Day Three - Paris: The Hôpital Saint-Louis and First Look at the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris
Day three was a light, refreshing day.
As on many days we split up into different groups with different interests.
Jen and I walked with Dietrich, Nora and Charis to the Hôpital Saint-Louis in the morning, seeing a different Paris and feeling better and better about the entire city on the way. (A good night’s sleep probably did wonders, but the smell of pâtisserie after pâtisserie didn’t hurt either.) The Hôpital was founded in 1607 by Henry IV of France and was suggested as a destination by Google Now’s “Photos Nearby” card, which often took us to interesting locations that would not have been featured in any guidebook.
On the way, we encountered our first instance of “Love Locks” while crossing a canal bridge. Apparently, this is a blossoming European phenomenon. ‘Lovers’ write their names on a padlock, secure it to a bridge and throw the key into the water below. Delightfully, Jen spotted a lock with “M & M 2013” written on it, bringing to mind our newlywed Minnesota friends Matt and Mary Brickweg.
Not knowing anything about it before arriving, we were surprised to find that the Hôpital was still a working hospital.
One the way back, we stopped to have lunch on the Rue René Boulanger, Jen at a crêperie and the kids and I at a falafel shop next door.
After lunch, we walked south on the Rue Saint-Martin with the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris in mind as a destination. Along the way, we stopped by a small children’s park, the Square Emile Chautemps (where Nora and Charis would have played the rest of the night away) and passed the Centre National d'Art et de Culture George Pompidou, the Tour Saint-Jaques, and the Hôtel de Ville.
Circling around the Île de la Cité to make the best approach to Notre-Dame, we encountered the booksellers and their strange green bookcases along the quai, and the “Love Lock” tradition was on full golden display as we crossed the Pont de l'Archevêché.
On this first trip to Notre-Dame, I was most struck by two things. The first was the difficulty of getting a good shot of the cathedral itself. The second was the fascinating diversity of the gargoyles.
On the way home, we stopped by a little shop for some macarons. (I believe this was Jen’s first experience of the dessert, which came highly recommended by my sister Janine.) We also wandered through the surprising Jardin Anne Frank, the first experience of my favorite part of Paris -- the public gardens.
Dinner and an early bedtime capped off a day that improved Paris by a long stretch.
Day 03 Reflections:
I don’t know why I suspected that, being over 400 years old, the Hôpital Saint-Louis would not be a working hospital, but this was a first instance of something I would mark throughout my time in France. The country is not and appears never to have been in a “move on” mode. Their history seems deeply embedded in their present -- at least in the parts of Paris where we spent most of our time. This was in sharp contrast to London -- again, at least the parts of the city where we were.
The experience of trying to photograph Notre-Dame raised interesting questions about photography, art and location that continued throughout the trip. There is no substitute in terms of experience for being present to a work of art. Space, time, surface, texture and many other aspects of physical reality are cheated by the image printed in a book or displayed on a screen. The artwork (or building, or square, or city) is reduced in significance, having been mastered by another human medium. This doesn’t mean I will stop photographing reality or stop looking at images, but it does raise interesting questions about the role of images in our understanding of reality and, for me, sounds a cautionary note.
My experiences and reflections on both of the above topics paralleled throughout the trip my reading of Catholic priest, professor and theologian Romano Guardini's Letters from Lake Como: Explorations in Technology and the Human Race, written in the early 20th century. I say ‘paralleled’ because, while neither determined the quality of the other, reading the book and experiencing Europe seemed to run together intellectually and spiritually.
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