An Evening of Art

June 13

The building where we attend classes is in the Latin Quarter, near the district known as Saint-Germain-des-Pres. The Eglise Saint-Sulpice is in this area (recognizable from the DaVinci Code), though I never made it over there. However, the oldest church in Paris (or at least the tower from what was once the oldest church is Paris) is also in this district – Eglise Saint-Germain-des-Pres. I visited today, and I found it to be breathtaking.

The inside is all wooden and painted on almost every surface. Gorgeous murals of Christ and his apostles cover all of the walls. The columns and the ceiling feature beautiful patterns, usually with the fleur de lis of France. (Anyone know why it’s the symbol of the monarchy?) Rene Descartes is even buried here, in a fairly unremarkable monument in a chapel off to the side. A memorial honors the parish dead in the world wars. It was really, just gorgeous.

June 14 - another missing day. Sadness. I hope it was fun.

June 15

Kate and I (she's been my primary sightseeing partner, and she's been fantastic, by the way) had a picnic this evening at the fountain of the Jardins des Tuileries, which stretch between the Place de Concorde and the Louvre. It had rained most of the day, but we had a perfect sunny stretch for our little picnic. We then walked over to the Louvre, which is free for those of us under 26 after 6 pm on Fridays. How perfect!

We hardly dented it, of course. It is, after all, the Louvre. We saw the inverted pyramid of the DaVinci Code fame (I just read the book once, but I know what you all want to hear). We also saw the Code of Hammurabi and two Vermeers. We attempted to make our way through the ancient arts and the Flemish and Dutch masters. It meant some skimming, and we missed Roman, Greek, and about half of the Egyptian art. We did our best, darn it. The photo is Kate and I in a transported Mesopotamian temple.

Remarkably, we found some of the most beautiful views of Paris from the windows of the Louvre. I personally think that the Eiffel Tower is one of the worst, because you can't see the Tower itself in the view. This was a great one, particularly since the wind and the clouds of the storm made it dramatic, in addition to the colors of the sunset. Loved it.