The Pierce Family: Day 2 - Notre Dame and Sainte Chapelle

We had a bit of a late start this morning - we woke up to a text from Savannah informing us that Smaug Jr. had died plus we were absolutely exhausted - but finally headed out the door around 9:30. David and Josh trying to figure out the best way to get us to our first stop of the day.

Taking in the amazing sights of Paris - the Conciergerie, once a royal residence that took on a judicial role when the Kings of France abandoned it to settle in the Louvre and in Vincennes;

the Seine with the Eiffel Tower in the distance,

and the Tribunal de Commerce behind us.

The Tribunal de Commerce, or commercial courts, are the oldest courts in the French judicial organization. They were created at the end of the Middle Ages.

This beautiful clock, located on the tallest Conciergerie tower, caught my eye as we passed in between the Conciergerie and the Tribunal de Commerce on our way to our first stop. I found out it was built between 1350 and 1353 and its purpose was to help Parisians regulate their activities during the day and night.

We finally arrived at our first official stop of the day - Notre Dame! Founded in 1163 by King Louis IX and Bishop Maurice de Sully, it took almost 200 years to construct and is a masterpiece of French Gothic architecture.

On the west front of the cathedral are the finely detailed sculptures crafted by medieval stone cutters. The long row of figures above the doorways that you can see right above my head in this picture is the Gallery of Kings, which includes 28 figures of French kings.

In the portals above the doorways, one shown here, are biblical figures and depictions of various stories, including the Annunciation, the Nativity of Christ, Christ the Judge and Archangel Michael directing the righteous to heaven the damned to hell, and the Ark of the Covenant.

The archivolts feature angels, patriarchs, and prophets and on the side walls are the apostles and the figures of Saint Denis, John the Baptist, Saint Stephen, and Saint Genevieve.

It is absolutely stunning!

While checking out the front of Notre Dame, we noticed a rather large group of people, a family, all decked out in their Ute gear. Josh, who of course was wearing a BYU sweatshirt, pretended to cut in front of them in line as they got close to the entrance. We all had a good laugh about it and they invited us to join their group but we felt bad about butting in front of those people who had patiently been waiting their turn so we headed to the back of the line...which was LONG. We decided that one couple would stand in line while the other couple roamed the front square. There was an awesome statue of Charlemagne in the front court that I loved!

Of course there was a lady sitting in front of the statue who refused to move so I tried to block her out of the picture with my body. At one point in my younger life I considered naming one of my future girls Charlemagne; obviously I have a soft spot for the guy.

Thank goodness the line moved pretty quickly and before too long we were inside, marveling at the beauty of the sanctuary. The high-vaulted nave reaches just over 114 feet and is 426 feet long which is longer than a football field. The nave has five aisles with chapels along the sides and a choir behind the transept. Also in the nave, 75 massive round pillars add to the feeling of massive space; the area offers seating for 9,000 people so it truly is spacious!

We came in on the right side and joined the crowd that was making its way through. Since it is a fully operating church, there were signs informing tourists to be quiet, respectful, and mindful of the people attending services. Every once in awhile, as the crowd of tourists started to get a little too noisy, a deep voice would come over a loud speaker, shushing us, and saying, "Shhhhhh! Silencio, s'il vous plait!" It truly cracked me up! As we strolled through the cathedral, we definitely took our time, taking in all the beautiful statues, candles, and paintings throughout.

The stained-glass windows were magnificent! Many of these windows date to the 13th century and are exquisitely detailed.

Toward the back of the cathedral, in the center of the room, is a long series of beautiful wood carvings telling the life story of Jesus Christ. His story starts on one side and then wraps around and continues on the other side.

It was fascinating to look at each individual scene and determine what was going on in the story. The panel in the first picture is Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus escaping the horrific slaying of children 2 years and under ordered by King Herod; the following picture depicts the scene of Christ's resurrection and his appearance to first Mary and then some of the other women.

One of the three famous Rose Windows which are considered among the greatest masterpieces of Christian art.

After we were finished with the inside, we decided to admire Notre Dame from the outside but first we needed some food. I'm all for a good hot dog from time to time but these...well, these looked mildly disgusting. Yuck!

The nutella/banana crepe, on the other hand, was pure heaven! (Thank goodness David handed over more money after I accidentally ripped the euro.)

I had to take a picture with my Orangina, a drink that brought back memories of my childhood trip to France when I could not drink enough of this stuff!

The selfie where I realized that sometimes I display psycho eyes in my pictures. Thank goodness the scenery behind me should draw all the attention away from that small detail.

Notre Dame truly is magnificent!

Several of the gargoyles on Notre Dame that served as rain water drains.

