Paris Part II

Gentle Friends today's Post will wrap up my trip to France.  I have really enjoyed reliving the trip and writing about the things I saw.  At some point I may even pull out these posts and have them printed into some sort of book form, sort of souvenir travelogue.

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Before I left SF for Paris I made a list of churches I hadn't seen,  it was not a long list so I knew it would be doable, and I even added a couple once I got there and started to get around the city on foot and riding Metro.  So, today let me start off with one of the oldest churches I visited.... Abbey Saint Germain de Pres, on the left bank.....

 

....the Benedictine Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, just beyond the outskirts of early medieval Paris was the burial place of Merovingian kings.  At that time, the Left Bank of Paris was prone to flooding from the Seine, so much of the land could not be built upon and the Abbey stood in the middle of fields, or prés in French, thereby explaining its appellation.  Built and rebuilt over the centuries the church is an amalgamation of styles -  the massively buttressed bell tower (c. 990) is the oldest still standing in France.....

... the interior is really dark, but the fresco's are lovely and you get such a great feeling of history here.....I also got some great shots of some of statues,,,,,

..... I loved the look of this piece and found this info on line....." This statue of the virgin with child is reassembled from three pieces of carved rock discovered in an archaeological dig near the church on the Rue de Furstenberg in 1999.  The sculpture, most likely intended to adorn the entrance to the old Chapelle de la Vierge, was probably left unfinished due to an error in its size, and the stones were reused in the foundation of a wall.  The simplified style of the crown and the lines of the virgin's face, and the slight incline of the virgin's head toward the child make this work a moving testimony to the great quality of Parisian sculpture in the 13th century."  It is amazing that this was just thrown in a pit to become part of the foundations...... carefully made by some anonymous artist, it was abandoned and ended up buried, helping hold up the building for the last eight centuries.....

another lovely statue.....

...and this much later one.....

... I thought this looked really pretty with the stained glass light filtering across the front and the candles flickering.

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Saint-Etienne du Mont was at the top of my list of churches to get to this trip.....

......there was lot of construction going on around this Church and at the Pantheon across the street (which I had been into before) so I couldn't get a decent shot of the front - this one I lifted from the net.....  a little history..."The successive stages of construction are evident in the mixture of Renaissance and Gothic architectural styles in this most unusual of Paris Churches.  The vaults of the apse were built in 1491, the chancel in 1537, the gallery in 1545 and the vaults of the nave and the transept were finished in 1580. The portal was built in 1610 and the bell tower in 1624.  The interior of the church is 223 feet long. The nave contains five bays containing dedicated chapels.The chancel is surrounded by an ambulatory. The pillars dividing the nave from the aisles are encircled halfway up by a stone railing."

 Two of the more important features of this church are the shrine of  St Genevieve, the patron saint of Paris - and - The beautiful Rood Screen........

First the shrine........(The majority of the relics of St. Genevieve were publicly burnt and dumped into the sewer during the French Revolution, but some small surviving pieces escaped as well as the rock her tomb rested, these are enshrined at St-Etienne-du-Mont)

 ... this is the rock that Sainte-Genevieve's tomb rested on before the desecration of 1793.....

....... the relics of Sainte-Genevieve......

...... the gorgeous Chapel of Sainte-Genevieve....

...... and the stained glass window from the chapel of the Saint showing the procession of the relics through the streets of Paris......

Secondly the Rood Screen.........

 ......."One of the most unusual features of Saint Etienne du Mont and probably its most beautiful element is the Rood Screen.  The Rood Screen is a double-stair arch that separates the choir, where the monks or canons sat, from the body of the church where the parishioners sat.  A reader would mount the screen by way of the intricately carved stone steps to do the readings for the day.  This Rood Screen is the only one left in Paris. It is a tremendous work of craftsmanship which adds a commanding elegance to the interior.

 ..... the main aisle with "The Pulpit - Another great treasure of the church is the wooden pulpit which dates from 1651. It is beautifully carved and has at it's base, holding the pulpit upon his shoulders, a sculpture of Sampson.  Ringing the pulpit are carvings of seven women who symbolize the virtues: Prudence, holding a book; Justice, a sword; Faith, a cross; Hope, an anchor; Temperance, pouring wine from a jug; Fortitude, holding a club and Charity, surrounded by children."

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 I got to visit two museums I hadn't been to before - The Musee des Arts Decoratifs - located in the Palais du Louvre's western wing, known as the Pavillon de Marsan.  There is a strict "no photographs" rule so I have no snaps.  I really enjoyed this museum - however, the layout (chronological, sort of) and map that I was given to follow was on the verge on incomprehensible.  It is one of the hardest museums I have ever tried to navigate - and I come from a museum education background.  The exhibits are beautiful and pieces are top notch, but if you go, and you should, throw the map away and just wander through the exhibits and enjoy what you are seeing.  The didactics are all in French, but you can get the gist of what You are looking at from the pieces themselves.

