Notre Dame de Paris

Sunday, 3 June 2012

Boulogne Jean Juares on the number 10 line is our Metro Station. Two lefts from our Hotel in Boulogne – Billancourt, onto Route de la Reine and Rue de Charles DeGaulle and you have access to all of Paris, one gopher hole at a time. Navigating Paris underground is dramatically easier than above it. The masses are out today, many of them at Mass.

Notre Dame at Night

At Odeon, we switch to the number four line and connect into Cite, the only station on the Island dividing the Siene on which Paris was founded and for nearly 850 years has sat Notre Dame de Paris. Construction began in 1163, long after Paris sprawled in concentric circles from “ile de la Cite” onto the surrounding banks and hillsides. Free of the cleaning scaffolding that surrounded it on my visits in 1997 and 2000, Notre Dame absolutely glistens liberated from centuries of grime.

Carved figures, from Gargoyles to Angels, Baby Jesus to the risen Savior, the Virgin Mary, Shepherds, and Saints, and the rest of the cast cover the symmetrical towers anchoring each side of the Cathedrals west facade.  The North Tower was completed in 1240 and the South tower was completed in 1250, 87 years after construction on Notre Dame began. Most who began the project would never have seen the completion of this grand entrance. The Church didn’t reach its current form until 1345, 182 years from when the first stone was laid. Now that is a long building project.

Facade

Through the Centuries, humans have alternatively created, destroyed, and restored the Cathedral. Rioting Huguenots damaged “idolatrous” features of the cathedral in the 16th C.  Louis XIV and Louis XV modernized the cathedrals. French Revolutionaries destroyed and plundered portions of it in the 1790s beheading statues of the biblical kings of Judah believing them to be kings of France.  Lady Liberty replaced the Virgin Mary for a time on several alters. In 1845, Eugène Viollet-le-Duc led a twenty five year restoration and several additions. The Second World War caused more damage that was fixed as part of the rebuilding order from the post-occupation French government for all of the countries cathedrals. And, most recently the renovation and maintenance project completed since my prior visits that has made Notre Dame, arguably, better than ever.

At the center of the facade is a large rose, a circular stain glass window nearly 30 feet in diameter that appears like halo above a statue unmistakable even from a great distance as the Virgin Mary with the Baby Jesus on her arm flanked by angels.

Offering Candle for the Girls Great Grand Parents

Sunday Mass is in session but that doesn’t close the Church to tourists. The line to enter is long but moves quickly. Admission is free until you buy guide books and offering candles. We offer a candle and prayer to the girl’s great grandparents since passed.  I’ve never thought of Notre Dame as an active place of worship but it is and spectacular at that even as a stream of tourists circumnavigate the worshipers. I can’t imagine a crowd larger than the kneeling congregation touring the Church I grew up in as my Dad, Rev Mac, preached and prayed. 

Looking down the aisle of Notre Dame

We take flash free photos of the Priest leading communion, that is a first and no doubt something for which I would have been lectured by the Rev. Catching Notre Dame in action makes a far more interesting Church pic. A single robed member of the Choir sings from the center of the nave. One voice fills the vast air space from end-to-end – remarkable 12th Century acoustics. The sense of awe is always present. That was the whole point when Maurice du Sully conceived and built Notre Dame to be a leading place of prayer. Inspirational it remains.

From the edge of the Nave toward the congregation

This particular visit to Notre Dame, with Hannah and Joelle in tow, was conceived of 12 years ago – on my last visit. Climbing the South Tower’s 387 stairs I was struck by how the stairs were worn through half their height in the centers by the weight of a centuries worth of foot traffic. Imagine the number of people to have ascended these stairs to look over the court yard and down the Siene. Paris wouldn’t have been lit at night for the first person who did so where as today it is known as the City of Lights. The Eiffel Tower would not have been in the panorama for more than 500 years, longer than the history of the United States.

The experience makes you humble. It simultaneously gives you feelings of insignificance in the larger scheme of things yet connects you to the greater community of humans and immortalizes you as part of thousands of years of shared history.

We are due at St. Lazarre Station for a train to Normandy at 4:10pm so the South Tower stairs will have to wait. I am already looking forward to visiting again as we cross the Siene and make for the gopher hole that will transport us on to the next adventure.