing to preach a sermon. He is said to have carried his head to the spot he wished to be married, the site that later became the Basilica of St-Denis. This tradition placed him in the Catholic hagiography as a cephalophore, a saint who carries his own severed head.
The Basilica became the French royal necropolis under the vision of King Louis IX. That plan was fulfilled in 1264 under Abbot Matthew of Vendome when the bones of 16 former kings and queens were relocated to new tombs arranged around the crossing. These tombs featured lifelike carved recumbent effigies on raised bases. Once again, the Godless French revolutionists damaged many of the tombs, primarily for lead for ammunition. The church was left standing, but it was profaned and its treasury confiscated and reliquaries and liturgical furnishing melted down.
The Church was reconsecrated by Napoleon in 1806 who ordered the construction of three chapels to honor the last French kings. The last king to be entombed in St. Denis was Louis XVIII in 1824.
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| The facade of the Basilica |
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Come ye blessed of my Father on the right
Depart from me you cursed ones on the right |
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...to bind their kings with fetters, their nobles with
shackles of iron |
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429AD
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| Wow. |
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| St. Denis, Ora Pro Nob is |
After our visit, we wandered down the streets the local streets and it felt like we were in Mogadishu. That part of the city houses a large Muslim population. There were several times that I felt the hair on my neck stand-up, and I made sure to put Jennie in front of me so I could watch over her better. We decided that it was time to end our trip and headed for the Church of St, Marie Madeleine. We exited the subway at the back of the Church and were underwhelmed by it. They are in the process of cleaning things up, starting at the front first. Once we made our way around, our outlook improved.
In 1763, King Louis XV vowed to build a church in honor of St. Mary Magdalene as an expression of gratitude for his recovery from a serious illness. The first stone was laid in 1764 and the vision was to have a grand baroque-style church. By the late 1780's, work on the church had advanced but ran into the French Revolution. The partially built church was considered for demolition, but \was repurposed for various secular uses. After the fall of Napoleon and the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy under Louis XVIII, the church was ordered to be consecrated as a Catholic Church, restoring its original purpose.
We had lunch at a sidewalk cafe on the back side of The Madeline, and made our way to the church of St. Eustache. Eustache was a general of the Roman military who converted to Catholicism after he had a vision of the Cross while hunting. After his conversion, Eustache lost all his wealth, and was separated from his wife and sons. Under the Emperor Trajan, Eustache was reunited with his family and had his social standing restored. After the death of Trajan, Eustache and his family were martyred for refusing to sacrifice to the pagan Roman gods.
The church of St. Eustache is one of the largest in Paris, measuring 105 meters long and 33 meters high. The structure of the church is traditional Gothic with flying buttresses, pointed arches, and ribbed vaults. However, the facade of the church, completed later, leans toward classicism. The church was damaged in both the Paris Commune and World War II.
We made our way back to the hotel to get ready for our anniversary dinner. I found a place called Le Coupe-Chou which had an interesting history. The restaurant was founded in 1962 by three Parisian actors looking to recreate the atmosphere of "Old Paris". Four houses dating from the 14th to 17th centuries were used to recreate the restaurant. Local legend has it that King Henri IV used to meet his beautiful mistress, Gabrielle d'entrees on the streets outside and would use the houses to engage in some "sexe coquin et torride". It seemed like a great place for our 7th anniversary.
Before arriving at the restaurant we stopped at Le Balzar for a few glasses of wine. The waiter was very generous with his pours and our couple of glasses ended up being a bottle. We left for our 7PM reservation at the restaurant.
We had some really good champagne, breaded tuna with sesame seeds, matured Salers beef fillet, and vanilla puffs with chocolate sauce for dinner. After leaving the restaurant, we stumbled our way back to the hotel as we had an early train ride tomorrow.
