Just a few… long… feet-killing blocks from Notre Dame is the cathedral of St. Chapelle. It was suggested to Mollie by her AP European History teacher, but my mom had been there too. I must admit there comes a time, after travelling in Europe on a few occasions, where the idea of seeing one more church, chapel or cathedral just doesn’t seem that exciting.
I couldn’t have been more wrong this time.
Yes, my feet were starting to get a little sore… and swollen… but this was worth it.
There I am sitting with my mom, while my wife and daughter got the tickets.
This post is just going to be some pictures of the outside of this place.
I am just warming you up.
Because the inside is almost unbelievable.
They were doing some repairs… fixing up the old gargoyles and whatnot…
You don’t want gargoyles falling on anybody’s head.
Gotta love the vaulted arches.
And those Europeans do love to decorate a church door.
The carvings are often weirdly fanciful…
And you never know what you might see.
Pouring My Art Out 
Yep, just when you think your wow quota is used up… something even wowier comes along
I like that
Me too
yay
I am such a stained-glass junkie. I would have been standing and staring all day.
It will blow your mind
That is really neat Art – I’ve never heard of this church.
You know when you really look at the really big picture, these churches are even more amazing. Back in the days they were built humans were barely sustaining themselves – their efforts in growing food and building shelter took almost all of their time. They didn’t have the technology to assist or the improved methods to increase efficiency. They could produce only border line survival efforts – sometimes all their waking hours working were not enough to make food and shelter sufficient to survive. In that context the complete lives of thousands of people were dedicated to building those churches – some churches taking centuries of effort. At a time when each family could give only a tiny fraction of their production to help if they wanted to survive – that is astounding. When you think about it, the “discretionary” spending of virtually all the population must have been dedicated to these construction projects. To free up even one worker for the construction it would take the efforts of hundreds. Astounding. As you pointed out Art, the decoration around even one doorway would have taken thousands of hours of work alone.
I think the same idea applies to Stonehenge and many earlier monuments. The pyramids and so on.
Everyone should go once in their lives
It’s amazing how much work some cultures put into their churches.
I sort of talked about that
I am with you, Art. If you only have time for one cathedral, skip Notre Dame and do Sainte-Chapelle.
I have to agree
Stunning!
just wait
Eeeep! (that’s my excited noise, in case you were wondering.)
I was hoping that’s what that was…
It wasn’t air escaping, I can assure you.
phew!