The Churches of Paris

I ended up at 4 different churches in Paris today, but not for any particularly religious reason. Alix was off to school once again and to entertain myself I called her friend Perrine, who is leaving tonight for a 3-8 month internship in the Democratic Republic of Congo. She invited me out to lunch with two other friends, Ben and Camille (both great people) so I was pleased to join. Needless to say, we ate, and then after she invited me over to the Galleries Lafayette on Boulevard Haussman to see the Macy's-style themed windows.

I always end up at the American events... and this was no exception. Apparently David Lynch took the opportunity (for money or prestige, I'm not sure) to design the 8 storefront windows, each with a various take on the theme "machinery, the city, and women" or something equally as arbitrary. Well, enough bitterness - they were FANTASTIC to say the least. I loved having this small look into the mind of a genius, or a madman, it doesn't matter. I noticed a small sign outside for a free exhibit in their permanent gallery, so we went inside too. Here, David had offered around 30 demonstrations of his recently discovered talent in lithography, each more fascinating and grotesque than the last. A personal favorite was "murder victim", so you can easily grasp what kind of subject matter was shown.

Perrine had to leave soon after, so I wished her luck and set off on foot. I was near the Opera, so I passed by the building with a quick wave and headed south toward the Seine. Here I walked in front of l'Eglise Madeline, a giant Parthenon-style romanesque building converted into a Catholic church. It was austere and beautiful, and I took the brief moment of shade to read an article from the graduate students of the American University of Paris.

Not 2 blocks from Madeline I found the Hotel Scribe! Too funny since my mom had just made reservations to stay there in October. I took a few pictures of the lobby and walked back out to summer in September. I found my way to the Place de la Concorde, across the Seine, and down to the American Church (once again). I'm still looking for people interested in English courses, so I checked their bulletin board (the reason for stopping), took down one number and set off. I thought to swing by the Musee D'Orsay on the way back, but on the way I first saw some men playing petonque (kind of like Bocce ball, but much more pretentious), and realized I was right in front of the Hotel Nationale des Invalides. Now.. this is not a hotel. It's a GIANT palace that was built to house soldiers in 1650 and eventually became a church of prayer for the king, and today it's a museum of war. I loved the scale of this place - even the cobbles on the cobblestone street/path were twice the size of my feet.

I'm finding more and more comfort here.. The article I read earlier was about our relationship with time and space, and how it relates to our human anxieties in a consumer society. Sounds very lofty, but it has to deal with the fact that we have a different set of stresses today than we did hundreds of years ago. We know we are mortal, and we time time is eternal, so we basically form relationships with physical things to come to some sort of tangible understanding of our place in the world. In a way it gave me some comfort to think that as I call my new apartment home, and as I rationalize this big city and give tangibility to my life, my anxieties will ease and I will truly find my place. And as I was speaking about 80% French today and 20% English (except for this post), I think the language is actually helping with that feeling of comfort rather than hurting it.