Luxembourg Garden
I think K said this was the most famous park in all of Europe!
Pantheon (exterior)
I’d like to get back to the Pantheon. Need to get tickets to this as we’re actually running out of time here!
Mass at Church of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont
This was a total luck moment. While we were sitting at the Pantheon I noticed people coming and going from a cathedral just across the way. I looked at my watch and it was almost 7pm or so. I told K “I think something is going on over there” and that we should see what’s happening, so we reluctantly got up after a long day of site seeing. I proceeded to make my way through the big doors of the cathedral and was shocked to see a group of clergy with the their robes, crosses, etc, moving in formation right towards me, about 50 feet away! It takes me about 1 second to realize that HUNDREDS of people are watching as the clergy is headed right for me! That was the only time where I thought that just maybe I might get kicked out of Paris (at best) if I don’t turn around as quickly as I can and move out of the way LOL! I did just that and vanished into the crowd as I went into the the smaller front door to the right.
The experience was something I’ve never had before. The cathedral was filled with people, and loud spooky organ music. With hundreds of people dressed up, smoke in the air, and a premonition of an ancient culture moving slowly but steadily toward the path ahead. I’ve been to several churches in America, but never seen anything that evoked that sort of emotion in me. I probably have ancestors from this place and these beliefs, so quite possibly a bit of ancestral memory was being brought up a notch as well.
Someone said that this cathedral was one of the older cathedrals with marble staircases and such. I’m not quite sure about the history, but it was most definitely the most amazing cathedral not in size, but in tone and mood. Having hundreds of believers around probably had something to do with the mood though.
This video is pretty sporadic, and of low quality, but I was happy that I was able to grab my phone in time to get even this much.
The organ player perched high and right next to the organ. Hope he has earplugs!
As you walk out of the cathedral you’re confronted with the huge and ominous sight of the Pantheon. An unignorable foreshadowing of the future for all who walk out that door.
Head Back Home
What a day! Time to head back home. Yup we still wear masks in crowded spaces, but we’re not sick either after all of the thousands of strangers we’ve been exposed to over the last month 🙂 Getting really sick could foul up our travel plans significantly.
The subways are filled with graffiti. Black tunnels filled with graffiti tags every 30 feet or so. I wonder how those people get down there to paint the walls of the dark and dangerous tunnels! Remember, the third rail is most likely a VERY high voltage direct link to the afterlife! Hiding from cameras and trains every 10 minutes or less! Do they have disguises? Are they dressed up like boxes or look like a random pile of trash as the trains roll by? Have they found unlocked doors to secret passages for maintenance personnel that lead down to the tracks? Has to be an amazing experience for kids who probably just graduated from Pokemon video games a couple years earlier and are probably scraping enough money together to purchase cans of spray paint.
