Honeymoon in Paris - Day 7 (Last Day in Paris)

    Sunday was our last full day in France.  After waking up, I walked over to the Boulangerie Saint Louis for croissants and americanos.  We eventually got moving and made our way to Saint Julien-le-Pauvre, a Melkite Catholic church located in the across the street from Notre Dame.  Divine Liturgy was about to start and we noticed that there were several kids dressed for their first communion.  The Eastern Catholic in me was sad that they were doing this, as that is a latinization of our traditions of giving all sacraments of initiation at the same time.  Present for the Divine Liturgy were three priests and the Bishop.

     My limited French revealed that the children who were making their "first communion" had already been baptized, chrismated and received first communion on the day of their baptism.  It was a ceremonial thing that was happening.

     We left Divine Liturgy and set out to find the relics of St. Genevieve at St. Etienne-du-Mont which sat in the shadow of the Pantheon.  When we tried to get into the church we saw that it was closed until 1:00PM.  We got some lunch at a bistro and went inside the Pantheon.

     The Pantheon was built as a church dedicated to St. Genevieve and to house the reliquary containing her relics.  Sadly, during the French Revolution, the government ordered that the building be changed from a church to a mausoleum for the interment of great Frenchmen.    One of the things that stood out to me was a picture I took of La Convention Nationale.  This major work of sculpture stands where the altar used to be.  It features soldiers on the right and members of the National Convention on the left.  It was the National Convention who ordered the executions of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.  Yet, above this symbol of secularism and nationalism stands an icon of Christ the King along with St. Michael and St. Genevieve.  Vive Le Christ Le Roi.

     We finished the audio tour and made our way to St. Etienne...only to find the doors were still locked.  We walked all around looking for an open door but to no avail.  We heard music coming from inside and found out there was a concert taking place.  At the intermission, Jennie found someone to pay so we could get inside the church.  The concert was being given by the Reykjavik Cathedral Choir.  The singing was fantastic and the acoustics of the church were incredible.  After the concert we found the relics of St. Genevieve and saw the rest of the church.

     We made our way back to the Hotel, where I stayed while Jennie went to the 6PM mass at Notre Dame.  Earlier in the day I had tweaked my back and I was having a bit of trouble moving around.  After mass, we left the hotel and walked towards La Brasserie de I'Isle Saint-Louis for dinner and drinks.  As we were leaving the hotel, the streets were wet from an earlier rain.  Walking and dancing in the rain was my beautiful wife.

20180610_210553 from Patrick Cullen on Vimeo.

     We sat on the patio, overlooking the Seine and Notre Dame.  We had dinner and drinks.  The waiter brought the check, I paid with my card and we were off.  Later in the night I realized that he charged by card 1.50 euros, instead of the 90 it was supposed to be.  I guess that helped with my poor exchange rate math of the previous 6 days!  We walked over to Notre Dame on more time to take in the view of the Cathedral all lit up.  We made our way back to the room around 11pm and packed our bags for the long trip home.

Honeymoon in France - Back to Paris

     The day started early with a 7:20am train ride back to Paris.  The entire trip was on the TGV, with no driving in between.  We arrived in Paris around 12:30pm and took a taxi back to the hotel.  We grabbed lunch at the cafe near Notre Dame and planned the rest of the day.

     Jennie had mentioned a trip to Versailles, but it was over one hour to get there via subway or car.  We chose to stay a bit more local and walked to the Louvre.  Since we were getting there near the closing time, there was no line to wait in and in minutes we were walking the galleries.

    What does a first time Louvre visitor look for?  The Mona Lisa of course.  We made our way to that gallery and were pleasantly surprised at the large amount of religious art found along the way.  Many of the paints were done in Byzantine icon styles.  We finally found the Mona Lisa and it was a bit underwhelming.  The crowd was at least 20 people deep, everyone clamoring for a selfie with the painting.  We got a peek, shrugged our shoulders and left that gallery.  Closing time was approaching so we decided to make our exit and find some food.

    As we were walking we saw a sign for St. Germain.  We went inside and found a mixture of beautiful catholic architecture, surrounding a post-conciliar altar that looked hideous.  France was a place where the "spirit of Vatican II" could be seen.  In magnificent churches and cathedrals, where many saints walked, worshiped and prayed, you see the sad attempt to modernize the mass.  Look at the modern altar in St. Germain.  Surrounded by a beautiful aspe and grand high altar is this:

Contrast that with the rest of this beautiful church and see what the Spirit of Vatican II has done to the churches. 

