Welcome to Paris 2012 Part Four the final blog about my day trip to Paris back in April of 2012. I'm not really going to talk a whole lot about the ins and outs of Notre Dame. My experience there was a very solemn, quiet, peaceful, and even spiritual so I'm going to allow you to see what I saw and let you form your own opinion on it. That being said, here are a few links on where and what the cathedral is.
I'm going to start with pictures from outside and move inside. :) I would suggest listening to this video's audio while looking at these pictures. It's hauntingly enchanting and fits so well into grand cathedrals like this... Victimae Paschali Laudes & Alleluia
Now moving inside...
One of the most beautiful aspects of the Cathedral is the lighting and the use of shadows. The City of Paris set out to "light the cathedral" in 1991 but the project wasn't complete until 2002. The only thing I can say is, it's something you just have to see and experience for yourself. It's captivatingly beautiful.
Go.
One
note about the splendor and magnificence of these European Cathedrals
is the quote from St. Bernard of Clairvaux, "Oh, vanity of vanities,
whose vanity is rivalled only by its insanity! The walls of the church
are aglow, but the poor of the Church go
hungry. The stones of the church are covered with gold, while its
children are left naked. The food of the poor is taken to feed the eyes
of the rich, and amusement is provided for the curious, while the needy
have not even the necessities of life." Even in the splendor of such a
place like this, you have to wonder where the Spirit of Christ was...
this questions still exist in the church of America today. Something to think about.
So yeah, it's been a few months since this trip and an even more few months since my last post which means... it's time to catch up! In this post I'm continuing the pics from my world wind one day trip to Paris and including pics from inside and outside the Louvre and some more random shots from around the city. As always I'll do my best to explain the "what and where" about the pics as we go along...
Around Paris:
So many people in Europe ride bikes. Paris is no exception. I always love to get random shots of people like this. Its fun to look back on and remember your thoughts about them. haha
There are so many museums in Paris. You could literally spends days just going through them.. sadly, I only had one day. Next time Paris... next time.
I really like these pictures for some reason. I'm a big fan of black and white photography.
So many beautiful things in this city. ...so many pictures.
This was a really cool shopping place. I have no idea what is was called because we were flying so fast through all the sites that I couldn't really hear what the tour guide was saying about it all. The building had several floors that had actual departments. My favorite was the bakery floor.... the food was SO GOOD!!! :)
Spices from Morocco.
YUMMY............................
Ireally REALLY wanted to go see this concert....
Now, The Louvre... You have to understand; this place is HUGE! You could honestly take 2 - 3 days just on this one museum. I have a youtube link from a travel firm that kind of lays it out for you...
Again, on our tour we only had 2.5 hours to actually try to see it all... yeah, not happening. So I did the best I could to hit the hot spots and see all the important things like Mona Lisa and the Napoleonic Apartments while catching as many other things as possible along the way.
The main entrance is through the Glass Pyramid however lines can be SUPER long at times... thankfully our tour guide had the hook up and we went in through a "back door". ...sweet. I'll have some more "artsy" pyramid photos later.
Keep in mind that this was a palace at one point... someone actually lived here... that's crazy.
You see this more on your way out but it's good to just throw it in here.
Moving inside... Before any of the inside pictures I must put a disclaimer that I don't own rights to any of the paintings photographed (I don't even know the names of most of them). Any and all rights belong to the owners. That being said... lets head in.
One of the cool things about the entrance we went into was that the first thing you see is the inverted glass pyramid. Pretty awesome.
Obviously, I made a mad rush to go see the fine lady her self, Mona Lisa. The painting is actually really small and hard to get to and see because of all the gawking tourist with cameras. It is also heavily guarded at all times so don't get to close...
One thing that I can say about this building in general and also specifically about the Napoleonic Apartments pictured below is how overwhelmingly opulent and over the top the rooms are furnished and decorated. It's mind blowing that people had this much money to spend on these things... just crazy. This is the ceiling of one of the domes... so beautiful.
Some of the different paintings I saw that I liked. I don't know the names of any of them really, sorry. Again, I don't own any of these images of the paintings.
The large paintings were beautiful and breath taking and the galleries themselves were huge!
So just a side note, these chips were amazing. I wish we had them here in the US... mmmmm....
I can honestly say, I have no words to really describe the level of opulence and splendor that are captured in the Napoleonic Apartments... they're just amazing.
The grand dinning hall... seating for 50... no big deal... haha. Again, think about what it would be to live this life style.
There were also some smaller, private rooms off to the side.
Tea for four.
Loved this staircase.
Next I'll finish up with my pics of the Glass pyramid. It was such a cool place to explore.
Love this picture.
Oh you know, just hanging out at the Louvre... no big deal.
I love this angle so much that I got three pictures and did some different editing. Loved it!
Now heading back outside and ending this post...
I'll end here and do Notre Dame inside and out in the next post! See ya then!
