Easter in Paris

I returned last night (Sunday) from Easter in Paris. It was a great experience. I had not been to Paris for 25 years and it was fun to get to know the city again. I stayed in a small hotel just across the river from Notre Dame Cathedral. That made it easy to attend the Vigil which was my main reason for going.

On Saturday I arrived via the Thalys fast train from Brussels. Very nice and very comfortable. They even had a nice light meal on the train. I checked into the hotel and did a little sight seeing. I began by going to Sainte Chapelle. You can see a picture of the gargoyles here. It was built to house the relics of the Passion of Christ, especially the Crown of Thorns. One of the things I read was that the king paid more to acquire the relics than to build the chapel. The chapel is built in two stories. The lower is highly decorated but quite dark. The upper is filled with light from tall stained glass windows. It makes the whole thing look like a jewel box.

After that I headed to Notre Dame.



This is the famous facade of Notre Dame Cathedral. As you can see I had some blue skies and sun. In fact, I experienced all four seasons in a couple of hours. It was cloudy and spring rains when I arrived. The sun was quite warm when it made its appearance. A little later it was hailing and there was blowy wind at times. I headed into Notre Dame to spend some time looking around. There are lots of neat things to see. I went into the treasury where they have a small museum of artifacts. While I was there they were working on the floral decorations for Easter. Simple and elegant. Just two really large sprays rather than trying to fill up a lot of space.

I then went for dinner on the Rues St. Jacques which was near the hotel. French Onion soup and Steak au Poivre. Two traditional French dishes. About 8 I headed to the Cathedral in the rain. We waited about 10 minutes until they opened the doors. I had a good seat on the aisle although the entire Mass was also shown on TV screens throughout the church. That was helpful for a couple things done in areas I could not see well.

As the liturgy began the great doors of the Cathedral were opened and we saw a huge bonfire which was blessed and then the Easter Candle blessed, lit and carried into the church. As the light was passed from person to person it the Cathedral took on a beautiful glow. From there the Vigil proceeded pretty much in a standard way although for those of us in the States it is interesting to note that they did all 7 of the Old Testament readings. In addition, there were three adults baptized and two confirmed. Overall, the three hour experience was one I will not soon forget.

On Easter morning I took a walk around and went so far I could not get back to Notre Dame for Mass. I ended up in a little church just up from the hotel. Also very historically interesting. It was more of a parish liturgy but suited me fine. At the end of the afternoon I went to Notre Dame for an organ concert.



After the concert I collected my bags, made my way to the station and arrived in Leuven about 8:30. The picture here shows the beautiful way they presented the dessert on the train. The little medallion says "Happy Easter" in French. And it was all edible!



This morning when I got up I saw this snow from my window. This is the first snow that stuck since I arrived. So, although I have been enjoying the freedom from snow that I would have had in Minnesota, we even had some here.

In a few moments I leave for Budapest, via Cologne, Germany and then on to Rome next week. Rumors have it that we will have some significant snow in Budapest - so tune in again. I may not post again until I am back to Leuven in the second week of April but if I get a chance I will do so from Rome.