So Many Little Chapels!

Posted On July 13, 2019

Here’s the latter half of my second week in Paris, in terms of churches, chocolate, and cheese!

As always, this blog post really isn’t that long-there’s just a lot of pictures!

Churches

July 10th

While Père Lachaise Cemetery is not consecrated ground, many of the graves feature small chapels, where family members can go and pray. Below are some of my favorites. In the first row, the chapels either had no doors or the doors have since disappeared, so you can look inside and see how the chapels are laid out.

 

At the cemetery, there is a consecrated Catholic chapel. According to Wikipedia, the construction of this neoclassic chapel of Pere Lachaise, the Chapel of the East, was started in 1820 and ended in 1823. The chapel was built at the site of the house of Father La Chaise, the confessor of King Louis XIV and who the cemetery is named after. It was consecrated in 1834. The parish of Our Lady of Perpetual Help takes care of it. It is only open on All Saints’ Day, so we were not able to go inside.

 

While we were walking to the cemetery, and then when we inside, I saw glimpses from a church. Using Google Maps and Street View, as well as looking at pictures, I figured out that it was the basilique Notre-Dame-du-Perpétuel-Secours, or the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, the same one that takes care of the chapel.

According to its website, it started out as a chapel, built in 1872, which in 1874 came under the possession of the Redemptorist Fathers (a Catholic Order). By 1898, this current church was built, in the neo-Gothic style. It has one nave and 14 side chapels. In 1960 it became a parish church. Finally, on June 25, 1966, this church was raised to the status of Minor Basilica.

 

Matt, Emily, and I went back to the Latin Quarter and had dinner, where I again saw the Notre Dame, Saint-Séverin, and Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre. For whatever reason, I didn’t take pictures of Saint-Séverin, but here are pictures of the other two.

July 11th

As a class, we briefly walked to this church, La Madeleine, and talked about its architecture style(s) and history. (It’s a mix of Greek and Roman temples with Christian imagery).

According to its website and Wikipedia, this church had two false starts and basically, the construction of this church was a mess (the latter statement is my words, not theirs). First, on April 3  1763, King Louis XV placed the first stone of a new church, with the design featuring a Latin cross plan, a dome, and peristyle. However, the architect, Contant d’Ivry, died in 1777, and his role was taken over by Guillaume-Martin Couture, who modified the design. By the start of the French Revolution in 1789, only the foundation and portico were there. The National Assembly stopped the construction, while projects and idea went around for what this could be in Revolutionary France, rather than a church.

Then, in 1806, Napoleon decided to build a temple to the Glory of the Grand Army. A competition then followed for the design. The winner, Vignon, was decided by Napoleon, over the judges who chose another. The design was based off of a Roman temple in Nîmes, Maison Carrée. Everything but the columns were destroyed to make way for this design. However, Napoleon fell.

In 1815, King Louis XVIII decided to make this building a church, dedicated to Mary Magdalene. After Vignon died in 1828, Jacques-Marie Huvé took over. A new competition occurred in 1928-1929 for the design of the pediment, the winner being Philippe Joseph Henri Lemaire. This church is in the Neoclassical style, with its pediment showing Mary Magdalene acting as intercessor for Damned souls. The church’s vaults were completed in 1831. It was finally consecrated on July 24, 1842.

July 12th

Nothing churchy on this day, except that we again went to the Latin Quarter and I saw Notre-Dame, Saint-Séverin, and Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre.

Chocolate

July 10th

I had some Envitas cereal and chocolate chip breakfast biscuits for breakfast.

Dr. Smith brought snacks (food and drinks) when we met up to tour the cemetery. I don’t know where they came from, but this pain au chocolate was really good! It was clearly fresh and was soft and flaky. There was a good amount of rich chocolate as well. The best pain au chocolat so far!

 

For dinner in the Latin Quarter, we went to Le Grand Bistrot. The food wasn’t great, but it was realtevly inexpensive. The chocolate mousse was better than the one I had on the 7th at Le Petit Hostellerie, which is only a minute away from this place. The mousse had a nice, light and fluffy texture. The chocolate flavor wasn’t super rich, but overall the mousse was reasonably good.

Also, the spoon that came with it was so small! It wasn’t even the size of my hand! The bowl-shaped part of the spoon was the size of my thumb, only a little wider.

July 11th

Dr. Smith brought us to the Lindt store, where we had a 10 euro limit to pick stuff out. When we entered, we each got a sample truffle. This was the first time I have ever had a 70% LINDOR truffle. Wow, it’s good!

This store reminds me of the Ghirardelli Chocolate Factory Outlet in San Leandro, California. My grandparents lived in San Leandro, and whenever we’d visit, we’d always go to there and fill up a big bag of chocolate squares, some of which aren’t found in stores or are typically seasonal. In this store, instead of chocolate squares, it’s truffles.

Though, ironically, I didn’t get any truffles. I got a box of dark chocolates (dark chocolate is my favorite) and a chocolate bar with the flavor of lava cake. Chocolate lava cakes are my favorite dessert, so hopefully this is similar to that!

(P.S. in the picture, the bar is covering part of the box, which is why it looks small and not symmetrical)

(I may have to go back to the store and get some truffles before the end of the month…)

 

After I went to the dining hall, which had run out of dessert, I got a nutella crepe from that stand right outside the university. It was really good! There was plenty of nutella. The pancake is more like the ones you get in the US-like a stereotypical crepe, not a buckwheat one. I can see myself going back a lot to that stand! (My blood sugar will hate me, but my taste buds will be happy!)

July 12

My group and I went to the Latin Quarter for dinner. I’m not sure what restaurant we went to, but we did the menu option of appetizer, main dish, and dessert for 12 euro.

The dessert I got was Neapolitan ice cream. Like the other two places I’ve eaten at in the Latin Quarter, there was chocolate mousse, but unlike the other two places, it was on the more expensive menu, so I went for ice cream. It was pretty good. My favorite flavor was, of course, the chocolate. The ice cream was the typical hard (?) ice cream you get in the US. I don’t have a picture, as my phone’s storage was full.

Cheese

July 10

No cheese on Wednesday, unfortunately

July 11th

For dinner, I went to the cafeteria/dining hall here on the university campus. One of the things I got was this blue cheese and lettuce plate. This is definitely a plate only for those who like blue cheese, since the only flavor that really comes through is the cheese! This blue cheese wasn’t the best I’ve ever had, but at least it had a decently strong flavor.

July 12

For the appetizer in the Latin Quarter, I got a cheese crepe. While the menu didn’t say what type of cheese it was, it tasted like Emmental to me. It was pretty good! The crepe was in the triangle shape that you find most often in the US, but the pancake(?) was more like the buckwheat ones I’ve had in Paris.

The main dish I got was a cheeseburger and fries. Unfortunately, my phone’s storage was filled up and I was unable to take a picture. It was also pretty good-just a standard burger and standard fries. I’m not entirely sure what type of cheese was used. It felt very American, eating a cheeseburger and fries.

At least there was a little more cheese during these few days than the beginning of the week!