Romantic Paris

We've been very neglectful regarding blog posts in the past couple of months, simply because we haven't been traveling as much (or at all) due to school. Happily, Kyle and I both completed and submitted our theses last week, and now we are just trying to finish up some term papers and get through final exams. Usually by this time of year the academic term is over and we are enjoying the less stressful, less mentally taxing routine of working 9-5 at a summer job. So the past weeks have been a bit strange and painful sometimes on beautiful summer days and evenings when I am cooped up in the apartment struggling to keep my face in my laptop screen and from gazing wistfully out the window. It will be an incredible feeling to be finished with the school year at the end of this month following our defenses! We are looking forward to our first wedding anniversary on the 20th and the little getaway trip I've planned... until then I thought I would post some pictures of our trip to Paris that we took in December! It was lovely! On our first day we ambled around the city with no particular plan except to explore. Our second day was all about medieval cathedrals of course: Saint-Denis, Sainte-Chapelle, and Notre Dame.

Shameless selfies in the Cour Carrée of the Louvre Palace. 

swooning in the shadow of the Sun-King *le sigh*

 Cour Napoléon featuring my handsome husband

shameless kissing selfies because Paris. 

la vie en rose

I was singing this song a lot.

love locks

yah! Paris! 

I took this one for my musician of a mum!

The nave of Basilique royale de Saint-Denis, completed in 1144, considered to be the father of gothic churches and the burial place of French kings from the 10th to the 18th centuries. 

In the crypt!!

amusing medieval pillar reliefs....

some h-core monks beating up a rather surprised looking demon....In the middle ages men of the cloth weren't allowed to wield swords because it was reprehensible for them to draw blood, so they just opted for beating their enemies with sticks instead.

Abbot Suger's radiating chapels... *all the medievalists/art&architecture historians swoon*

Detail of one of my favourite hagiographical tales - Christ reveals himself to St. Eustace in the antlers of the stag he is hunting.

In the colourful lower chapel of St. Chapelle, commissioned by King Louis IX to house the collection of relics he had acquired while in the Holy Land, completed in 1248. St. Chapelle is basically a giant reliquary...

uh yeah, breathtaking. like my face melted. 

EEEEEEEEE!!!!

 whimsical gargoyles of the chapel exterior that reminded me of manuscript marginalia.

Charlemagne. What a guy.

quire screen in Notre Dame Cathedral, which is hauntingly pretty to visit at night. 

Of course there is plenty more of Paris to see (ahem, Versailles) which we are looking forward to doing in July when the Wall clan hops over for a visit! I am also excited to see the Parisian gardens in their full summer bloom and greenery, and hopefully we will manage to have time to take the train to Mont St. Michel! Overall we are elated to be spending a summer in Europe, but are also very keen to be returning to Canada in August. Until next time!




-m