Saturday Morning on the way to la Sainte Chapelle

So the one thing that I had always remembered as pure joy was visiting la Sainte Chapelle. Begun in 1239 and finished a mere 9 years later, this masterpiece was a way for Louis IX to  show his patronage of the arts while making a powerful political statement about his own suitability to be possess more power.  This chapel was the one thing I had promised myself I would visit while in Paris and of course the trip was drawing to an end and I had not yet managed to get there.

For this reason I decided I would go there Saturday morning and then attend the conference in the afternoon.

Of course getting there is always almost as interesting as the destination.  I got a late start having stayed up too late the night before, so I decided to take the train and headed off to Gare de Lyon.

On the way I was able to snap a furtive shot of the subway stop Bastille with its tile murals of the Revolution.

Here's the Conciergerie next to which the chapel can be found.

There are always novel things to be seen in the streets. Here was a lovely Jugendstil / art deco building. 

And this store had large plastic animals in a crate including a gorilla and a turtle.

There are also always buskers and street people.  This accordionist was sitting on a bridge and playing and asking for money. 

He was a clever chap, because he had very carefully chosen a place that would make him an ideal candidate for being photographed.

Now who could resist that shot? The homeless are also well represented (mostly sprawled sleeping across some niche.  This guy was SO young (my guess is he was in his late 20s). I suppose there is some kind of mental illness there, but it is hard sometimes not to be judgmental.)

This man has three dogs curled up next to him. I suspect he does quite well.

And then I had arrived! It was cool and rainy and there was once again an obligatory line, but I knew this time I would get in!

I will post the actual visit to the chapel in the next blog.