Church Hunt

Posted On July 30, 2019

Strap in, this is a long, long ride!

 

So, for my final project, I need to visit the oldest churches of Paris. It was starting to get to the end of the trip, so I decided to go “church hunting” several of the days-seeing numerous churches in a row on days when we didn’t have class, at least in the morning.

Since I saw so many churches from Saturday, July 20-Saturday, July 29th (I had covered all the days up to July 19th in other blog posts and so Saturday was supposed to be the start of the normal 4-day blog posts), I decided to split up my themes of Churches, Chocolate, and Cheese into two different blogs posts, with Churches in one and the other two in another, and have the posts cover the whole week. I didn’t want the other two themes extremely overshadowed by the numerous churches.

 

Since there is so many churches, and I don’t want this post to be long to the point of impossible to read or crashing WordPress, I’m not putting the histories of the churches in here. I was planning to, until I saw how long the post was even without them! This blog post is more about the process of visiting the churches, not the churches themselves. Keeping the length of this blog post shorter (this blog post is ridiculously long) is why there are only 2 pictures for each church-the front facade and the nave.

 

As with all my blog posts, this looks so long because of the pictures. This is not all text!

July 20th

When we went to the Chateau of Fontainebleau, right after the end of the tour we saw the Trinity Chapel.

 

I was also able to go back and take a picture of the inside of Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre for my project, which I hadn’t been able to do yet. I had tried several times, but I either found the church closed or hosting a concert, which meant that I couldn’t go in. I had actually slipped in right before a concert, which is why there’s price signs on the chairs. I hope to be able to go back to the church and get a different picture, but the church is only open certain hours, and during those hours it likes to host concerts! Limited opening hours and hard-to-get-inside churches is going to be a recurring theme of this blog post.

July 21st

I went to Mass at Saint-Sulpice this Sunday. You can read the blog post here.

July 22nd

With no class this Monday, this was the start of my first church hunt! Since many shops are closed Monday, I figured churches would be the same and decided to look and see what churches would actually be open. Many of them were indeed closed. However, not all were. Coincidentally, the 6 that said they would be open were in a straight line, which made things easier. Emily and I (she let me drag her along for this church hunt, since she also wanted to see Saint-Denys de la Chapelle, where according to legend Joan of Arc prayed at, and the Basilica of Sainte-Jeanne-d’Arc next to it) decided to see the furthest church first, then work out way back to the Latin Quarter, where we could get dinner. The furthest one was coincidentally Saint-Denys.  Here’s my Google Map of the churches and their times for July 22nd.

 

It took over 35 minutes to get to Saint-Denys de la Chapelle. It required numerous transfers and the bus was late. Then, when we got there, the sign said that the summer hours were different and that the church wasn’t open. However, the first front doors (the big ones on the outside, that open up to the inner doors) were open, which made me think that maybe we could go in. We waited a little bit and saw someone else go inside, so we followed suit. However, the Basilica didn’t seem to be able, so we couldn’t go inside that one. At least I could go inside this one for my project!

According to its website, Joan of Arc prayed here in 1429 before launching an unsuccessful attack on English-held Paris.

 

After we finished up seeing this church, we headed south to see the Church of Saint-Laurent. I thankfully didn’t have many issues getting inside here.

 

Then, we went to see if Saint-Nicholas-des-Champs would be open, because it was the third in the line and I didn’t want to have to retrace my steps and go back to see it, if I didn’t need to. Nope, it was not open.

 

Since it wasn’t open, we then headed to Église Saint-Leu-Saint-Gilles de Paris.

 

Then, we headed to the Church of Saint-Merry. It should have been open, according to its website, but it wasn’t. Emily wondered if it was because they were power-washing the front entrance, which we saw as we stood there. I didn’t take any pictures, since I wanted to take the outside pictures when I could also go in.

 

The fifth church I saw was St-Gervais-et-St-Protais (Emily was tired and done with seeing churches, so I finished the hunt by myself).

 

After I saw this church, I decided to go back and try to see if Saint-Merry had opened (it hadn’t) and then went back to see if Saint-Nicholas was open, since it was then becoming the time when the website said it would be open (i.e. is was nearing to 5 o’clock).

Success! 

 

Overall, 5/6 churches is pretty successful. I made it my mission, though, to see Saint-Merry before the end of the trip!

 

July 23rd

On the 25th, a group of us went to Rouen.

We saw the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Rouen.

 

then, while at the Joan of Arc museum, we saw the Chapelle d’Aubigné.

 

Finally, while in Rouen we also saw Church of St Joan of Arc.

(Unfortunately, the brightness and design of this church, which has lovely stained glass windows, did not mesh well with my phone’s camera, which is why the lighting and quality of this picture is not great)

 

July 24th

At Les Halles, we saw Saint-Eustache, which I have already gushed over.

 

When we were near the Centre Pompidou, Saint-Merry was mocking me…

 

July 25

Despite it being the hottest day in Paris ever, I wanted to check out a few more churches, as I was increasingly running out of time. These are all the churches I needed to see, though I knew that I wouldn’t get to all of them. Church Hunt round 2!

