After breakfast at the happy cafe, we took the metro over to Saint Chapelle, a 13th century building with some of the best stained glass I've ever seen. It's very near Notre Dame, but behind the walls of an administrative complex, so it's only open during normal business hours. We got there too late last time we visited Paris, so we waited in a short line to see the Chapelle this time around.
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| Entrance of Saint Chapelle |
At first I was a little disappointed, as the main entrance had some nice stained glass and a cool statue, but now that I've been in Europe for a while, it wasn't all that impressive. Then we went up a winding staircase to the 1st floor chapel, and you turn the corner and see this:
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| Wikipedia's picture of Saint Chapelle (NOT MY PHOTO) |
The ceiling was amazing, painted with wee fleur-de-lis.
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| Ceiling |
And all of the stained glass panels were breathtaking!
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| Impressive Stained Glass |
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| Stained glass panel |
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| Another stained glass panel |
No photos really do the windows justice. I believe I read that this room holds the most in situ, original 13th century stained glass in the world.
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| Lectern and stained glass |
On our way out we spotted two carved figurines in the massive doors. These little guys were probably the size of my fist, but so much detail was put into them. I wish buildings today were erected with such attention to detail. But then again, I have to remember that this building was a massive undertaking and not by any means a typical build.
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| Tiny carved angels |
I took a bottle of HotToddy's hot sauce (my brother's company) with me and had a bit of fun photographing it around Paris. I especially like how these two photos from Saint Chapelle turned out.
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| HotToddy sauce and a griffin |
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| Fleur de lis and HotToddy sauce |
Security guards were a bit confused as to why I was carrying sauce around in my coat pocket all weekend, I tried to explain, but they just rolled their eyes and let me pass. :-)
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