Les églises du Marais

The churches of the Marais don't get a lot of attention. There are too many other things of note in this district. I had a return to make at the BHV ("eternal return" is not a myth), and most of the other things I had hoped to see in the area didn't pan out. So, I visited a few of the churches I had noticed on previous visits.

Nave of the church of St. Gervais

Elevation...Gothic on the inside

Not at all Gothic on the facade; actually we
saw this a bit in the Cistercian churches in
Portugal...austere Gothic on the inside, over-
the-top Baroque on the outside

We had walked past and noted Hector Guimard's Rue Pavee
Synagogue previously; I read later that, although it is
generally closed, if one knocked at the door and asked
politely, the caretaker might permit a look around--Guimard
did all the interior ornamentation as well as the exterior

I asked, but the attendant rather curtly
said "no visit!"; the latest Gaza war is going
on, quite a few Jewish businesses have been
vandalized in Muslim protests around Paris,
and I might have known it was not going to
work; I understand; maybe next time; the
Germans dynamited this synagogue and six
others in Paris on Yom Kippur in 1941;
the French rebuilt and restored it, opening
it finally in 1989 as a "national monument"

St. Paul's, on Rue Rivoli; famous for its
namesake Metro stop (?)

If it ain't Baroque, don't fix it

Later that evening Kim and Dave took us out for dinner at
Chez Rene--the company was so entertaining I forgot to
take pix--but we walked past the Orient Express exhibit/
restaurant on Boulevard St. Germain

Thus; at the Arab Institute

And enjoyed a gorgeous view of Notre Dame from the Pont
de Sully on the way back home