World Enough and Time

Once upon a time, when the Romans were martyring Christians, the Romans tried to get rid of a troublesome Parisian bishop named Denis by chopping his head off. It might have worked with most people, but Bishop Denis was more stubborn than most. He picked his head up off the ground and stalked off with it, walking with it as far as the nearby village of saint-Denis before conceding to death. They buried him there. The place became a place of miracles and holy relics. And then - starting with Clovis, the first French King, it became the burial place of (almost) all the kings and queens of France.

This is the kind of place I have to see, so rosiespark and I went there by metro today and had a wonderful time.

Here are some photos. Apologies for having the wrong setting on my camera all day - big oops. I'm sure her photos turned out better. But my erroneous settings did rather good on the dark interior shots.

1. The Basilique Saint-Denis ( as seen across the Place Saint-Denis... )

2. On the door: ( a cat-dragon... )

3. It was children's day ( Read more... )

4. The interior of the ( Basilica of Saint-Denis... )

5. Each king of France has his ( effigy... )

6. The floor in the nave has a design of each sign of the zodiac, though some were covered. Here's the design for ( Gemini... )

7. Though almost all the kings and queen of France ( were there... )

8. At the foot of a tomb of a prince who died in his teens, is ( this wonderful scene of two people reading books... )

There will be more pictures from me. This is just to whet your appetite.