August 6, 2007

Saint Sulpice, Luxembourg Gardens and the Orangerie

On Friday, we decided to visit the church of Saint-Sulpice. It has become famous because some of The Da Vinci Code took place there. In the book and movie, the "Rose Line" runs through the church, and one of the villains breaks a hole in the floor looking for a clue to the Holy Grail.

In reality, there is no "Rose Line" and even the Paris Meridian Line is actually about 100 meters away. The obelisk and the brass line in the church were actually built to help determine when the spring equinox occurred so that the date of Easter Sunday could be calculated.

In the church there were posters with all sorts of warnings about The Da Vinci Code and how it was full of errors. We found it humorous that people have trouble understanding that it is a fictional novel.

Saint-Sulpice Rose Line (vertical panorama)

We thought the pulpit of Saint-Sulpice was impressive.

Pulpit of Saint Sulpice

After visiting the church we walked to the Luxembourg Gardens. It is a public park but is right next to the French Senate. Every year, the Senate members are given the fruit and honey that is produced in the gardens. The park is the largest in the city and is very nice.

In the park there is a fenced playground. It costs a couple of Euros to get in. We copied many of the other parents and opted to only pay for Brooke and Tyler and not for us. We sat in chairs outside of the playground and watched the kids through the fence.

Luxembourg playground

Here are Tiffany, Brooke and Tyler with the Luxembourg Palace and the fountain behind them.

Jardin du Luxembourg

On Friday night, Scott didn't feel very well. By Saturday morning, the only one who wasn't sick was Caleb. Fortunately we were all recovered by Saturday night. Scott wishes he could get a day of sick credit for his sabbatical.

On Sunday, we went to church. This time, at the request of Brooke and Tyler, we attended the English Sacrament meeting. We happened to meet two families who had lived in Israel. One family was in Israel with the US Embassy. The Shurtleffs were in Israel with the UN. They live in Paris and invited us over for dinner after church. We had a wonderful time chatting and eating good food.

On Monday morning, we had French toast. Contrary to what you may have heard, French toast really is French. They call it "pain perdu" or lost bread because you can make it after the bread has gone stale. Of course, we put Nutella on it.

French Toast

After breakfast, we went to the Orangerie. The Orangerie is a museum that contains enormous water lily paintings by Monet. We haven't been able to go in years past because the building was undergoing renovations. It took six years, four years longer than planned, to renovate the building, and the paintings stayed inside the whole time.

Orangerie

Monet designed the layout of the rooms himself. The first room is circular and entirely white. The next room is a large oval room with paintings of water lilies at sunrise and the last room is also an oval, with paintings of water lilies at dusk.

Tyler at the Orangerie

More Waterlilies

For dinner, we went to a restaurant called the Savoyard where we ate Raclette, one of our favorite French meals. Raclette is a special cheese that we melted over a burner and then poured over potatoes and sliced meats.

Eating Raclette

Posted by sjbowden at August 6, 2007 10:48 PM