From Abbesses Metro (deep, deep underground), we made our way to the St-Michel - Nôtre Dame station which was the station closest to Sainte Chapelle. It took us about 25 minutes and then another 10 minutes to walk around the block twice before we saw the small entrance to Sainte Chapelle. Which was actually closed. Dang. We were disappointed but regrouped, decided we would get to Sainte Chapelle tomorrow and, as we were next door to La Conciergerie, we decided why not go there and see the Marie Antoinette Exhibit. It was also part of the Paris Museum Pass after all and we still had a couple of hours to go before our appointment with the Catacombs.
La Conciergerie is a rather stark, plain stone building as you enter it although the outside is beautiful. I actually had never realized that the lovely building with the towers with the blue roofs WAS La Conciergerie. And, truthfully, even after visiting it, I didn't connect it with the building I had taken a photo of on our bus tour until as I was writing this blog, I looked up its website. Comes from walking into the building at street level and not being able to see the roofs I guess.
After leaving La Conciergerie, we walked around Île de la Cité a bit, trying to figure out how to get to the Catacombs. Would it be okay to walk it (3.1 kms) or should we take the Metro? As it was spitting rain on and off, we decided on the Metro as it was only a few stops, taking a bare 5 minutes.
So, why the Catacombs? The largest item on Mercy's bucket list for Paris was the Catacombs. She loves spooky things and the idea of an underground burial vault intrigued her. We agreed that if this were her absolute must, so be it.
When we arrived, about 20 minutes before our prearranged time slot of 6:00 p.m., there was already quite a line. A man was arguing with the employee at the beginning of the line, saying that he had been given the wrong information and had missed his time slot. So, when the employee then told us to go and walk until just before 6:00, I wasn't too sure that his information was correct. And it was raining. So we lurked around the corner and when we saw the "pre-arranged times" line forming, we joined it. As it was, we weren't admitted until 6:15 p.m. and it seemed that people without time slots were admitted before we were. I was nervous until our line finally started to move. An admission: I try very hard not to appear nervous about appointments and being in the right place at the right time but inside I am wound up quite tightly.
The Catacombs were macabre. We descended over 100 circular steps down, arriving in an anteroom with a doorway that announced "Stop, this is the Empire of Death." But of course we don't stop, that's the whole point. We have come to see this empire of death. And they are expecting us.
As someone who photographs and catalogues headstones, I felt very sad down in the Catacombs. Thousands upon thousands of nameless bones and skulls piled artistically but namelessly. Have their lives been recorded anywhere at all? Or do they have to wait until Judgment Day to be named again? I know, that probably sounds dramatic, but I have such a reverence for the dead.
They have tried to do it "tastefully", in that they have many plaques with verses on them about death and immortality. But, still, I was very glad to leave, even if I DID have to climb 100 + steps up (no such thing as an elevator) to re-emerge. I was gasping by the time I stumbled up the last step.
La Conciergerie is a rather stark, plain stone building as you enter it although the outside is beautiful. I actually had never realized that the lovely building with the towers with the blue roofs WAS La Conciergerie. And, truthfully, even after visiting it, I didn't connect it with the building I had taken a photo of on our bus tour until as I was writing this blog, I looked up its website. Comes from walking into the building at street level and not being able to see the roofs I guess.
The exhibit in La Conciergerie was called "Marie-Antoinette, Metamorphoses Of An Image." It contained various old documents which were accusations and proceedings from her trial, items of clothing, posters, paintings, and films--even Japanese manga have used her image in their cartoons. They had been collected and arranged as an example of how she had been portrayed in the decades and centuries since her death on October 17, 1793 (and we were there on October 16th, whoa!) I had grown up hearing about her "Let them eat cake" declaration and how her attitude, and that of the aristocrats around her, had led to the Revolution. I had always thought of her as a sad, silly character when I was young, owing to the way she was portrayed in old movies. When I was older and studying History, I still saw her as sad and foolish but also a product of her time and place in European monarchy.
Forty years on, if we can't go to visit the exhibit at La Conciergerie--or even if we can and our memories can't absorb everything we read and see--we can learn so much more with just a couple of searches on Google, such as https://www.reformationsa.org/index.php/history/294-marie-antoinette, and https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/marie-antoinette-134629573/. And no, she never said "Let them eat cake." Still, standing in the place where she spent her last days and being in the city where she walked and, yesterday, in the Palace where she entertained (although we missed seeing her farm) is very special, truly living history.
So, why the Catacombs? The largest item on Mercy's bucket list for Paris was the Catacombs. She loves spooky things and the idea of an underground burial vault intrigued her. We agreed that if this were her absolute must, so be it.
When we arrived, about 20 minutes before our prearranged time slot of 6:00 p.m., there was already quite a line. A man was arguing with the employee at the beginning of the line, saying that he had been given the wrong information and had missed his time slot. So, when the employee then told us to go and walk until just before 6:00, I wasn't too sure that his information was correct. And it was raining. So we lurked around the corner and when we saw the "pre-arranged times" line forming, we joined it. As it was, we weren't admitted until 6:15 p.m. and it seemed that people without time slots were admitted before we were. I was nervous until our line finally started to move. An admission: I try very hard not to appear nervous about appointments and being in the right place at the right time but inside I am wound up quite tightly.
The Catacombs were macabre. We descended over 100 circular steps down, arriving in an anteroom with a doorway that announced "Stop, this is the Empire of Death." But of course we don't stop, that's the whole point. We have come to see this empire of death. And they are expecting us.
As someone who photographs and catalogues headstones, I felt very sad down in the Catacombs. Thousands upon thousands of nameless bones and skulls piled artistically but namelessly. Have their lives been recorded anywhere at all? Or do they have to wait until Judgment Day to be named again? I know, that probably sounds dramatic, but I have such a reverence for the dead.
They have tried to do it "tastefully", in that they have many plaques with verses on them about death and immortality. But, still, I was very glad to leave, even if I DID have to climb 100 + steps up (no such thing as an elevator) to re-emerge. I was gasping by the time I stumbled up the last step.
It had been so quiet down in the catacombs. The Admissions Desk provided us with headsets to listen to the story but I found mine awkward to deal with so I just walked silently along the tunnels, reading the plaques. Wondering about the people buried here.
When we emerged, it was 8:00 p.m. We stopped at the souvenir store (of course) and then decided that rather than look for a restaurant, we would go back to our hotel, stopping at the local corner grocery store for some food. It was still raining although it was a very fine, misty, rain.
We were glad to get back to our hotel and put our feet up and take stock of the day and what we still wanted to see tomorrow. Our reservation for the Louvre is at 10:30. If we get to l'Orangerie as soon as it opens, at 9:00 a.m., as long as there isn't a line, we can see Monet's Water Lilies at leisure and then it is only a 10-minute stroll through the Tuileries Garden to the Louvre. We aren't allocating a set amount of time for the Louvre although we do still want to go back to Montmartre to the Paris Duck Shop and then get back to Sainte Chapelle which supposedly will be open until 7:00 p.m. Don't really trust that as it was supposed to be open today and it wasn't. I would also still like to take the Seine River Cruise. The last ride for that would be at 7:30. Plus, even though our hotel is only a 5-minute walk away from it, we still haven't been up the Arc de Triomphe!
A demain!
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