Week three took Lisa and me and Mary to Basilique de St. Denis. Pat took Grandma and me there when Grandma was here. The crypt and a lot of the cathedral are stocked with the tombs of most of the kings and queens of France. This is the cloak of the last king who was buried in the church through normal circumstances (not Louis 16th for instance who was beheaded.)
If you compare the photo of ND to St. Denis you can see some similarities but also some differences. Some historians say that the front of St. Denis and the very back are the oldest examples of gothic architecture in Paris.
If you look closely at the photo, you will see that the lower windows on the back of the church are much smaller and are less ornate than the larger rose windows and others in the middle of the church. Those smaller windows are an example of the 12th century gothic architecture, before they knew how little concrete or stone was needed to hold up the walls. The upper wings or the flying buttresses on St. Denis are not the original ones, and date after the buttresses on Notre Dame. ND was built from the back first and then towards the front. St. Denis was built by the front 1/3 first and the last 1/3 second, requiring someone to finish the middle to complete the church!
There is not much original glass in St. Denis because of the French Revolution. St. Denis has always been strongly associated with the kings of France, and at the revolution that was not a good association to have if you wanted to remain standing. It is now being restored, again, and there was work going on when we were there.
After our tour, Mary, Lisa and I had lunch at a cafe across the street and chatted about the happy coincidence of meeting, and we planned our next week's lunch at the oldest house in Paris, that of Nicolas Flamel, a mysterious alchemist.
