day forty-two: sunday, june 6, 2010

Today when we left our Etap at Issy and headed to church in the city it was bright and sunny. Therefore, none of us had our rain jackets or our umbrellas. Why would we need them? By the time we got off the metro in the city and needed to walk the rest of the way to church... it had turned into a torrential downpour outside! I wish I would have taken a picture of us all huddled together at the bottom of the stairs in the metro station. It was literally screaming thunder outside. Martha screamed. It was awesome. We waited for as long as we could, the rain calmed down a little, and then we bravely went out into the rain and RAN to church. Literally. I think I was laughing the whole time.

The Paris ward is in a beautiful period building near Le Hotel Ville in Paris. There were so many English speaking visitors there that we had our own English speaking Sunday School and our own room and translator for Sacrament meeting. I am so grateful for all the wonderful people that have translated for us each Sunday. Greek, Italian, German, Dutch, French... all to understandable English. Thank you, thank you!

The absolute highlight of my day was running into my sweet friend and current Sister missionary, Katy Lund. Katy and I were on my first London Study Abroad program in Fall 2007. It was so great to see her! And thanks to her... we had Relief Society translated. Good luck on the rest of your mission Kate! (I mean Sister Lund!)

On the way home from church I sadly had the WORST allergy attack ever. I couldn't breathe by the time we made it back to Issy. So the rest of my day included Benedryl and the coma it produces. As much as I love Europe, I think I am allergic to it.

Tomorrow morning we head to Chartes!

day forty-one: saturday, june 5, 2010

Remember back to the beginning weeks of the trip where I would be wide awake at 7am and ready to go?? Well, things have changed. We do so much and work so hard that I'm back to my normal anti-morning self. Waking up this morning was especially hard. However, I'm not in Paris everyday, so it wasn't too hard to convince myself to get out of bed.

Today we began our day by lecturing and walking around the exterior of Notre Dame (it was assignment of our own to go inside at a later time). During the 12 century, Bishop Sully made the decision to redo the current Merovingian church because the size and style was not sufficient enough. Like most gothic cathedrals, the style continued to change and progress as they built. The west facade was the last thing done and is therefore the most modern section of the church. The western facade features three main portals with Mary Enthroned on the right, Christ in Judgment in the center, and the crowning of Mary on the left. As you walk around the building you notice a lot of height and verticality, with plenty of large windows, with its famous rose windows dating to the 13th century. The apse itself is not of a gothic design. The flying buttresses that are now in place to support it were not part of the original plan. They were actually, the very last things to be added during the High Gothic period. The buttresses are of the reinant & flamboyant gothic styles and feature ray and flame like decoration.

After walking around the exterior of Notre Dame, we headed over to our appointment at the nearby Cluny Museum, home to a magnificent collection of medieval art.

Although I have a usually consistent distaste for tapestries, my favorite works in the Cluny were the Lady of the Unicorn tapestries. The Lady of the Unicorn tapestries feature 5 tapestries that were made as a series and linked to one another. Besides the damaged portions that have been restored, the tapestries remain amazingly intact and vibrant. All 6 of the tapestries feature a late medieval style of tapestry design known as millefleur meaning thousands of flowers. This is in accordance with the medieval fear of large blank areas, horror vacuii. The first 5 different tapestries are representing the 5 different senses. The first one features the lady feeding the birds--the ability to taste. The second shows the lady playing music--the ability to hear. The third portrays the lady looking at her reflection in a mirror--the ability to see. The fourth shows the lady smelling flowers--the ability to smell. And the fifth features the lady reaching out to the horn of the unicorn--the ability to touch. This whole series of tapestries proves to contain a moralizing message that we are prisoners to our senses. The 6th tapestry portrays the lady set amidst an elaborate tent and various rich objects warning all that it is a challenge to balance the virtue and the wealth. As I said, I don't normally like tapestries at all... but this one had a unique beauty and appeal. Perhaps if I had the magnificent Martha with me to explain the background and context to every tapestry I saw, maybe I would end up liking more of them. I'm convinced that Martha knows just about everything about everything. Amazing.

After the Cluny and a quick lunch break which sadly featured another lovely PB &J, we met up outside the beautiful Sainte Chappelle. Saint Chappelle is a 13th century late gothic church located not far from Notre Dame. What is so impressive about this church is that literally, the majority of the wall space is completely taken over by stained glass windows. It truly is a transcendent building because the entire focus is up, everything is heavenly. This church was built for Louis IX, St. Louis, the saint for protecting the relics of the crown of thorns and the true cross. The first window on the right side in the upper chapel features the story of Louis buying the relics and the chapel that was built for the reliquary, the Palatine Chapel. All of the windows in the upper chapel follow a very specific program and begins with Genesis and continues all the way to Kings. Our assignment was to "read a window." Through this assignment I discovered that I desperately need to know the Old Testament better because I could barely read anything! It was so much harder than I thought it would be. We all sat there forever and had to end up putting all our minds together to really come up with anything. Thank goodness there was 24 of us! Sainte Chappelle is absolutely beautiful, so I didn't mind sitting there one bit.

