Love, Prison, and Stunning Stained Glass

Back to the last full day in Paris (I know, the blog is jumping around quite a bit).  After lunch near Notre Dame, we walked over, at Torie's request to the Pont des Arts, also known as the Locks of Love bridge.  It's one bridge away from Pont Neuf (one of the oldest bridges in Paris), and called "Locks of Love" or "Lovers bridge" because there are thousands of padlocks on the bridge.  It's a pretty neat place, and we locked one on as a family.

There were a lot of people there, and, needless to say, some scam artists.  One approached me and tried to pull his scam with a "gold ring" he found on the bridge -- I showed him my wedding band and told him I already had one and didn't need another one.  He then went on to pull it successfully on someone else.  We're so smart!

We then walked over to the Concieragie, the prison famous for being the last stop before death by guillotine during the French Revolution.  The most popular sight there is the final cell of Marie Antoinette, although they admit that they are not sure whether that's the cell or not.  The building was the seat of the medieval kings of France on Ile de la Cite, just a few blocks from Notre Dame.  It's an imposing looking building, and did not have much of a line. 

Next door, the line for Saint Chapelle was long, and we decided to head to the Right Bank and check out the Pompidou Center.  First, however, we stopped at a Patisserie for a snack.  While the vibe around the Pompidou Center was neat, the place itself isn't the wonder it was when it first opened.  The crowds, pedestrian streets, painters, and musicians make it interesting, but the building itself looks simply like a giant human Habitrail. 

We went back to Saint Chappelle, and the line wasn't any shorter.  It moved quickly though, and that was the security line.  Then, you go into a courtyard, and there is another, longer line.  Ugh.  Fortunately, we already had our tickets (two for one at the Concieragie), so we got pulled out of line and went right in.

It's a stunning church -- all because of the stained glass windows.  It is one of the most stunning places I have ever been -- and that's saying a lot!  A section of the windows were being painstakingly refurbed (not the right word), but the place was still staggering.   Each of the windows tells part of the Bible -- from Genesis to the childhood of Jesus to the Apocalypse. 

From Wikipedia:

The most famous features of the chapel, among the finest of their type in the world, are the great stained glass windows, for whose benefit the stone wall surface is reduced to little more than a delicate framework. Fifteen huge mid-13th-century windows fill the nave and apse, while a large rose window with Flamboyant tracery (added to the upper chapel c.1490) dominates the western wall. 

The pictures don't do it justice, but here's one:

 

 

We then headed back to the hotel to relax for some time and get ready for dinner.  Your faithful blogger did what he does best (blog, of course!).