Stained glass and Water Lilies

This morning after breakfast we took off on another day of sightseeing.  We took the train to the stop closest to Notre Dame Cathedral.  We went inside the great Gothic cathedral and admired its architecture and its stained glass windows.  Construction of the church began in 1163 and was completed in 1345.  It was the first church to use flying buttresses to support the lofty walls.  We were going to take the tour that goes up one of the bell towers for a close-up look at the gargoyles and the view of the city.  But the line stretched down the block, so we decided to forgo that tour.  In retrospect, I'm glad, because I doubt that I would have lasted very long after climbing 400 steps.

From Notre Dame, we walked a short distance to another Gothic church, Sainte Chapelle.  It was built in the 1200s as a royal chapel by King Louis IX (later canonized as Saint Louis).  It contains one of the greatest collections of medieval stained glass windows in the world.  There are fifteen huge panels of glass which depict more than 1000 episodes from the Bible.  Upon entering the chapel, it seems as if the structure is made of glass, and it is, in my  opinion, more impressive than Notre Dame.

We then walked along the Seine to the Orangerie... by Paris standards, a small art museum, but a very popular  destination.  This building, located at the end of the Gardens of the Tuilleries, was originally constructed as a green house for orange trees. Later it became an art museum.  The impressionist artist, Claude Monet, donated a series of eight large paintings of water lilies to be placed in the two oval rooms of the Orangerie.  He sought to provide the Parisians a haven of peace and meditation.  Monet worked on the paintings from 1914 until his death in 1926.  In 1927 the paintings were installed.  Although the water lilies are the star attraction, downstairs there is a sizable collection of paintings by Renoir, Cezanne, Picasso, and other artists.

(image taken from the web)

(image taken from the web)