After our assignment at Saint Chappelle, we broke up for the rest of the day. I headed back towards Notre Dame. Along the way we ended up wandering through the most enchanting flower market. There was a whole stall of hydrangeas--they were gorgeous! I so wish I could figure out how to grow hydrangeas like this back home. Just one more thing I need to learn how to do... garden!

After the transcendent light and glory of Saint Chappelle, the interior of Notre Dame seemed a little too much like Dracula's Castle! The eerie and slightly frightening organ music didn't help much. The levels of the interior feature a nave arcade (large arches), a gallery (triforium), and the clerestory (windows).

Just below the transept is a beautiful Virgin of Paris late gothic sculpture encompassing that perfect graceful gothic S-curve. The S-curve insinuates movement, but is not contraposto and has moved beyond the stiffness of the romanesque. This sculpture is a "princess-type" Madonna.

After finishing our assignments in the interior of Notre Dame, we walked along the Seine river, down towards the Louvre and down into the Carousel. We visited our favorite places there... Sephora so we could smell good and the Mac store for free internet!

From there we took the metro to Le Champs Elysees to meet back up with more of the girls. We unfortunately ended up at McDonald's for dinner... by this time in our adventures we are all feeling a little cheap and are big fans of the euro menu at McDonalds. After dinner we walked up to the L'Arc de Triomphe, took pictures in the twilight, and headed back home to Issy. What should have been a fast return home ended up being much, much longer. The Paris Metro is the most complicated and confusing one in all of Europe. We finally made it home, and by then we were all exhausted.

Thank goodness tomorrow is Sunday so we can rest up for another week in Paris.

day forty: friday, june 4, 2010

Six years ago, to this very day, I graduated high school. I think the me of that day would not be able to recognize the me of today. That is definitely a good thing. Just thought you should know that.

Today, I woke up in Paris.

It isn't 1925 like in this vintage picture, but it was still great.

We started off our day with a trip to the beautiful cathedral of St. Denis.

St. Denis is pretty much the birthplace of gothic, all thanks to a little man named Abbot Suger (pronounced shoe-jhay... not sugar!), marking it as a really important site for medieval architecture. The building of this structure covers several periods, dating all the way back to Carolingian times. It is named St. Denis for it's patron saint, a Christian saint that was beheaded, picked up his head, journeyed to Montmarte to wash his head in a stream, and then walked all the way back up to this site and then died here. Slightly morbid, but impressive nonetheless. Anyway, Abbot Suger was responsible for bridging Romanesque into Gothic and kept careful record of what they were trying to do. For you see, old Romanesque churches were dark and way too overcrowded. With St. Denis being the Saint of Paris, this church served as an important pilgrimage site and unfortunately there was no place for the pilgrims to see the relics. Suger was aware of their need for a new church, one that would provide space for all the pilgrims and also be a heavenly city of God--full of light.

 Suger's vehicle to LIGHT... rib vaulting!

Look at the colored light coming through the stained glass windows... so pretty!

After spending a good chunk of time inside St. Denis, we rambled our way to a nearby outdoor market. For lunch today, I ate a bag of fresh strawberries and an apple. Produce in Europe tastes ten times better than at home. Must be why I eat ten times my fruits and veggies here! After lunch, we headed back to the main part of the city to commence our architectural tour. Have I mentioned that today has been the only truly HOT day of our entire trip? I say bring on the sun!

We started our architectural tour by Les Invalides, home to Napoleon's tomb, and the Grand Palace constructed for the 1899 World's Fair.

From there we walked along the river to the National Assembly building where you can look across the bridge and see La Place de la Concorde and on even further to La Madeline.

Hot and sweaty equals super attractive.

Then we turned away from the river and made our way to Saint German des Pres.

We then headed to the other side of the Seine...

Our next stop was the Louvre... where we walked all around the outside of it and down into the Carousel (the shopping center below).

The heat was pretty intense after walking around in it for hours, so after the Louvre we made our way back to Issy to grocery shop and get settled for our two week stay at the Etap. After figuring out some necessities, we headed back out on the town. First stop, Le tour Eiffel...

We were planning on climbing the Tower tonight, but dinner was our first priority. We crossed the Seine, climbed to the top of the Trocadero and stopped for a less than quick photo shoot...

 Lame I know... but I had to!

It was such a gorgeous day. Especially after weeks and weeks of rain!

(and this must be how I really felt at the moment... bahaha.)

...and then we ventured off to find some food. What we eventually found turned out to be one of our favorite spots in Paris, Le Kleber. I will for sure come here each time I return to Paris! The food was great, the decor was art nouveau-esque, the service was great, and the price was reasonable! Can you ask for more? Nope, never.

By the time we finished enjoying our dinner, it was a little too late to climb the tower. Instead we sat around and rubbed elbows amidst the crowds atop the Trocadero. The weather had turned to a perfect summer evening and the time we spent there was simply splendid.

Paris is doing us well.