Paris Churches

Good Friday - a day for churches in a city peppered with beautiful churches.

A view of the back of Notre Dame Cathedral from Île Saint-Louis

Today is really just a photo journal of the gorgeous churches I simply cannot pass by as I walk through Paris.

Trinity Church

The first church I was ever inside in Paris was the Trinity Church in the 9th. When My Husband was at his interview back when we were hoping to come to Paris, I did my bit by lighting candles and praying that things would work out for us. I think they did!

This is the closest Church to us - St Merry with it's beautiful doors...

It often hosts funky art exhibits.

 And we've been to a music/light show there also.
 

And I love how the sun caught this statue... A mother losing her son - quite poignant, not only on Good Friday.

A similar statue can be found in Eglise (that means church) Saint-Nicolas-des-Champs.

She looks so sad.

This was another church I stumbled upon while out shopping for groceries. Okay, while getting lost on my way to the grocery store... And of course, I had to go in.

The sunlight was so strong that it projected the stain glass patterns onto the other wall.

 But when it comes to stained glass, Sainte Chapelle wins the prize.

I've been here 3 times and counting - its on my MUST DO list for Paris.

It must have felt magical to stand and look at these windows and the bible stories on them way back in the 12th century - these people had limited access to art, books and of course no TV - so the impact must have been tremendous.

Another close-by church is St Eustace - we happened to wander in during auditions for a new organ player. The sound was amazing - made my skin goose bump and threw a surge of emotion at the back of my eye lids! Unfortunately, I didn't record it but I do have a pretty picture of its rose window.

On my recent walking tour with Corey Frye, we took in the Saint Sulpice church.

Saint Sulpice seen from Montparnasse Tower

So much to see in this church, like where the french Revolutionaries tried to eradicate all references to religion from the church and turn it into a temple of reason. Obviously, this stain glass window was too high up for them.

Those vaulted ceilings were obviously not so high that they couldn't be sculpted - or perhaps it was done on the ground then fitted together like a giant 3D jigsaw - either way, its pretty impressive!

And then there's the frescos that proved so difficult for the painter Delacroix that working on them killed him!

Delacroix was quite obsessed with violence and angels!

Then of course there's my favorite - The Notre Dame Cathedral. Coming from Armagh, I guess I have a thing about Cathedrals. Even though the towers look like spires that haven't been finished, I just love this cathedral (but not as much as the Armagh Cathedral)

Notre Dame Cathedral from Mountparnasse Tower

 Inside it is like a double-decker version of the Armagh Cathedral.

And photogenic day or night.

The Sacre Coeur is a very different style, but equally impressive on its perch over the city.

So many churches, so many prayers!

Mine is that we all have a peaceful and violence free Easter and that tolerance and love flow freely in your hearts, homes and countries.

Byddi Lee

Get High in Paris!

For the ultimate birds-eye view many think that the Eiffel Tower is the place to go. However, when you are actually on the Eiffel Tower, you don't get to view it, and that's a shame as it is one of the most interesting things about the Paris skyline. Instead, for €15 take a trip to the top of the Montparnasse Tower Observation Deck.

The Montparnasse Tower is the only skyscraper in central Paris. My understanding of it is that as soon as it was built the people of Paris took one look at it (it's hard to miss!) and said, "Hell no!" (or the French equivalent, which I haven't gotten to yet in my lessons!) They banned anyone else from building anymore such buildings nearby. A stroke of genius I think, because now you have a perfect viewing platform with an epic 360degress view of the city. I've "wasted" hours playing with the photos we took that day.

I loved the black and whites and even used photoshopping software to preserve the gold roof on Les Invalides. Here's a close up of it - in color.

 

The Montparnasse Tower is a wonderful spot to take a zoom lens.

If you are so unfortunate as to only have one day in Paris (quelle horreur!) you could actually tick off all the sights in one swoop!

Arc de Triomphe

Centre Georges Pompidou - hard to miss with its bright colors. The Tour St. Jacques in also in this shot as is the roof of our apartment building!

The Notre Dame Cathedral

The Place de la Concorde
 

With it being the dead of winter (we went up mid December) the light was interesting.

We had timed it to take in sunset. The sun cast light from its daily-death throes in hues of gold through bronze over the landscape.

The Scare Coeur

 In the changing light...

From our vantage point we could even see the French sister to the Statue of Liberty... can you make it out center picture?

I wondered what lucky sod got a balloon ride in a golden sky. Looks so romantic!

The moon over Paris, above candy floss clouds!

There is a restaurant at the top called Ciel de Paris (the Ceiling of Paris) pricey, but the food is excellent. However we didn't have a table by the window - my fault - I messed up the date on the booking and we rocked up two weeks early! They had room for us anyways, but it felt like we had been placed at the naughty table, way at the back. So for full effect, you might want to request a table by the window and actually turn up on the correct day!

But the view at night was equally spectacular.

The streets below a maze of buttery lights.

On the ground looking up at Mountparnasse Tower - It's pretty impressive but I'm glad it is just one of a kind.

Byddi Lee