St. Etienne du Mont, 2026

We visited the church of St. Etienne du Mont in 2014, relatively early in our education about religious art and architecture. The main things I remember are that a) it really is a bit of a mont, especially if you're approaching from the river, b) it's one of those mixed designs, starting out as very late flamboyant Gothic, ending up as Renaissance, and c) the stained glass window depicting (unforgettably) Noah's ark with a unicorn aboard. As we'll see below, there's plenty more. The 2014 visit is recorded here.

Full frontal; we did visit St. Etienne's in 2024, exterior
only to get a shot of me sitting on the steps, as Gil Pender
did, in Midnight in Paris; it wasn't midnight though

Inside; everything you need to know; and in English too

The main thing is the rood screen, the only one remaining in Paris;
it's the bridge-looking thing...

Very beautifully designed and carved; the rood screen was meant to
keep the knaves ignorant of the mumbo jumbo/hocus pocus the 
priests were doing up front; abolished by the Council of Trent, after
the Reformation; apparently St. Etitenne did not get the memo 

Another thing...the incredibly carved pulpit...details
below

And another thing, the great 17th century organ case; too bad
about the rose window

Carvings on the pulpit

Samson; not Hercules

Charity and the children

We are now moving along toward the shrine of St. Genevieve, patron
saint of Paris; we're still pondering what the system is...

Medieval burials along the way

Also along the way, burial of philosopher Blaise Pascal;

lost his wager, but did get this nice plaque

Some of what you might want to know about all this; 
Genevieve saved Paris from Attila in the 5th century...
among other good works

The Revolution hated the Church as much as the monarchy, 
murdering priests and nuns right and left, desecrating churches and
monuments; Genevieve was not helped by having been appropriated
by the royals; her bones were put on trial, convicted, burned, and the
ashes tossed into the Seine; what's in the box is just the slab her bones
originally rested on, miraculously found; but, hey, it's the efficacy,
right?

Do not stuff your messages to the saint into the box; very difficult
to clean out

Put them here

Helpful map of the area, which enabled us to get to the flea market
on Rue Soufflot...after we had seen St. Etienne's great windows...
next post...

Omnipresent influencers by the Pantheon; modeling their
footwear