The other Museum I visited was the Carnavelet Museum -  Housed within the walls of two Renaissance-era mansions, the Hotel de Carnavalet and the Hotel Le Peletier de Saint-Fargeau (built in the 16th and 17th centuries, respectively), the Carnavalet Museum's permanent collection traces the history of Paris across  100 rooms. This Museum is free of charge to all visitors and tops my list of free places in Paris to visit!!  Photography was allowed, without flash, so I have some snaps to share.....

In the courtyard the first thing you see before going in is le Roi Soleil......

...... Louis XIV - (1638-1715)..... in Roman garb.....

 there are a ton of paintings.....  one of the most beautiful, IMHO......

.... Portrait of Juliette Recamier (1777-1848) painted by Francois Gerard in 1805 - it has always been one of my favorite paintings - and I had no idea was hanging in the Carnavalet.....

.... and of course a great portrait of Napoleon...

.......there are also room installations.... like this one of the Empire period.....and...

..... historic ones, like Marcel Proust's bedroom....  a very yellow room...... and again I can't stress it enough, there are lots of paintings, historical moments from Paris' past and lots of beautiful paintings of Pairs..........one that struck me as a typically lovely Parisian piece.....

....Louis-Abel Truchet - "Le Boulevard du Clichy"
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As I mentioned before I had a list of Churches and things to do while in Paris, but in just walking around I ran into other churches not on the list to visit!!  Like the Jesuit Church of Saint Peter and Saint Louis.....

 ......"In the Rue Saint-Antoineis the old church of the Jesuits, gorgeous in marbles, gilding and stucco, as is the wont of the architects employed by those wary fathers. It was built from the designs of Francois Derraud from 1627-41.  The expenses of the building were defrayed by King Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu, who celebrated his maiden mass there. It has the second cupola erected in Paris......"

..... and of all the large oil paintings hanging inside -  this is probably the most important
( it was hard to get a good snap)..........

"Christ in the Garden of Olives" Eugene Delacroix, 1824

It was a great addition to my itinerary as was this surprise ........

........The Basilica of Notre-Dame-des-Victoires, "On December 8, 1629 the foundations were blessed by the Archbishop of Paris, Jean-Francois de Gondi.  The next day, King Louis XIII himself laid the cornerstone in the presence of the Court's 'seigneurs' and the city's officials. The construction was funded by King Louis on the condition that it be dedicated to his victory over the Protestants at La Rochelle, which he attributed to the intercession of the Blessed Mother."  Here are some interior shots of this lovely little church.....

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Walking back to the Metro station I stumbled upon this..... the Fontaine Moliere......

.... and found this info at Wikipedia...."The Fontaine Molière is at the junction of rue Moliere and rue de Richelieu.  Its site was occupied by a fountain known as the fontaine Richelieu until 1838, when it was demolished due to interfering with traffic flow. Joseph Régnier, a member of the Comedie-Francaise, suggested a new fountain set back slightly from the previous fountain's site as a monument to the playwright Moliere. This was France's first national public subscription for a commemorative monument dedicated to a non-military figure. Built in 1844, the fountain was designed by several sculptors, headed by the architect Louis Tullius Joachim Visconti.
The main bronze sculpture, showing Moliere seated under a portico under an imposing arch, is by Bernard-Gabriel Seurre (1795–1875) and cast by the fonderie Eck et Durand. Under him is an inscription flanked by two marble female sculptures by Jean-Jacques Pradier (1792–1852), 'Serious Comedy'(L) and 'Light Comedy'(R) - each holds a scroll listing Moliere's works."

..... just walking around I got some snaps....I especially loved this sign...........

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That wraps up my trip to France, 2013.  Thank you all so much for putting up with all these Posts, I hope that you have enjoyed them as much as I have in recounting the trip. 

I am not much of a shopper so I usually don't buy too much when I travel, I already showed what I got at Des Fills une Aiguille, let me show what else I brought home......

...... I'm a nut for big coffee cups, so I picked up the Starbucks "Paris" cup, and I do love my honey, I loved my trip to Provence...and think this lavender honey would be tasty.... and I had seen lots of Saint0-Georges and the dragon in Brittany and in Paris so this icon will be a fitting reminder of my trip, I picked it up at the Church shop across the street from Notre-Dame-des-Victories, its certified  - and - made in France!!

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Thanks for stopping by, do stop again!!