We left St. Germain and found our way to a sidewalk bistro.  We ordered some good French wine and a cheese/meat plate.  Most of the cheeses were great, except for that horrible tasting/smelling camembert.  It was disgusting.  But, sitting in the shadows of St. Chapelle watching the Parisiens line up for a concert was a great way to end the day.

We walked back to the hotel, stopped for some sorbet and called it a night.

Honeymoon in France - Day 5 (All about Lourdes)

     We woke up around 6am because we had to get the rental car back to the airport by 8am.  We found our way to the car return and turned it back into Hertz.  It was at that time we realized that we should have probably made arrangements for a taxi to be waiting to pick us up.  The airport was nearly empty with exception of one tour bus that was loading people.  There was not a taxi to be found.  We tried to call the taxi services in Lourdes and Tarbes but je ne parle pas Francais was problematic. As good fortune would have it, or someone's guardian angel, a single Mercedes taxi showed up at the airport.  We got in and we were back to the Hotel.

     We opted for the grand entrance and walked to the main entrance instead of the closer St. Joseph entrance.  In the morning light, the church was a magnificent sight.  Surrounded by trees, grass, high hills and the flowing river, it was something to see with our own eyes.  We made our way to the shrines in front of the church, eventually arriving inside of the church where daily mass was starting.  There was supposed to be an English mass at the Grotto, but that was nowhere to be found.  So we settled for the French mass.

     I can't tell you how many times Jennie repeated the words of the Theotokos to St. Bernadette "build a chapel and come to me in processions".  I'm not great at estimating the number of people but we saw at least 6,000 people in and around the shrine that morning.  We spent most of the morning taking in all that the shrine offered.  We sat by the flowing Gave de Pau, watched hundreds if not thousands of wheelchairs touch the grotto of Massabielle then get in line to bathe in the waters.  It was a humbling and sacred experience.

     We left the Shrine and walked into town to look for lunch.  We found a nice little bistro with a deck overlooking the river.  As we sat outside we watched the crowds making their way back to their hotels from the shrine.  It was people watching at its finest.  We finished lunch and made our way to a tour of Lourdes on a train pulled by a tractor. We decided to get off the train at the Pic du Jer and make our way to the top.

     The Pic du Jer is a summit in the Hautes-Pyrenees that is located 951m or 3,120 feet above the city.  The mountain is accessible from a funicular which has been in operation since 1900.  The funicular follows a 1,100m route with slopes ranging from 27% to 56%.  The view from the top was awesome with all of Lourdes to the right and the snow covered Pyrenees to the left.  We spent 30 or 40 minutes exploring the top and made our way back down to Lourdes to catch the wagon train back to our hotel to get ready for the evening events.

   
     There is a nightly Eucharistic procession at 5pm and a candlelight rosary procession at 9pm.  We tried to find the Eucharistic procession but were unsuccessful.  We asked and were told that due to concerns about weather they had moved it underground to the Pius X Basillica.  We found the Benediction but where underwhelmed by it.  The Basillica is a large concrete open space that is looks more like a big gymnasium than church.  It was cold and we got out pretty quickly.  We found some dinner and came back to the Shrine to fill up the holy water bottles. We returned the holy water to our room and came back for the candlelight rosary.

     As we had a little time before the procession started, Jennie lit three candles, one for her parish priest, one for my mom and one for the husband of a friend of hers.  After that we found a place near the front of the procession and blended in with a group of religious sisters.  During the procession, and depending on the day, pilgrims recite the Joyful, Luminous, Sorrowful or Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary.  Since it was Friday, the Sorrowful mysteries were prayed during the procession.

     At the beginning of each decade, words in several languages give direction to the prayer and offer a point for meditation.  In the calm of evening, each pilgrim carried their own personal intentions along with a candle.  The procession ended in front of the church where the Ave Maria was sung for the final time.  Afterwards, pilgrims dispersed and went back to their hotels for the night.




    
Candle Light procession at Lourdes from Patrick Cullen on Vimeo.

     We ended the night back at the Grotto of Massabielle where one more time we touched the walls and water seeping from this holy spot.  We went back to the hotel, made arrangements for an early morning taxi and called it a day.