Cathedrals

Sunday morning in Paris we headed to church.  Well, actually… Mass.  St. Sulpice Cathedral in the ‘left bank’ of Paris is home to a 7,000 pipe organ with recitals following mass every Sunday morning.  I was excited to take the kids to Mass… actually I was excited to go myself since I’d never been before.  The kids and I had interesting whispered conversation in the back of the cathedral about similarities and differences about this service and our own Mormon sacrament service.  Emily said, “Most of the people here are not wearing church clothes.”  True… us included.   The sacrament was a noted similarity, although much different in how it was carried out.  The elderly priests walked to different locations among the congregation and lines formed to receive the bread – the Priest either putting the bread in their hands or their mouths.  We enjoyed the choir and beautiful organ music and marveled at the ornate building itself.  No flash pictures (my favorite) were allowed in the back of the cathedral.  (St. Sulpice Cathedral is featured in the movie The Da Vinci Code.  Chris and I watched the movie again when we got back home… or ‘home, home’ as Megan would say.)

After leaving St. Sulpice we headed south to the Luxembourg Garden… “Paris’ most beautiful, interesting, and enjoyable garden/park and recreational area.”  It was beautiful.  We rested in park benches and watched Parisians doing yoga, walking, playing tennis, relaxing by the pond, and sailing toy boats.  

  

We ate our lunch on the steps of the Pantheon and then walked to our second Cathedral… the famous Notre Dame. 

After touring the inside we decided to wait in the 45 minute line to climb to the top of the Notre Dame Cathedral, visit the belfry and once again see views of the city.  The kids drew pictures in their notebooks while we waited in line. Those around us marveled at our many children.  It was quite amusing.  The tour was so much fun.  The kids did great hiking up all those stairs… even Luke.  We loved seeing all the gargoyles.  The kids informed me of which ones were the Hunchback’s friends.

 

The stairs down curled around and around making us very dizzy.  When we finally got out we asked the kids if they wanted to see one more cathedral or see the Eiffel Tower again.  They screamed “EIFFEL TOWER!!!!”   Ok, fine.  We metroed to the Eiffel Tower and walked around the huge grassy field and took some pictures before heading home.  It’s quite something.  Katie says the best thing about living in Germany is how close we are to Paris.