Lourdes: The View from My Window

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Photo Essay: Notre Dame de Chartres

After quitting Paris, I made my way to Chartres, to see the famous cathedral there.  I arrived at night, and took a few pictures of the exterior illuminated:

Next day, after sleeping in a big ivy patch under the low hanging branches of a great pine tree on the lawn of the Eure et Loir departmental prefecture (I had to hop their fence, and then got yelled at in the morning by some woman bureaucrat from the window of her office, when jumping back out onto the street) I went back and took some very mediocre images of the interior.

The inside is being restored, and maybe a tenth of the interior marble - besmirched with centuries of candle smoke and other dirt - has been bleached its original white, most of that in the sanctuary and front of the nave:

Note the contrast between the restored and dirty marble.

Plaque memorializing Peguy's pilgrimage here.

The cathedral is beautiful, a huge interior space with incredible stained glass.  Because of the dirty marble and cloudy day light, the church was darker than I expected it would be.  I still was awed, and sat there for three hours, said my chaplet and then just gaped, drinking it in.

I then did the tour of the place. There are these amazing wooden relief statues on the choir screen, figures in late medieval garb, carved in the 16th century, also being restored:

Restorer at work.

 And these are the famous flying buttresses:

I lit two candles at Chartres, the first to Ste. Therese here,

And another before ND de Cartres, her statue being on that pillar on the left there.

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On My Last Day In Paris..

I caved and did the trite, expected, touristy thing, and finally walked out along the Seine to the Eiffel Tower with Brady, this Australian guy I'd met:  

Note that my contrarian bona fides, while now grossly sullied, are nevertheless still somewhat intact:  I never did make it to the Arc de Triomphe or the Champs-Elysees.  Nor have I ever fallen in with that bovine hoard endlessly trampling the Louvre.  I also absolutely refuse to ever visit Versailles.

I am a pilgrim, no tourist, see.



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Photo Essay: Le Basilique de St. Denis

One of the patrons and thematic figureheads gracing this blog (see the sidebar) is St. Denis, or Dionysius the Areopagite, patron Saint of France and by legend the first bishop of Paris and (pseudo) father of the Church. His shrine is in the north of Paris, and is also the burial crypt of the kings of France.

The Headless Bishop.

Legend has it that St. Denis was executed during the persecutions of Nero, being beheaded by axe. After his head rolled from his shoulders, St. Denis is said to have stood up, scooped his head up, and walked about two kilometers from Montmartre ("hill of the martyr," now the site of the basilica of Sacre Coeur and one of the best parks and most romantic neighborhoods in Paris) to the site of the present basilica dedicated by his name.

This is the awesome figurine of St. Denis I picked up at the basilica for 10 euro..

Here are some of the shots taken there, this past week:

This Austrian girl Marianne who became my travel buddy this past week.

Hirsute.

St. Anthony of Padua

Marianne at the cafe opposite the basilica

And the candle.

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La Place de la République: Paris in the Mist..

I walked through la Place de la Republique the other evening, and they had strung these hoses that sprayed mist all along the length of the plaza.  The entire place was wreathed in mist, making for a really incredible atmosphere.  There's a large statute that looks a lot like the Statue of Liberty, representing the Republic, there, that is quite impressive.

I took some photos:

Back to Paris..

So, after a "leaky filling" and root canal and five weeks interrupting my earlier sojourn, I am yet once again in Europe.  I arrived last week, where I spent one night rough out at Charles de Gaulle..

You can walk out one of the side entrances, where airport employees go to smoke,

where's this hidden nook where you can pitch your bivy alongside the wall of the airport tramway,

and nobody will know you are there..

where there's this here view to enjoy as you drift off to sleep..

I came into Paris the next day, and have been staying at a hostel here since. I've been having good fun, and have seen many of the tourist sights I've been snobbishly skipping every time I've passed through Paris the past couple decades.  I'm based in the China town here, and have found one of the best Vietnamese restaurants I've ever eaten around the block.

Tomorrow, I begin walking toward Chartres. More images and such to come.

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Photographic Essay: Notre Dame de Paris

I've been to Notre Dame several times this past week, to mass there twice. It is everything you could hope it to be, an absolutely ethereally diaphanous eruption of lyrically flowing stone suffused in ambient light.

Here are some pictures I've taken of it, inside and out:

And, of course, the candle.

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