France, Part 2 – More Paris and a little Versailles
Staircase, St. Sulpice, Paris. ©2009 Deidre Adams.
After reading about this in Rick Steve’s Paris, one of the things I most wanted to do was go to hear the organ at St. Sulpice Church. Never mind the fact that the church is a big tourist attraction, especially after it was featured in the DaVinci Code, (look at that — you can get it for a penny now!) I just wanted to hear the organ. When I was growing up, my dad had a lot of records of Bach and other organ music, so I guess it’s a nostalgia thing for me.
Anyway, the Sunday Mass is followed by an organ recital. Update: Here’s a video I took of the interior of the church during the recital. I apologize for the amateur videography; I was testing the video capabilities of my new camera and have a lot to learn about doing video. The quality of the original is quite good; I had to downsize it to make it playable on the web.
When the recital is over, you can go upstairs and see the keyboards and meet the titulaire du Grand-Orgue, currently Daniel Roth. You have to jockey for position with all the other adoring fans pressing in to get a better look:
For all his stature and accomplishments, Roth’s demeanor is gracious and humble in speaking to everyone who manages to squeeze into the narrow entryways on either side to speak to him. He greeted me warmly and asked me where I was from. It was cooler than meeting any rock star, in my own humble opinion.
Daniel Roth, titulaire du Grand-Orgue A. Cavaillé-Coll de Saint-Sulpice. ©2009 Deidre Adams.
From the organ loft, you have a great view of the activities below:
On the way back down, I found a lot of intriguing compositions in the spiral stairway.
After St. Sulpice, I went with Laura to see the Palace of Versailles. I must confess I’ve never been terribly interested in the exploits and excesses of kings and queens, so my knowledge of Versailles was pretty sketchy (read: “nonexistent”). A quick scan of the appropriate chapter in Rick Steve’s gave just as much background as I needed. To quote the book, “To some it’s the pinnacle of civilization; to others, the sign of civilization in decay” (468). Long story short, the palace was built by the Sun King, Louis XIV, and remained the seat of power and apex of conspicuous consumption through 2 more Louis successors, until the French Revolution.
A glance at the Wikipedia sidebar with statistics on the Palace gives you a good idea of the magnitude of riches involved:
| Statistical Information on the Palace of Versailles | |
|---|---|
| Surface area of roofing | 11 hectares |
| Floor space | 51,210 m2 |
| Number of windows | 2,153 |
| Number of rooms | 700 |
| Staircases | 67 |
| Paintings in the museum’s collection | 6,123 |
| Drawings in museum’s collection | 1,500 |
| Engravings in museum’s collection | 15,034 |
| Sculptures in museum’s collection | 2,102 |
| Pieces of furniture and objets d’art | 5,210 |
| Source: Official site of the Chateau de Versailles | |
Even though we arrived fairly late in the day, the place was still a mob scene. 
Going through the palace was somewhat tortuous, due to the hordes of people crowding everything so that you couldn’t see much, and sucking all the air out of the place. The only way to get a shot of anything without crowds in it was to shoot over a rope crossing a doorway into a room with no visitors allowed into it.
You are dragged along by the crowds from one room to another; at some points it was virtually impossible to move. I quickly tired of the suffocation and went outside to get some air.
The Palace grounds consist of of acres of formal gardens and more structures, including the Trianon, the king’s “escape from his escape” (Rick’s Steve’s Paris, 482) and The Hamlet, Marie Antoinette’s “fairytale world of simple country pleasures” (483). It’s a good walk to get around to see most of it. No gym needed on this trip!