We walked around to the east facade or rear of the building to check out the flying buttresses. In the 13th century, flying buttresses were a revolutionary new technology of Gothic architecture and were an innovative solution to provide reinforcement for heavy cathedral walls. The flying buttresses support the structure and prevent it from collapsing despite its enormous weight. Notre Dame was one of the first medieval cathedrals built with this special architectural technique.

The beautiful spire.

Those gargoyles - I love them!

Pausing for pictures as we walked to our next stop. Along the way Josh photobombed several groups of people also posing for pictures.

Our front view of the Palais de Justice de Paris, which was formerly known as the Palace of the City, and for a long time was the residence of kings. Among the oldest surviving buildings of the former royal palace are Sainte Chapelle, which is where we were headed and can just barely been seen on the left of the picture, and the Conciergerie (on the right side of this picture) which was a former prison where Marie Antoinette was imprisoned before being executed on the guillotine. The justice of the state has been dispensed at this site since medieval times. Most notably, during the French Revolution the Parlement de Paris operated from this site, terrorizing the royalists, priests, political opponents, innocent victims, and anyone else that was against the revolution. It is here that those people were condemned; within thirteen months, 1,200 death sentences were handed down.

Our second stop of the day - Sainte Chapelle or "Holy Chapel". This royal chapel is in the Gothic style so it also has those awesome gargoyles.

Building began on the Sainte Chapelle some time after 1238 and it was consecrated in 1248. It was built to house King Louis IX's collection of Passion relics which included Christ's crown of thorns, the Image of Edessa, and about 30 other items; these items were stored in a large and elaborate silver chest. The Sainte-Chapelle also played an important role in the political and cultural ambitions of King Louis and his successors as he tried to position himself as the central monarch of western Christendom.

The lower chapel which served as the parish church for all the inhabitants of the palace, which was the seat of government.

A few of the original gargoyles that had fallen off over time.

Making our way up to the royal chapel.

Upon entering all I could say was "Wow!" The interior of the chapel was so richly colored and decorated and the stained glass windows were gorgeous! There are fifteen huge windows that fill the nave and apse.

A cool feature on the door.

The large rose window of the western wall. \

The three windows of the eastern apse illustrate the New Testament, featuring scenes of The Passion, the Infancy of Christ, the the Life of John.

Every available surface in the chapel is decorated and used for biblical storytelling.

One of twelve sculpted stone figures that represent the 12 Apostles.

The most famous features of the chapel are the stained glass windows. They were spectacular! The windows of the nave depict stories of the Old Testament, 1,113 scenes in all, that represent the ideal kingship/queenship. There were pamphlets describing each window so we all grabbed one and started on the left where the cycle starts with scenes from the Book of Genesis and continues on in the next 10 windows with stories from Exodus, Joseph, Numbers/Leviticus, etc. all the way to Esther, David, and the Book of Kings on the right side wall. The final window brought the idea of sacred kingship to their present time with a series of scenes showing the rediscovery of Christ's relics, the miracles they performed, and their relocation to Pairs in the hands of King Louis himself.

Detail of a stained glass window.

There were also niches on the left and right side of the chapel which were the private oratories of the king and of his mother, Blanche of Castille.

There were so many beautiful painted scenes of saints and martyrs and inset with painted and gilded glass that all added to the richness of the interior.

Although much of the chapel as it appears today is a re-creation due to extensive destruction, especially during the French Revolution, nearly two-thirds of the windows are authentic and the restorations performed in the past few years have it looking beautiful. I loved the time that we spent there.

Heading back down!

Once outside we had to grab some more exterior shots of the chapel.

We exited via the beautiful gate of the Palace of Justice.

I was constantly taking pictures of the amazing architecture and the bridges. Paris is such a beautiful city.

As David took up what was becoming his normal position of about 10 feet in front of me, Josh, and Lenae, I called my parents to talk to them about Smaug Jr. and to find out how my Noah was handling his death.

My heart was aching as my dad told me that Noah had cried when he found Smaug Jr. just laying in the sand, not moving. Noah had lovingly placed his little body in a box and wrote on it Smaug's name and the date he got him and then added on the bottom: "My little treasure." They were planning a funeral for Smaug later that day as well as a trip to the pet store to pick out a new one. I could not believe that this had happened while we were away! I didn't get to talk to Noah at that time because he was already off to school but it was reassuring to know that my parents had the situation under control.
As we headed off to find a place to eat, we had to take one last picture of those beautiful buildings.

On our quest for lunch we got to see the Saint-Jacques Tower. This beautiful Gothic tower is all that remains of a former 16th century church that was built during the reign of King Francis I and dedicated to Saint James the Greater.

We also stopped at the Hotel de Ville which houses the city's local administration.

This building was the stage for several famous events during the French Revolution, most notably the coup when Robespierre was shot in the jaw and arrested with his followers.