The bad news is that Steve caught my cold. The good news is, he didn't have to be anywhere with his program today. I had plans, though, so after sleeping in a little bit, I got myself off to St. Sulpice, about five metro stops away. Here's a picture borrowed from Wikipedia, because there was a market in front of the church today and I couldn't get a good shot of the west façade that's modeled after St. Paul's, London.
I really liked this church, not just because of the fantastic organ. Even on a gray day, the large windows let in a lot of light, and the fact that it isn't perfectly restored gives it a fascinating character. It's more obvious that it has seen 350 years of use.
Daniel Roth is the principle organist, and he played for mass today. After the service, he played a short concert: Boëllmann, Vierne, and an improvisation on themes from Saint-Saëns Third Symphony (video is a portion of the improvisation, I believe... feel free to correct me, organists out there!). The church's brochure says the organ was manufactured by Cliquot and installed in 1781, renovated and enlarged by Cavillé-Coll in the 1860s. Wish I knew anything about organs at all so that meant something to me!
Another interesting feature of the church is the gnomon: an obelisk that acts as a sundial, marking the date with a beam of light coming through a gap in the stained glass high on the opposite wall. There's something about this in the DaVinci code, and there are signs in the church announcing that it's bogus (so don't bother them about it).
Then I walked to Saint-Germain-des-Pres, where there has apparently been a church for some 1500 years. The tower dates from the 11th century (what?!).
The interior was special since it is still painted (or restored to be painted) in the medieval style:
A thirteenth-century statue of Mary stands by a memorial to all the parishioners lost in World War I in one of the chapels along the side of the church:
After leaving the church and picking up my first crepe (yum), I headed to the Cluny Museum, or the National Museum of the Middle Ages, which was fantastic. Some photos...
Samson gets his eyes gouged out by a Philistine. (Sainte-Chapelle stained glass)
This was so cool! These heads are the ones that were lopped off the kings of Judah at Notre-Dame during the French Revolution. Someone buried them in their backyard in the 9th for safe-keeping, and they were rediscovered in 1977.
Also impressive: Hotel Cluny was built next to/on top of a Roman bath; this is the frigidarium, or "cool down" room. The ceiling is 40 feet high, the largest Roman vault in France. It took the French a long time to figure out how to build anything bigger than this...
There's also a neat tapestry collection, including a series of six tapestries of the same woman with a unicorn and a lion in each. The first five represent the five senses, but no one is exactly sure what this one is supposed to mean. The tent says "to my sole desire," and is she putting away that necklace or taking it out? What's with the tent, anyway? Not to mention the random animals floating everywhere..?
Visigothic crowns from 8th century Spain. Not to be worn, but hung above an altar.
A lot of sculptures in this room had these same creepy eyes...
I thought I had seen it all when it comes to reliquaries. Oh, no. This is for a piece of umbilical cord...
This painted panel was commissioned by the husband and wife pictured at the front of the pack. The rest of the figures are their eleven children, two of whom were archbishops. I think this was for a chapel the family purchased at Notre-Dame... Talk about $$. It would be interesting to find out how it ended up at Cluny, though.
And with that, I called it a day. Eating in tonight, if either of us can summon the energy to make dinner. Tomorrow is Steve's first day of classes - he's satisfied with how he did on placement exams and where he ended up, so maybe I can convince him to do an entry about it - and I think I have L'Orangerie and the Army Museum/Napoleon's tomb on my list for tomorrow. Gotta get my $$ worth from my museum pass!
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