Observations and not very high ku from the streets of Paris

1. NoDa

1.1) On January 30, we found that “probably the most famous image in French Gothic art” was obscured by a huge, bebaubled Christmas tree, now shabby after months of weather. The church fathers collaborating with tourism authorities.

1.2) The sun explodes
through the rose
window, darkly,
glass stained deep
by endless prayers
of hope and fear. 

1.3) A tale of two churches: St Peter’s is a bullying hulk, a palace fortress bestrode with marble colossi of saints and popes. Notre Dame is a vast theatre of dark and light, designed to bring you face to face with the sublime, and thence to Christ, a figure no larger than yourself.

1.4) Winter: when it’s chillier outside the cathedral.

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Above: Notre Dame’s south rose window over the transept, January 2012.