Easter at Notre Dame

 Attending Easter Mass at Notre-Dame was on our bucket list and we were able to achieve it. We arrived about 45 minutes before the Mass and didn't have any problem getting into the 10:00 service. When we left, the crowd waiting to get in was huge. There aren't any reservations so I'm sure some of the people in line were not able to attend. 

 We went to the Gregorian Mass. Since it was in Latin we figured we wouldn't be alone in not understanding what was being said. Some of the Mass was in French but part of the Homily was in English which was nice. Between the beauty of the Church and the music, it was a special experience. The choir was amazing as was the organist. 

We went out to a little place for brunch and had a quiet afternoon after a short stop in another Church. We were able to catch up with John which was a highlight of the afternoon. 

Another protest was happening near us as we were walking the neighborhood. It included a lot of folks wrapped in Iranian flags. We think they were in support of the war, some Jewish flags and American flags were also displayed. One of the signs said make Iran great again. There was a heavy police presence including machine gun toting officers. I was uncomfortable so we only observed for a brief time. 

 We took a walk and ended up sitting by the Seine for about an hour. It was a lovely place to sit and watch Paris happen around us. The city was busy this afternoon and we were happy to find a quiet spot.  Happy Easter!








This was the crowd in front of the Church as we were leaving.

    
                                                            Brunch spot

                                            
                                            Jack liked the knots and roses

                                            2nd Church






                                                              Protest  



                                                                
                                                                Peaceful Seine


                            

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

We arrived

Image
Our travel philosophy has been we need to travel while we still can. Early this evening we were both questioning whether we waited too long. Our red-eye was delayed by two and a half hours so we didn't take off until @1 AM. Neither of us got much sleep. It is amazing how uncomfortable airplane seats are.  Our apartment is on the third floor, which we knew, but lugging suitcases up stairs was a challenge.  The woman who met us at the apartment locked herself out so we passed the time in a nearby Cafe until she got the key. It ended up being a good thing. Some coffee and French onion soup refreshed us. I was able to skip a nap. Jack took a short rest and we pushed ourselves out. We walked to Notre-Dame which is about 10 minutes from us. The area is lovely and the outside of Notre-Dame is amazing.  We will tour inside another day. We stopped at a local market and picked up a few essentials, wine, coffee, cream, and hot sauce.  We also picked up something light for dinne...
Read more
Image
 I can't believe this is our last day. We fly out early tomorrow morning so we are spending the night at a hotel near the airport that has a shuttle. It's a swanky old place We returned the rental car so the end feels real. I'll try to summarize everything after we get home and settled but the bottom line is this has been an amazing adventure. I am so happy I kept this blog so we'll be able to go through it and remember everything we've done. It is a bit of a blur right now.  I do remember what we did today. We started with a nice breakfast at our hotel in Argegno and then drove to Cernobbio. This is a lovely town on Lake Como that we passed on the way to the hotel. It's very small but managed to fit in three churches. It was beautifully landscaped and is home to a very exclusive hotel we weren't able to get near, and some large villas. The downtown was charming and home to assorted restaurants and stores. We were going to have lunch here but decided to get ...
Read more