P

The Lovely Sacre Coeur

When we visited Paris in 1999, Gerry made a fairly serious effort to photo at least the outside of every church in central Paris. He didn't quite succeed, but this time we had no such ambitions. Our goal was rather to build on what we already knew and try to get to see those churches that we wished we had not missed last time around. You'll find them here along with some not-to-be-missed favorites like, of course, the lovely Sacre Coeur. On this visit we saw the church in a rather different mood than on previous visits. First, the inside lights were lit making it much easier to see the gilded mosaics that decorate the interior and second a group of nuns were continuously reciting prayers for Pope John Paul II who of course had just died. There was also lots of coming and going in the body of the church (rather than just that of tourists who constantly circulate down one aisle and up the other) as church members brought flowers and other donations to honor the dead — and undoubtedly soon to be sanctified — Pope.

We were most interested to be able to watch the events surrounding the Pope's death as neither of us had paid much attention when John Paul's predecessor died. That was in the summer of 1978 when we were just getting settled in the US after our seven-month trip from Iran much of it overland through India and then on through the Far East to Los Angleles. This time we were fortunate enough to have no other obligations and to be in a largely Catholic country and so managed to sit down and watch the entire funeral. Like most people, I imagine, we did end up being thoroughly tired of hearing about the Pope after at least three days of news bulletins devoted almost entirely to him. And then of course we had preparations for the funeral and then the aftermath of the funeral. If that was not enough, of course, we then had to undergo all of the commentary surrounding the new Pope's election and enthronement. Perhaps we should be grateful, since for a time at least the main topic of conversation was not how evil the United States government is!

Notre Dame de Paris

The Pope's funeral following so closely on the heels of Eastertide made Paris quite a religious affair for us. Not usually church-goeers, as you all know, we nonetheless stood and sat through two masses on Easter Sunday in Notre Dame. We have attended church services at various of the New York City churches, but never yet in Paris so Easter was the perfect opportunity. On Easter Sunday there were masses almost every hour. We arrived just as the Gregorian mass was beginning and so the best we could do was stand in the aisles. Once that mass was over, however, we grabbed a couple of seats on the side with views of the altar and so got to wach Paris's new archbishop presiding over the midday mass. The family photographer was happy to see that most of the scaffolding that had shrouded the cathedral during cleaning and restoration had been removed. The western front of the cathedral looked absolutely stunning with all ofthe grime and other deposits of time removed.

???

The church at right, as the photo clearly shows, is no longer a church, but a library. It's not the first time we've seen such a change of purpose in a religious building as we saw something similar in Durango, northern Mexico. But although the idea is not that original, it still seems very appropriate. Perhaps it seems so because the first universities in Europe were church-based and so scholars and gothic architecture seem to belong together. In any case we both wish that we had been able to study in such surroundings, even though the beauty of the building would have perhaps been a distraction. Gerry of course did study on a rather lovely campus, that of Caltech in Pasadena, California. Jan, on the other hand, studied at a university that had no campus at all when she attended. University buildings were scattered throughout the center of Bradford and included leased space like the three floors of the Wardley Center where the Modern Languages Department was housed. The ground floor of said building held an ice-rink, the music from which entertained the students on a regular basis.

The Maryan Chapel, Saint Eustache, Les Halles

Stained Glass and Crucifix, Saint Eustache, Les Halles

For some reason on this trip to Paris, we made several visits to Les Halles, the area that used to hold Paris's fruit and vegetable wholesale market. Our first visit was to go to the fnac store, a giant department store of books, electronic goods and media where we armed ourselves with two guide books of Paris. Our second visit was with Paloma, when we wandered through in search of a nice restaurant for a Sunday lunch. It was only on our third visit towards the end of April that we finally found the time to step into Saint-Eustache (1532-1637) and admire its vast grandness. We were happy to see it being refurbished, if ever so slowly, and fell in love with a rather special piece of artwork that depicted Les Halles in three dimensions. The real highpoint of the church, however, is the lovely chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary which is decorated with some quite remarkable oil paintings.

Notwithstanding the lovely Maryan chapel, it was interesting to note a difference between the Catholic churches of France and those of Central and South America. It often seemed to us that Mary was more important by far to the Americans than Christ. Statues of Mary were often in places of prominence sidelining the statues of Christ on the Cross and a church would sometimes have several shrines to Mary, depicting her in various standard poses, each with its 'cult' followers. The most widespread of course was the Virgen de Guadalupe.

St. Augustin

Visible from la Madeleine, we had often admired St. Augustin from afar and were determined to see it close up. This, however, is as close as we came because the church was never open when we were nearby.