Class- AT NOTRE DAME

Salut mes amis!
Another rainy day in Paris, but as we all know (thanks to Woody Allen) Paris is beautiful in the rain!  Although I confess, I would prefer some snow.  Yesterday and today I had class with Sweet Briar; Atlier d'ecriture and Histore de Paris a Traverse ses Monuments. We had the history class in the morning, and the visit to Notre Dame in the afternoon!  This class was focusing on the early history of Paris, so we visited the Crypte de Notre Dame....

Although it was not a crypt in the typical sense, it was just underneath Notre Dame.  You can see in the pictures, the remains of the city walls and buildings dating back to the Roman empire.  Paris started as a small city called Lutece in Gaul on the Ile de la Cite, and expanded out from the island and onto the banks of the Seine.  We then ventured back up to ground level to look inside the Cathedral.      

Inside we found stunning stained glass (vitreaux), sculpture, symbolism, and learned about the church.  I took notes as best I could because the Professor was lecturing in French, so I had to pay extra attention!  The result is that my notes are in Frenglish.  Construction started on Notre Dame in 1160 and was finished in 1250.  The interior details were finished later.  During the French Revolution, angry Parisians destroyed some of the statues decorating the facade, believing them to be French Kings.  In 1844, a large restoration project was undertaken to restore Notre Dame which had fallen into disrepair.  Victor Hugo wrote Notre Dame de Paris in 1831, and the story of Quasimodo and Esmeralda popularized the Gothic church and sparked its rennovation.  At this time, statues were repaired or replaced to their original states.  However, much of the artwork in the church survived the Revolution, like this wood carving below:   

As in Saint Chapelle, pictures are used to tell the bible stories so that the mostly illiterate lower classes could understand.  Above are two scene depicting Jesus appearing to Mary Magdalene and some other women.  According to my Professor, the statues outside of Notre Dame used to be painted like this too.  I can only imagine how stunning that must of been!



 I couldn't get a good picture of the altar, so I swiped this one off the Internet.  Here we can see the Virgin Mary, holding the body of Jesus.  On her left in the shadows, we can also see King Louis XIV asking la Vierge (the French term for Mary) to protect France and on her right we can see his successor, Louis XV doing the same by holding out an orb.  Oviously I really enjoyed my class today!  Everything here is old, interesting, and has a great story behind it.  It's great to be a history dork once again.  :)

Bisous,
Allison