Sainte-Chapelle, October 31, 2013

This was the trip to visit and re-visit famous sites in Paris. I arrived at the entrance to the famous Sainte-Chapelle, the royal medieval Gothic chapel on Ile de la Cité just before opening and struck up a conversation with a Parisian woman about my age. She had been in the area to renew her driver's license and decided to visit the chapel for the very first time. Below are some views of the beautiful stained glass windows, a few of which were under plastic and being restored at the time. Here is the description of the windows taken from Wikipedia:

Despite some damage the windows display a clear iconographical programme. The three windows of the eastern apse illustrate the New Testament, featuring scenes of The Passion (centre) with the Infancy of Christ (left) and the Life of John the Evangelist (right). By contrast, the windows of the nave are dominated by Old Testament exemplars of ideal kingship/queenship in an obvious nod to their royal patrons. The cycle starts at the western bay of the north wall with scenes from the Book of Genesis (heavily restored). The next ten windows of the nave follow clockwise with scenes from Exodus, Joseph, Numbers/Leviticus, Joshua/Deuteronomy, Judges, (moving to the south wall) Jeremiah/Tobias, Judith/Job, Esther, David and the Book of Kings. The final window, occupying the westernmost bay of the south wall brings this narrative of sacral kingship right up to date with a series of scenes showing the rediscovery of Christ's relics, the miracles they performed, and their relocation to Paris in the hands of King Louis himself.















From the Chapel, I continued to the Conciergerie, a former palace and later a prison. It forms part of the Palais de Justice, which is still used today for judicial purposes. One of the most famous prisoners interred here was marie Antoinette, whose cell was converted into a chapel to her memory.

The Palais de Justice:



The Conciegerie:



Courtyard at the Conciegerie:


From here, i took the metro across the Seine River to the Left Bank and checked out the Bon Marché department store, enjoying a nice lunch in the Italian restaurant there. Stay tuned...next stop Saint-Emilion for some great Bordeaux wines...

Location:Paris