Mon père à Paris

Before our trip to Vienna, we had a visit from my Dad. It was great to see him! We spent a lot of time running around looking at art etc., but also some time in our apartment eating baguettes and cheese and drinking wine and talking. The latter is not pictured because it doesn't photograph very well, but here are some of Dad's photos of the former--I slacked off in recording our adventures once he was here so these are all his.

 

As he arrived, the sun favored us by making an appearance, so we walked around a bit, stopping to take in the nice French-straight-lines view down to the Place de la Concorde. The Place has had a few names: formerly the Place Louis XV; then Place de la Révolution, when the guillotine was set up there; and then, finally, renamed 'concord' as a conciliatory gesture. But our real goals were twofold:

First, La Maison du Chocolat, a fancy and delicious chocolate store (we shared a hot chocolate, and it was definitely rich enough for two), and second, Marriage Frères, a fancy and old-fashioned tea shop. Those canisters are all different sorts of tea. You can see Dad holding his purchases as we stopped by the Louvre later in the evening:

Our walk also took us past this monument to Gaspard de Coligny, a Huguenot leader who was nevertheless close to the French king Charles IX. This statue memorializes his death in the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre.

That evening at the Louvre, Dad captured the many barriers and guards protecting the Mona Lisa--along with one of the smallest crowds we've seen around it, actually:

I'm impressed Dad was up for as much as he was on the first day! The next morning, we got up all too early and took a train out into the countryside...

Headed to Chartres Cathedral! It was snowing as we arrived, which made for a freezing but beautiful atmosphere. We also had the place to ourselves--a far cry from Notre Dame de Paris' constant hordes of tourists. Also unlike Notre Dame, Chartres was finished quickly (quickly for a medieval cathedral, i.e. about 60 years instead of several centuries), with the result that its architecture and decorative program are unusually unified--except for that left-hand tower, which was rebuilt in the late Gothic "flamboyant" style. You can probably tell why it was called that! However check out that strong division of the facade and the triple portal, both typical gothic-y things that Chartres helped make popular:

Evidence that Dad was there.

No one but us and the more devoted dog-walkers of Chartres were braving the cold that morning, but this square used to be the destination point for pilgrims and merchants traveling to seasonal fairs. Dad brought a 'monocular' (like binoculars, but only one) for looking at high-up statues and stained glass:

Chartres Cathedral, dedicated to Our Lady, was a major site of pilgrimage from the twelfth century onward. Pilgrims came to see a garment thought to have belonged to her. They still make their way to the cathedral, of course, but I was surprised to see a sign that looked very familiar from my time on the camino:

This plaque helpfully informs you that it's only 1,625 km to Santiago de Compostela! That's over three times the distance I walked.

Inside, major restoration work has begun. You can see the contrast between what's been cleaned and what hasn't, above. You can also see, faintly, that some of the original polychrome painting has been restored. Again, many medieval things weren't as dark and grey as we imagine them. This type of restoration, executed this well, seems to be rare, but it makes a huge difference to the light and color inside.

The windows are also super important. Almost all of them are medieval, and even some twelfth-century ones survive from a previous cathedral building on the same site. Much of the glass is "Chartres blue," a brilliant shade enhanced with slight traces of red. It has been remarkably stable over the centuries, whereas many other colored glass formulas shift their tone slightly with time. The story is that modern craftsmen don't know how to recreate a color of the same intensity. It seems like most scholars don't think that anymore (sorry), but it's still beautiful:

The photo on the right is of "Notre Dame de la Belle Verièrre," Our Lady of the Beautiful Window, one of the twelfth-century windows that survived the fire which destroyed the earlier building. The blues are so luminous in person, it's a shame the picture can't quite capture it.

And finally, the church is famous for its labyrinth pavement. Unfortunately the chairs are only cleared out on Fridays for pilgrims to walk the labyrinth in meditation, and we weren't there on a Friday. There's a copy of this labyrinth next to the chapel where we were married, which made seeing the original especially significant for us. Nearby I saw a plaque announcing that Charles Peguy had prayed in this spot: his and the Maritains' affection for Chartres was yet another reason I had wanted to visit.

Here is an excellent source for more images etc. of Chartres, including a panoramic view that gives you a great sense of the restoration work. The small town of Chartres is charming, and provided us with a leisurely and warm meal at a restaurant that turned out to have a slight New York theme (fortunately the food was still quite French). After taking the train back to Paris, we found Dad a suitably Parisian scarf at the Galeries Lafayette, a big department store, and had a quiet evening in.

Our next day together was a Sunday. After church we headed to the Musée de l'Orangerie. This former greenhouse in the Tuileries is now home to a set of amazing panoramic water-lily paintings by Monet. He designed the display space himself, and it's really an ideal way of experiencing them. Photos are forbidden inside, but there's an online virtual tour here, which gives you an idea of the soft light, all-white oval rooms, and experience of being surrounded by the paintings. The rest of the collection is small but we found these rooms alone to be worth the trip.

This is a serious organ.

We ended our day with some music: an organ and trumpet concert at La Madeleine, an imposing Neoclassical church where they are not kidding around about organ music. Saint-Saëns and Fauré have been among its titular organists. The music ranged from the Renaissance to works by living composers, so we enjoyed hearing the range produced for this combination of instruments.

On Monday, the cold rain didn't deter us from exploring the Left Bank. We passed Notre Dame on our way across the river, and enjoyed showing Dad some places from our earlier trips--Shakespeare and Company, St Germain des Prés, Librarie La Procure. We also discovered some new ones, like this tasty-looking sweets shop, Saint Sulpice, and a little crepe shop where we had lunch.

Above: St Germain des Prés; inside it, the tomb of René Descartes flanked by the tombs of two Benedictine antiquarians, monks of St Germain, Bernard de Montfaucon and Jean Mabillon. Below: gallettes (savory buckwheat crepes), and Saint Sulpice.

We even made a quick stop in the Louvre again that evening and visited the Dutch paintings. Trust the Louvre to take all its Rembrant paintings and cram them in one corner of one small room, some hung on top of the others. You can imagine we were pretty tired by the end of the day! But the next morning we were up early for the Musée d'Orsay, which is built inside a former train station:

It was a delight; the exhibits are all so well-curated in comparison to some other big museums one could mention in Paris and of course the collection is amazing. We spent a long time with the Impressionists. Photographs were forbidden but there was a view we couldn't resist out of one of the big clocks of the former train station, across the river and up to Montmartre:

Then we got lunch in the museum at the Cafe d'Ours, named for this nice bear:

And then looked at post-Impressionists, a little sculpture, and early twentieth century decorative arts! It was a lot of museum, but completely engaging. That evening we enjoyed our fanciest meal in Paris to date at a bistro near our apartment, and said goodbye to Dad, whose ride to the airport left the next morning. As busy as this account may sound, we especially enjoyed the time we took to relax and talk together. I love Paris but I miss my family too!