La Sainte-Chapelle, the Glory of Paris (Europe #18)

La Sainte-Chapelle, the Holy Chapel!

This Gothic cathedral is my favorite place in Paris! It has the most stunning stained glass windows I have ever seen!

Can you sense my enthusiasm?

La Sainte-Chapelle, like Notre Dame just blocks away, is on Île de la Cité, an island on the Seine River in Paris. It was built in the 1200's as part of the Royal Palace, and was a medieval reliquary, housing sacred relics belonging to Louis IX. Due to damage, it has had to be restored at various times, and additions have been built.

I already couldn't wait to go to Sainte-Chapelle. And then I discovered that classical concerts are performed there. I splurged and bought tickets for Joanna and me to see Classik Ensemble perform Vivaldi's Four Seasions, Pachelbel's "Canon", and Vitali's "Chaconne". What a treat!

I was in ecstasy during the entire concert. Beautiful music, beautiful architecture, beautiful daughter by my side. Just beautiful.

I have included a few videos from the concert in this post.

"Winter, Allegro" from Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)

"Chaconne" by Tomaso Antonio Vitali (1663-1745)




"Canon" by Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706)




Although I purchased two after the concert, I can't find their CD of this music (Les Quatre Saisons) available for American purchase on-line. However, you can get their other album "Vioin & Songs at Amazon.


Now, back to the stained glass!

The upper chapel radiates with 15 stained glass panels that are 50 feet high, with only narrow supports between them. You are surrounded with color and light!

Since the concert was in the evening and I knew I would get a better view in sunlight, I came back the next day and took more of these pictures.

The rose window was added a hundred years after the other windows. Each tiny section of the rose window illustrates a story from a scene in the book of Revelation in the Bible. Fascinating! Read more here: The Sainte-Chapelle Rose Window: St. John's Revelation

Believe it or not, the photo below is of the same window in evening lighting. Looking back in my photos, I was wracking my brain trying to identify where this blue window was in the chapel since I couldn't find it on Google - but it was right there all along. Then I remembered reading that this window takes on a different color tone depending the lighting. You can tell by the same ornamentation beneath.

Here is a closer view of the painting below the rose window and above the door.

There is also a smaller "lower chapel" at Sainte-Chapelle.

I can't help but return the glorious upper chapel for the last several photos. Breathtaking!

More about Saint-Chapelle and its windows?

• Discover Paris: Sainte-Chapelle
• The Sainte-Chapelle Rose Window: St. John's Revelation
• Religious Architecture: La Sainte-Chapelle
• Laser surgery restores Sainte-Chapelle stained glass window to Gothic glory
• France's Most Beautiful Stained-Glass Windows
• European Architecture: Sainte-Chapelle

You can see my 15 Switzerland photo posts here: Switzerland.

You will find Paris posts here as I create them: Paris.

• Eiffel Tower and Seine River Cruise
• Notre Dame Cathedral
• La Sainte-Chapelle, the Glory of Paris
• A Little Louvre Love
• Musee d'Orsay in Paris
• Arc de Triomphe and a Late Night Dinner in Paris 
• Basilique de Sacré-Cœur in Paris
• Palace of Versailles
• Gardens of Versailles in Autumn

God bless!

Virginia

Mürren and Gimmelwald by Cable Car (Europe #10)

Welcome back to my Europe photo series!

After nearly an hour of walking from our hotel in Lauterbrunnen, we finally arrived at the cable car that would take us up the mountains.

There were four possible stops along the route, the top being Schilthorn, where there is a revolving restaurant which appears in a James Bond movie. Unfortunately, since it was so late in the afternoon, we could only go to the first two stops, Mürren and Gimmelwald. We debated waiting and going the next day, but remembered it was supposed to be rainy. We decided to go as far as we could just to make sure we got up there at all, and then try again the next day if the weather was better than expected. This turned out to be a wise choice, since it was extremely foggy for the remainder of our time in Lauterbrunnen, and we never did get to go up again.

This is the map of the Jungfrau region. You can see the two lakes, and in between them, the city of Interlaken.

Looking down from the cable car.

I didn't realize until we were almost to Mürren that there as a calf on board with us!

His keeper wheeled him out in a cart. Note the birds in the background.

The frisky calf frolicked all the way up the path, making it difficult for his keeper.

Alpbutter, anyone? Sounds yummy!

No cars in Mürren, but there sure are a lot of cows!

Oh, the views!

After walking around Mürren, we climbed aboard the cable car again to ride up to Gimmelwald.

Most of the shops and restaurants are closed between mid-October and mid-November (when the Christmas ski season starts), but we did find a little cafe with carrot cake, cocoa, and cappucino.

When we got off the cable car, we were so tired! We had expected to be able to go to the kiosk to buy a bus ticket back to Lauterbrunnen, but it was closed! We could only use cash, and we found out when we got on the bus that we didn't have enough. There was no way I wanted to walk all the way back in the dark! Fortunately, a kind Asian couple offered to pay our bus fare, and we sank gratefully into the seats.

After we got back, we met up with Joanna's friends Murray (from Australia) and Yoshija (from Bern, Switzerland) and drove down to Interlaken for a couple of hours. Isn't it pretty?

What an amazing first day in the Alps!

Blessings,
Virginia

My Europe posts so far:

#1: Off to Europe!
#2: Our First Afternoon in Geneve
#3: On the Shores of Lake Geneva
#4: All Around Geneve, All by Myself
#5: Sweet Sunday Morning in Geneve
#6: Saint-Pierre Cathedral
#7: Musée d'Art et d'Histoire
#8: On Our Way to the Swiss Alps
#9: O Little Town of Lauterbrunnen 
#10: Mürren and Gimmelwald by Cable Car
#11: Staubbachfall in Lauterbrunnen
#12: Foggy Days in Lauterbrunnen
#13: Trümmelbachfalle, Ten Waterfalls in a Big Swiss Cave
#14: St. Beatus Caves at Lake Thun in Switzerland
#15: An Evening in Bern