 

I decided, like the church hunt before, to see the furthest one away and make my way back towards the center of Paris and the dorm. The most northern one on the picture is Saint-Pierre de Montmartre. Since we were going to Montmartre that evening, I decided to wait and see if I could go inside while we were there (I couldn’t). The furthest one east is Saint-Germain de Charonne. I had already decided to wait until Saturday to see it, since according to Google Maps it would take around 45 minutes and I didn’t even know the hours it was open, since its website is undergoing renovations.

So, the first church I went to was Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois.

 

I also checked Saint-Merry to see if it was open. Nope! Though, to be fair, its website did say that it wouldn’t be open at that time. However, sometimes the other churches were open when I didn’t think they would be, so I felt it should check.

 

Then, I headed south to the Église Saint-Jacques-du-Haut-Pas. As a class, we had walked by this church on July 5th. Click the link of you want to read the history I wrote about it.

 

I then headed northeast (not entirely sure why I chose this route) and visited Saint-Étienne-du-Mont. We had also walked near this church on July 5th, while going to the Pantheon, which is right next to this church. Click the link of you want to read the history I wrote about it.

 

Finally, I then headed south to Saint-Médard de Paris, another we, as a class, had walked by before, a few days later than the other two on July 8th. Again, click the link of you want to read the history I wrote about it.

(P.S. the church isn’t this slanted. I don’t know why both my pictures look that way)

 

That was the end of the Church Hunt for this day. Besides Saint-Merry, which I didn’t expect to actually be open, I saw all the churches I was planning to!

 

Later in the day, we went up to Montmartre and saw the Sacré-Cœur, which is not old enough to be in my project. Absolutely beautiful though!

 

I also saw a glimpse of Saint-Pierre de Montmartre. I’ll have to go back for it.

July 26th

I saw no churches that day, amazingly. I was at Disney all day!

July 27th

This was my third Church Hunt. I needed to hit up a couple more churches: Saint-Germain de Charonne and Saint-Merry. I wasn’t going to do to Saint-Pierre that day. I had asked my Mom if she would want to go to Montmartre, as my family was flying out Friday night to Paris. Since the metro lets right out into the red light district and there are apparently plenty of pickpockets, I didn’t want to go by myself, if I didn’t have to. Also, I figured my Mom would want to go to Montmartre.

First up was Saint-Germain de Charonne. It was about 45 minutes away by metro.

What’s really cool about this church is that it still has a cemetery.

When I was there, I saw a cute gray and white tabby, who ran right over to an old lady who came in after me. Evidently, this woman has come in before, enough times for the cat to know who she is and that she means food, since when I looked back the cat was eating the food the woman brought in for it. I’m guessing that she was a parishioner. This was a nice thing to see, and a nice thing for me to think about. I’m just an annoying tourist who goes into these old, beautiful churches to take pictures, say a prayer, and leave. Yet, these churches are parishes, where people go to Mass every week, receive sacraments, and even get buried at. There are probably parishioners were have spent their whole lives at this parish. Maybe even some of them are part of families who have been parishioners for generations. To me, an American outsider, this is just a beautiful, interesting, historic church. To others, it means so much more. That’s a good thing to keep in mind.

 

Right across the street from this church was a Croatian Catholic church-Église Saint-Cyrille-Saint-Méthode de Paris. It’s not old enough to be in my project, but still lovely nonetheless.

 

Finally, I then went to check and see if I could finally go inside Saint-Merry.

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Success!

It looked like something was going on inside the church, which is why it was open. The sign outside said a concert would happen in a few hours, but someone was playing at the piano. Maybe rehearsal? Anyway, the doors were finally open!

One note about this church: it looked like it was going through some serous restorations. It also looked like it seriously needed it. It’s an absolutely beautiful church, but the stained glass windows and ceilings really needed to be cleaned. Out of all the churches I’ve been inside, this one looks like it needs the most work. Thankfully, it looks to be getting it.

You can see where paint has chipped and where things need to be cleaned. You can also see some of the piled-up furniture and supplies. Also, look! Saint Anthony of Padua is back! Seriously, I’ve seen him in so many churches in Paris. Parisians love him!

I wonder what’s behind that curtain…

 

 

 

Overall Process and Thoughts

This was harder than I expected. So many of the churches have very specific hours that it can be hard to get to them. Not only that, but sometimes even when the church should be open, its not. In addition, I have come to hate Parisian street signs. Since they’re on the side of the buildings, not free-standing like in the US, they can be hard to find and can be covered up. Also, not all streets have street signs. It’s always the street without one that is the one you need. It doesn’t help that I have a horrible sense of directions.

In terms of the churches architecture, from these churches as well as the other churches I’ve seen earlier in the month that are part of my project, in general the churches clearly all have Gothic features, such as flying buttresses, rib vaults, and rose windows, which make sense due to the time period, and often feature Baroque and Renaissance features as well, such as facades that were changed centuries after the church was originally built (that is why the facade of Saint-Denys doesn’t look medieval). A few of them, the oldest of the group, also have Romanesque features. So, overall, there’s some cohesiveness when looking at the churches, but they also show their own individual ages and the evolution of preferred architecture styles.

 

I only need to see one more church for my project: Saint-Pierre de Montmartre. I should be going with my Mom at some point, I believe on Wednesday. However, as the class will have ended by then, the church won’t be posted on this blog.