Basilica St. Denis

First some random thoughts.

Because I'm using the hotel wi-fi (they call it "wee-fee" here), the web knows I'm in France.  So anything I Google, I'm taken to the French language website.

I promise not to deluge you with too many touristy pics.  A jillion shots of one sight.  Too much of a good thing.  OTOH, at St. Denis yesterday I'm thinking...what would make a good blog shot?  And after we left, I realized I forgot to take a pic of the front of the basilica..it wouldn't have been a good one cuz it was in shade.

But then, the purpose of our trip is not to write a blog....that should be incidental.  Gots to keep a balance.

With that in mind, here we go.

Basilica St. Denis (pronounced Duh-nee') is a cathedral in the classic French Gothic style, but it is also the burial site of many of the French royalty.

A standard feature of Gothic architecture is the flying buttress.

The one on the left (hard to see cuz it's freshly sand-blasted) & the more visible one on the right.

No boring lecture on how they work & what they do.

 This is a shot looking down the Nave (main aisle).  I used the telephoto so it's alot longer/bigger than it seems here.

The stained glass window at the end of the nave.

If you've been to Notre Dame, you recognize this circular type of window.  The arches above it support all the weight so the window doesn't have to.  Very clever, them Gothic architects.

This is a memorial to Louis XVI & Marie-Antoinette.  Thanks to his excesses & those of several Louis' before him, the French lost their patience in 1789.  These two were imprisoned, led a miserable existence until they lost their heads in 1793.

On the good side, an earlier forebear to the Louis', here is Henry IV, a very good king, built things like the Place des Voges (oldest square in Paris).  Until he was assassinated, of course.

Strewn about the main floor are tombs of lesser noble-folks.  The most popular pose is what the yoga people would call Namasté Supta Tadasana.

And that concludes our little tour of Basilica St. Denis.