St. Sulpice, Market And Church, Vavin/Brea Flea Market, And An Organ Concert

Our major task for June 5th was getting Penelope to CDG to rejoin her parents and begin their week-long tour of the Loire and then Normandy. That accomplished, we returned home and crashed. The next few days we stayed close to home, doing the brocante/antiques market at Saint Sulpice, the church itself, the Vavin/Brea vide grenier pop-up flea market, more of the Louvre couture show, and then a couple days later, an organ concert at St. Sulpice.

Nearby, en route to St. Sulpice, a high-end watch manufacturer...
the old-fashioned Swiss way...don't even ask about the prices

At the St. Sulpice brocante market...Grandma's eyeball collection

A worn but beautifully carved meerschaum; apart from the eyeballs,
it's really a formidable market...sometimes books, sometimes art, 
sometimes collectibles

And if you don't have time to reload...

Now in the church...one of the most evangelically-
in your face Catholic churches we've seen; and one
we've visited many times before; this is a traveling
Shroud of Turin show we've seen in countless churches
on the Continent; I've always thought the St. Veronica
Turin Shroud would make a great tea towel...

Blessings for every budget, price range...

Main altar

Above: they only did swirlers in the Renaissance

Chapel of the Virgin

We'll be back: St. Sulpice has one of the great symphonic
organs

The Gnomon Astronomique: read Dan Brown for the
more interesting story

St. Sulpice's flying pulpit: don't go up the downstairs

Now at the Vavin/Brea pop-up flea market

A street barricade, not for sale

Most interesting St. Sebastian yet

Now back at St. Sulpice for the organ concert, a guest organist from
Bordeaux; note, it takes three to play this monster, with its five manuals
and more than a hundred stops; the two assistants are pulling out and pushing
in the various stops; this is Charles Marie Widor's organ; my favorite organ
 composer, after Bach and Buxtehude, of course; played it at St. Sulpice for
sixty-three years; sitting in the church, your back is to the organ, and of
course, the organist and team are completely out of (natural) view; but the
miracle of TV allows you to see what's going on

Intricate footwork; never mind the non-matching socks; if you watch
organ recitals on YouTube, like I do, you know that it's no longer 
just about the sound, but also the keyboard, the footwork, the performer's
body language and facial expressions; gives a whole new meaning to
"organ videos," and you don't have to be eighteen to watch

Taking a well-deserved bow