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.
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| 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 |
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| Inside; everything you need to know; and in English too |
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| The main thing is the rood screen, the only one remaining in Paris; it's the bridge-looking thing... |
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| 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 |
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| Another thing...the incredibly carved pulpit...details below |
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| And another thing, the great 17th century organ case; too bad about the rose window |
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| Carvings on the pulpit |
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| Samson; not Hercules |
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| Charity and the children |
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| We are now moving along toward the shrine of St. Genevieve, patron saint of Paris; we're still pondering what the system is... |
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| Medieval burials along the way |
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Also along the way, burial of philosopher Blaise Pascal; lost his wager, but did get this nice plaque |
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| Some of what you might want to know about all this; Genevieve saved Paris from Attila in the 5th century... among other good works |
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| 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? |
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| Do not stuff your messages to the saint into the box; very difficult to clean out |
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| Put them here |
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| 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... |
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| Omnipresent influencers by the Pantheon; modeling their footwear |
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| Our day ended, a few hours later, with an excellent vide grenier on the Rue Soufflot |
