I spent a week in Paris during the summer of 2018 as an on-site program coordinator for an architectural history and urban studies study abroad program. We spent two weeks in London before taking a train through the Chunnel, and also took a day trip to Versailles while in Paris. We criss-crossed France’s capital, visiting famed religious buildings, monuments, and museums.
Our first stop was Sainte-Chapelle, a 13th century Gothic royal chapel with exquisite stained glass windows. On a lunch break, I walked by the Paris City Hall, bedecked in rainbow flags for the upcoming Pride Parade, which I watched a few days later. We took a Seine River cruise and picnicked under the Eiffel Tower at sunset.
We visited the Louvre, the largest art museum in the world housed in an old royal palace. The best part of the Louvre is I. M. Pei’s glass pyramid in the center of the palace’s courtyard. My favorite museum in Paris, both in terms of its architecture and collections, is the Musée d’Orsay. On the banks of the Seine in a former railway station built at the turn of the 20th century in the Beaux-Arts style, the Musée d’Orsay is home to paintings, sculptures, and decorative arts from about 1850 to 1915. The original train station clocks are centerpieces of the museum’s interior and exterior.
A surprisingly delightful destination was the Palais Garnier, a national opera house used these days primarily for ballet performances. The ceiling of the auditorium features an enormous chandelier and a painting by Marc Chagall. Chagall’s piece was installed over the original ceiling art in 1964, a century after the building was constructed. The painter’s modern take on opera scenes is hated by many and cited as incongruous and incomprehensible. I love it.
“I wanted to represent, as in a mirror, a bunch of dreams, the creations of the actors and musicians; to keep in mind the colorful clothes of the audience stirring on the lower level. To sing like a bird, free of any theory and method. To render homage to the great composers of operas and ballets.”
Marc Chagall
We also visited Sacré-Cœur Basilica and Notre Dame Cathedral. These photographs were taken in June 2018, months before the April 2019 fire that devastated Notre Dame. Especially as an archaeologist, I feel terrible about the loss of the historic structure. But over one billion dollars were donated towards the rebuilding of Notre Dame in the days following the fire. Paris is struggling right now with housing immigrants and keeping public transportation going. What about those causes? Paris is so much more than its famous monuments.
