Wednesday, November 17, 2021

Au Revoir Paris

 On our departure day, we made a quick visit to Saint Pierre de Monmartre which is another church within spitting distance of the basilica. On one of our first days, a friendly Parisian man having a café recognized us as visitors and offered some directions as well as a recommendation to visit his parish church of Saint Pierre, so we got to it on our last day! It is one of the oldest surviving churches in the city of Paris (although it has also been through restorations.)


Saint Pierre de Montmartre

Saint Pierre de Montmartre. The friendly Parisian guy recommended the stained glass windows, but it's kinda hard to be impressed after visiting La Sainte Chapelle and Saint Denis!

On our way out of Paris, we stopped in the town of Arganteuil, which is essentially a suburb of Paris. A docent at ND des Victoires told me about it - that this church houses the relic of Jesus' tunic! She said so few people know about it. Since I had a car, I was able to add this stop to our itinerary relatively easily. It's probably reachable by public transportation, but it would undoubtedly involve commuter trains and buses.

Jesus' Tunic. There is a little passage underneath it that pilgrims can walk through. The little passsage way has an opaque ceiling and walls, that are painted, so it's not like you can see up through the bottom of the reliquary, unfortunately, but it's still cool to walk under it and be close to it.

These two panels explain the origin and authenticity of the relic. 


A first for me: rotisserie heads! Tongues, teeth, eyeballs, and all!  The neighborhood around the church appears to be predominantly Muslim, so I'm guessing these are goat heads, maybe sheep.


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