Well, I'm a bit tired after today, so I don't plan on writing too much. I managed to wake myself up a little bit earlier than yesterday (10 a.m., I think). Since there's no toaster in the apartment I had to grill my bread on a frying pan with a tiny tiny bit of butter. That, with some confiture de fraises (strawberry jam) and a hot cup of coffee from the french press got me moving pretty quickly.
Due to some communication issues the previous night, I decided the first order of business was to purchase a headset compatible with Skype. This makes talking to folks back home inexpensive, and will also be handy to contact people here in Paris without blowing a dollar per minute. I brought it home and quickly hooked it up. Luckily, James was awake (I imagined he would be even though it was before 8 am, seeing how he's a worker and often an early riser) and answered the phone more politely and enthusiastically than I could've expected anyone to do so early. We had a nice brief chat, but I had to run off to see sights before the sunshine--yes, we actually had sun today--disappeared.
I opted to give Notre Dame a second chance, since I was in the neighborhood again. In fact, I was glad I did. First, I 
was able to swing around to the south side of the church, where the "spidery" section of buttresses is located (see left). I was duly impressed both by the engineering and the beauty it conferred upon the structure's exterior. I also got a close look at the lovely "Pieta" group (see right, 19th c., I think?) in the altar area. I still think medieval architecture is a bit dull when compared with its Renaissance counterpart, but I guess you can't get to B without starting with A.
Speaking of Renaissance architecture, however, I made a bee-line for l'Eglise St. Eustache, a truly great church in which Louis XIV (the so called Sun-King) was baptized and Mozart's mother had her funeral. In its architectural style, it represents a transition from Gothic to (Italian-inspired) Renaissance, but many of the paintings and sculptures on its interior come from the 18th century and later. Immediately noticeable, however, is the structure's tendency to pull the viewer upward (see right) via the brightness of the clerestory, especially to the impressive vault of the transept (the area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform/cross-shaped building.) The "verticality" of the structure is also emphasized by means of the secondary columns, engaged with the main ones, to create more vertical lines. (I.e., look up close at the vertical columns and you'll see, especially by the upper windows, that other columns are carved into the main ones.) These lines carry all the way from the floor to the vaulted ceilings, and it's worth comparing this to the picture of the nave of Notre Dame, where the capitals on the first-story clearly interrupt their vertical movement. On the other hand, the first-story columns of St-Eustache are much taller; that couldn't hurt their vertical pull now, could it?
Notable at Saint Eustache also is the great organ (installed 1989), which was massive and beautiful-sounding during the rehearsal that I heard while walking around.
The picture's perspective is actually thrown off by the organ, which appears so big in the frame that it actually "shrinks" the size of the nave. I think the audioguide (3 euros) said it was like 40 feet across. Perhaps it was more... Anyway, I think there are concerts here in June, so I may try to go if there anything like what I heard today.
Ah, and now the truly important stuff: the clothing I purchased. A place called Mirene (6 rue de rivoli) had the sweater I was looking for and desperately in need of in this cool weather. It also had a great brown jacket (spring/fall) which I couldn't resist to purchase as a replacement for the brown GAP jacket I bought in 1997. Yes, that's 10 years ago. Both jacket and sweater appear below, albetit in kind of blurry, dark pictures. I'm sorry but you'll just have to wait to see them in person!
Time for bed, I think. Til tomorrow, when I'll describe the crepe I had. Yum.
Due to some communication issues the previous night, I decided the first order of business was to purchase a headset compatible with Skype. This makes talking to folks back home inexpensive, and will also be handy to contact people here in Paris without blowing a dollar per minute. I brought it home and quickly hooked it up. Luckily, James was awake (I imagined he would be even though it was before 8 am, seeing how he's a worker and often an early riser) and answered the phone more politely and enthusiastically than I could've expected anyone to do so early. We had a nice brief chat, but I had to run off to see sights before the sunshine--yes, we actually had sun today--disappeared.
I opted to give Notre Dame a second chance, since I was in the neighborhood again. In fact, I was glad I did. First, I 
was able to swing around to the south side of the church, where the "spidery" section of buttresses is located (see left). I was duly impressed both by the engineering and the beauty it conferred upon the structure's exterior. I also got a close look at the lovely "Pieta" group (see right, 19th c., I think?) in the altar area. I still think medieval architecture is a bit dull when compared with its Renaissance counterpart, but I guess you can't get to B without starting with A.
Speaking of Renaissance architecture, however, I made a bee-line for l'Eglise St. Eustache, a truly great church in which Louis XIV (the so called Sun-King) was baptized and Mozart's mother had her funeral. In its architectural style, it represents a transition from Gothic to (Italian-inspired) Renaissance, but many of the paintings and sculptures on its interior come from the 18th century and later. Immediately noticeable, however, is the structure's tendency to pull the viewer upward (see right) via the brightness of the clerestory, especially to the impressive vault of the transept (the area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform/cross-shaped building.) The "verticality" of the structure is also emphasized by means of the secondary columns, engaged with the main ones, to create more vertical lines. (I.e., look up close at the vertical columns and you'll see, especially by the upper windows, that other columns are carved into the main ones.) These lines carry all the way from the floor to the vaulted ceilings, and it's worth comparing this to the picture of the nave of Notre Dame, where the capitals on the first-story clearly interrupt their vertical movement. On the other hand, the first-story columns of St-Eustache are much taller; that couldn't hurt their vertical pull now, could it?Notable at Saint Eustache also is the great organ (installed 1989), which was massive and beautiful-sounding during the rehearsal that I heard while walking around.
The picture's perspective is actually thrown off by the organ, which appears so big in the frame that it actually "shrinks" the size of the nave. I think the audioguide (3 euros) said it was like 40 feet across. Perhaps it was more... Anyway, I think there are concerts here in June, so I may try to go if there anything like what I heard today.Ah, and now the truly important stuff: the clothing I purchased. A place called Mirene (6 rue de rivoli) had the sweater I was looking for and desperately in need of in this cool weather. It also had a great brown jacket (spring/fall) which I couldn't resist to purchase as a replacement for the brown GAP jacket I bought in 1997. Yes, that's 10 years ago. Both jacket and sweater appear below, albetit in kind of blurry, dark pictures. I'm sorry but you'll just have to wait to see them in person!
Time for bed, I think. Til tomorrow, when I'll describe the crepe I had. Yum.
posted by l'etranger at 11:11 PM
2 Comments:
I personally think there should be more pctures of you on this blog. I love the descriptions of architecture - you can take the man out of Yale, but you can't take the Yale out of the man.
Whoah. I was actually with you when you bought that GAP jacket. You got your money's worth. The easter egg orange shirt I bought that day hasn't aged as well...
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