Paris deconstructed: Victor Hugo

ITINERARY: Sunday Day 1 of a week in Paris
The Islands: Ile de la Cité - Ile Saint-Louis
BREAKFAST Hotel? (not sure if la patisserie is open Sundays)
Notre-Dame; tour and climb tower - TODAY'S POST
Place Louis-Lepine - bird and flower market
Sainte Chapelle; tour and purchase billets for evening concert
LUNCH Brasserie de Isle St-Louis -- Look for the stork!
Walk Isle St-Louis; ice cream at Berthillion; Square Barye
SUPPER Sandwich or omelette?
Evening concert at Sainte Chapelle

Day 1

The Islands: Ile de la Cité - Ile Saint-Louis

Notre-Dame

The famously painted scene of the crowning of Napoleon took place at Notre-Dame in Paris on December 2, 1804. After taking the Charlemagne crown from Pope Pius VII and placing it on his own head, he then replaced that crown with a gold laurel wreath like those worn by Roman emperors. Then, as the painting by Jacques-Louis David below shows, he took the Charlemagne crown and crowned Josephine as his wife.

The Coronation of Napoleon, Jacques-Louis David

1805-1808, Musée du Louvre

In 1831 Victor Hugo was only 20 when he wrote Notre Dame de Paris, later known as The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

'And the cathedral was not only company for him, it was the universe; nay, more, it was Nature itself. He never dreamed that there were other hedgerows than the stained-glass windows in perpetual bloom; other shade than that of the stone foliage always budding, loaded with birds in the thickets of Saxon capitals; other mountains than the colossal towers of the church; or other oceans than Paris roaring at their feet.'

The contrast between Napoleon I and Mr. Hunchback is striking, no?

For those interested in an extensive history of the cathedral that was begun in 1163, read here.

A good way to start Day 1 - Sunday is at the Notre-Dame cathedral. Between this tourist magnet and the Eiffel Tower, you will eventually have to check it out, so let's get this one on the first day. One good reason to visit on Sunday is to sit in on a morning service. I am very glad Don and I sat through the opening of a service if only to hear the priest and congregation sing. (You can see a clipping from the service's bulletin in an interior image below with mother and child statue, and I have embedded a YouTube of the audio for Donnes-nous Seigneur too.)

In 1997 my sister Nancy and I saw the front of the cathedral with scaffolding for cleaning the exterior, as you see in my photo at the top of the post. Restoration of the building began in 1991 and was still ongoing in 2005, since the cleaning of old sculptures took delicate attention. I well remember the first images I saw of the Notre-Dame, which my brother took in 1970 when it was blackened with soot.

By 1997 the cleaning had already been painstakingly completed on the south and east sides, seen in my photo below. You can just see the scaffolding to the left of the front of the cathedral.

With Don in 2003, I snapped the next two images when we emerged from an hour's browsing in the Shakespeare & Co bookstore, just across the Seine from the cathedral. The sky had blackened (can you scrub a black sky?), and I don't remember where we hid out the storm from here.

The interior of the cathedral is dark, lit by candles and old lamps. It is a disconcerting experience to sit in a service on a Sunday morning in the center of the church, while tourists are quietly - and occasionally not so quietly - shuffling around the perimeter viewing artifacts and the Rose Window. There were plenty of "real" congregants, mostly elderly women.

Below, as I mentioned, is the interior shot, and then the YouTube of Donnes-nous Seigneur, which we sang with the congregation. I wish I had audio of the singing, which was sweet.

Of course the Rose window is among the things to see. Thanks to Donica for the next two images.

Another good reason to visit the Notre-Dame on the morning of your first full day is that you should climb the narrow stairway of the South Tower to the roof (387 steps!) to get a gargoyle-eye's view of the city, and you will still have energy for such exertions.

Thanks to Wiki Commons for the gargoyle image below, taken on the roof of the Notre Dame with a distant view of the Tour Eiffel. I've walked that distance in one stretch, and it's a hike.

Also in front of the Notre-Dame, under the Parvis (sidewalk square), is the Archeological Crypt, built in 1980 to protect the archeological ruins discovered during excavations in 1965. I've never seen the crypt!

On my next visit to the Notre-Dame, I will photograph interior details and learn more about the art and history. There is enough to fill a book or two.