Susanne & I and Laurie had our 2nd annual lunch with Father McCarthy (FM), the American vicar of the Madeleine Church. It's the huge church that looks like the Parthenon in a square & with a Metro stop all its own. FM is a fascinating man, a Catholic priest far ahead of his time in his worldly outlook. We three non-Catholics spent three hours immersed in discussions of politics & culture followed by a tour of the Church with more history, belief & legend than we could possibly absorb.
So how do I actively participate in all of this, yet take pics to document it in the blog? Not very well. I set the former as a higher priority. This becomes obvious when I started to assemble the photos into a coherent post only to discover there were shots I should've taken but didn't.
It started at the lunch table. We were so glad to see each other & jumped into our conversation so quickly & thoroughly that I forgot to have one of the very kind servers take a pic. I didn't remember until we had coffee later. FM asked a man at the next table to snap a photo. The man knew very little about cameras, so the result of getting the four of us is a bit disappointing.
Susanne took the next shot without flash, FM looks alot better. He is a very animated talker. His left hand is actually in front of him, a very blurred image. So I took it out & hope it looks as if it's at his side, out of view.
In the Church, it was really difficult to participate in the conversation, learn from FM, & take photos. The visuals suffered. Here are a few of the pics I did take.
A view looking toward the main alter, as you first enter, the enormous altar statue way in the front. Note the outside column theme continues inside.
The sculpture at the main altar. Jesus is not there. FM explained why & what the sculpture represents, but frankly I forgot.
The glass square at bottom center is the portable altar from which FM works (he did the 7:30am mass that morning), facing the congregation. It is a very recent addition, at his urging.
At FM's invitation, we then stepped inside the altar. Here's a closeup.
There is much symbolism here thoroughly explained, not-so-thoroughly absorbed.
Church construction was started by Napoleon but only the exterior was built before he was sent packing (twice). It was completed in 1843 under Louis Philippe. Chopin's funeral was held here in 1849, he lived just up the street.
From the altar, looking directly back & above the main entrance is the organ, shot taken at 10x.
FM faces the congregation. The organist faces the organ, his back to FM. How do they communicate the entire length of the church? The organist has a mirror. Also, hidden deep in the statue is a videocam. When FM is facing the statue, he can give hand signals to the organist.
From the front steps of the
church, looking down Rue Royale is Place de la Concorde with its Obelisk and at the end, the Assembly National, the French Parliament. The columns on that building are not a coincidence. They mirror Madeline's columns.
Here is a telephoto shot. It was such a grey day with so little color, I took it all out.
Among the shots not taken was an exterior view. I didn't think of it until afterwards when Susanne & I strolled over to our favorite Madeleine cafe for some hot tea.
It's difficult to smile & sip tea at the same time.
From virtue to something less than virtuous, Parisian street posters can be a bit racier than in the U.S. Each year there's at least one. Here is this year's.
A view from across the tracks at a slow time for the Metro.
Lots of windows filled with goodies.
Tibetan street demonstration.
This lady added a bit of color to an otherwise dreary day.
This street reminded us of the curved streets in London.
The old Opera house gets my vote for #2 most beautiful building in Paris. And another example of a building that could never be built like this again. Just take a gander at the new Opera at Bastille to see what I mean. And there's Lute Man still on duty at the pinnacle of it all.
Two of the big guys composer-wise, side by side. Their lives overlapped and in fact they met when Beethoven was a young and starting to do his thing. Mozart considered him very promising but they never met again.
G2R!
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