Visiting Notre Dame and the Ile de la Cite

     The Ile de la Cite is an island in the Seine River.  It's the site of Notre Dame Cathedral and the Palais de Justice.

Map of Ile de la Cite from Google images.

Arial view of Ile de la Cite from Google images.  Check out Notre Dame on the lower left.

The western facade of Notre dame.

The large rose or circular window was created around 1225.  Beneath the window are twenty-eight statues called the Gallery of Kings.  They originally represented twenty-eight generations of the kings of Judah, but later came to represent the kings of France.

Me in this beautiful place.

So much stained glass.

This sculpture is called "Apparitions of the Risen Christ."

Beautiful chandeliers light the interior.

     Also on the Ile de la Cite is the La Conciergerie, a former royal palace and a prison.  During the French Revolution prisoners were taken to the Conciergerie to await their trial and the beheading that was sure to follow.  Most displays in this museum were behind glass, so they were difficult to photograph.  I had to resort to Google images to get good pictures of cells in the prison.

Wealthy prisoners paid for high end cells like this.  Poor prisoners got a layer of straw on the floor.

Marie Antoinette might have been the most famous prisoner held in the Conciergerie.  This is her cell complete with a wax figure of Marie A.   

There were two courtyards for prisoners to get some fresh air, bathe, and do laundry.

If one managed to scale the walls, these spikes deterred escape.

This is the entrance to the Palais de Justice, the place where justice has been dispensed since the 1500's.  The modern court system is located here.  We watched Parisians line up to go through the metal detectors for their day in court.  The Conciergerie is part of this complex.  Saine-Chapelle is also part of the complex.  We entered this gate to see Sainte-Chapelle, a medieval Gothic chapel.  

Enormous doors.  The design is mostly worn off of the floor tiles.  Construction began on the chapel around 1239.  The building was consecrated in 1248.  Originally, the ground floor chapel was for the masses.  The upper floor was for royalty, only.

The upper floor.
The chapel is called a "jewel box" structure - its stained glass considered some of the best of its kind in the world.

Wow!