Monday 10 March, our first Metro trip. We were off to the ‘burbs – out beyond the arrondissements. Two transfers on the train. From Rambuteau to Chatelet and then to St. Lazare and on to our final stop Basilique de Saint-Denis. The Metro is a labyrinth. Up stairs, round corners, downstairs then up again. Chatelet is the worst – the major commuter hub in Paris and the largest underground station in the world. It also has an enormous moving pathway. Buskers abound. One on this day with a small dog on his shoulder yapping as he played the guitar. The stations and tunnels range from being old and grotty to sleek and modern. On the Saint-Lazare line which we were on this day all the platforms have glass barriers that open concurrently with the carriage doors that are exactly aligned. I discovered later that the trains on this line have no driver – everything is automated.
Anyway we made it to Saint-Denis. Had to ask for directions to the the Cathedral but were able to so in French which was good. Imposing building. It was a Romanesque Abbey but was transformed into France’s (and the world’s) first Gothic Cathedral. Started a craze that lasted for the next 800 years leading to Notre Dame, Chartres and even St Pats in Melbourne – one of the last. (Joe is the source of all this information). It’s being done up and is covered in scaffolding in the front, but here is a side view.
We were there because it contains the tombs of most of the Kings and Queens of France. It’s a long and complicated story but over time they gathered all the remains of the Royals they could find. A bit tricky after the Revolution during which Royal tombs all over the place were being attacked and the remains flung about. There is one cave downstairs that has the remains of various Royal personages in boxes. It was Napoleon I who decreed it be the formal resting place of the monarchs so it is ironic that he’s not there. I’m not up on my French history but there is a continuity in Royal lines quite absent from the Brits who are really recent by comparison. And the tombs here do them proud. Much grander than the Hapsburg crypts in Vienna. All for a purpose – to put on a show.
All the funerary sculptures are incredibly delicate. Kings and Queens recumbent, kneeling and surrounded by ornate structures. All life size. The children were poignant. And I liked the dogs that were sometimes included.
Beautiful stained glass windows. The same style as at Notre Dame. Also a window depicting a single Royal line reaching up from the body of Christ.
Edmund White had alerted me to the crude depiction of Marie Antoinette. She and Louis XVI were both brought here from the paupers grave into which they’d been flung. Her statue is in stark contrast to all the devout hands joined in prayer. Lampooned in death as in life.
There was, of course, lots about Joe’s favourite, Saint Denis. We especially liked this hologram shining into an excavated grave beneath the basilica. It’s an archeological site from which they have removed lots of items relating to life around the cathedral dating back to the Middle Ages.
There were a number of school groups being taken through their country’s royal history while we were there. And some photographers taking professional pictures sf some of the works. There was a poster with a reference to Eleanor of Aquitane on the altar but I could not read the French well enough to understand what it was about.
We emerged to a lovely sunny day and so had lunch in the square beside the town hall. And we had a little stroll through the town. All very diverse. Went past the local Mosque. There seemed to be lots of employment aged men – young and old – with nothing to do. Lots of references to the archaeological significance of the town. We were told later it has the only communist regional administration and has a lot of disadvantaged people living there. Good to see a bit of Paris outside of the city centre.
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