Take care,

edgar

Paris Part I

Gentle Friends we are coming down to the last couple of Posts about my trip.  I was in Paris for about 3 days.  I have been to Paris a few times and had seen many things already, all the highlights, so this trip I was going to concentrate on churches I had not already been to..... except the Sainte-Chapelle - that is a space I will always go back to, and make time for everytime I go to Pairs.  

Let me start off with some hotel snaps.....

.... this is actually not a shot I took, but one I lifted from their web site, for some reason my snaps just did not turn out.... My Hotel was in the 9th arrondissement and called, The Hotel la residence du Pre and is actually 3 hotels along the cobbled rue de Pierre Semmard - it's a budget type hotel, I told my travel agent when I was booking a place to stay.... "so long as it's clean and accessible, with a bath en suite, it would be fine."  My room was on the top, 5th, floor and quite small, but that was just fine.  Here are a couple of shots.....

... looking up the street..... and .....

.... looking down the street towards the Square Montholon.

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Like I said before one of the places I will always get back to in Paris is the Sainte-Chapelle.....

..... a little history...."Begun some time after 1239 and consecrated on 26 April 1248,the Sainte-Chapelle is considered among the highest achievements of the Rayonnant period of Gothic Architecture.  Its erection was commissioned by King Louis IX of France to house his collection of Passion Relics, including Christ's Crown of Thorns,  one of the most important relics in medieval Christendom.  The Sainte-Chapelle is one of the surviving buildings of the Capetian royal palace on the Île de la Cité. Although damaged during the French revolution, and restored in the 19th century, it retains one of the most extensive in-situ collections of 13th-century stained glass anywhere in the world.  The Sainte-Chapelle has been a national historic monument since 1862. Though small compared to many other famous buildings, this "jewel box" structure is one of the world's most beautiful buildings still standing."  I would always recommend a visit to this space!!

The Sainte-Chapelle is made up of two spaces a lower chapel and an upper chapel.  Here are some snaps of the lower.....

and some of the magnificent upper chapel.....

... there was quite a bit of restoration going on in the chapel, as can be seen from the missing bits in the rose window...

... The most famous features of the chapel, among the finest of their type in the world, are the great stained glass windows, for whose benefit the stone wall surface is reduced to little more than a delicate framework. Fifteen huge mid-13th-century windows fill the nave and apse, while a large rose window with Flamboyant tracery (added to the upper chapel c.1490) dominates the western wall.  Here's a detail from the restored alter....

........  also on the Ile de la Cite is ........

.....La Conciergerie is a former royal palace and prison located on the west of the island.  It is part of the larger complex known as the Palais de Justice, which is still used for judicial purposes. Hundreds of prisoners during the French Revolution were taken from La Conciergerie to be executed on the guillotine at a number of locations around Paris.  Also on the island is another famous building......

... Notre Dame de Paris, a really wonderful cathedral on the eastern half of the Ile de la Cite.  The cathedral is widely considered to be one of the finest examples of French Gothic Architecture and among the largest and most well-known church buildings in the world. I have been inside on other occasions but this time, the line which snaked for blocks was just too much for me and so I skipped it went along to the left bank and a visit to my next church..... Saint Severin....

 .....located on the lively tourist street, Rue Saint-Severin, it is one of the oldest churches that remains standing on the left bank.The church was built at the beginning of the thirteenth century in the Gothic Style, and has a nave with lateral aisles. An additional aisle on the south side was built in the early 14th century to accommodate the growing congregations from the nearby university. After the church was seriously damaged by fire in 1448 during the Hundred Years War,  the archpriest Guillaume d'Estouteville rebuilt the church in the Late-Gothic style, adding a new aisle to the north.

In 1489, a semi-circular apse was added at the eastern end with an ambulatory complete with columns including the strangely coiled central pillar - called the "palm tree" pillar, it was that pillar I was most interested in seeing.....

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The last church for today is Saint-Germain L'Auxerrois......

......Located at the center of Paris, at the edge of the Seine, this old parish church of the kings of France is generally regarded as the Church of the Louvre. Built over several centuries, it shows a variety of architectural styles, ranging from the Romanesque belfry to Gothic. Its stained glass dates from the 16th century, and contains sculptures from as far back as the 13th century.

 ....  this was a part of a much larger alter, It was a great piece to encounter.....  the imagery on the top is A&E in the garden and then on the bottom the Annunciation, as you can see it is behind a piece of crappy plastic for protection which really hindered my photograph.....

... and with this super window of the Apostles, I think that will wrap up this "Paris Part I" post.  Thanks again for stopping by, do stop again!!

Take care,

edgar