Paris, Day 7: The Sabbath According to Mormons and Catholics

We had a couple different options for church, and we chose to go downtown, on the reasoning that they would be more likely to have a service in English. They did—in fact, they have a separate room with a video screen and miked translation just for English speakers. It’s in an old stone u-shaped building that must also house the mission office and home (at least, that’s our guess). Sacrament meeting was scheduled for 9:30 but started almost 25 minutes late due to technical difficulties, and by then the building was packed with people. The kids, having had breakfast almost 3 hours ago and ridden a train for 40 minutes and sat in church for an hour and a half, were struggling to be good, so we decided to leave after sacrament meeting. We walked down a few blocks toward Notre Dame Cathedral, figuring at least we could eat the lunch we packed and the kids wouldn’t have to sit still.

One the Pont d’Arcole toward Ile de Cite. Not a perfect photo, but a pretty good one.

We ate our lunch in the square in front of the cathedral—Nutella on baguettes. The kids ran around a bit, and were particularly taken with the pigeons. There was, of course, a man handing out birdseed for which he expected payment, but he seemed to genuinely enjoy the kids’ squeals of delight as the birds landed on them and ate from their hands. Even Mary got in on the fun, and it was very hard to tear them away from the birds to see the cathedral.

       

I figured visiting churches was a good thing to do on Sunday, but I didn’t realize that Nortre Dame held mass at noon. Hence, there was quite a long line to get in, but it moved very quickly and we were inside in less than ten minutes. It was pretty crowded, but our tour was accompanied by the soundtrack of a Latin High Mass and the smell of incense, and the kids got to watch the congregation receive communion. It presented opportunity to talk about religious differences and similarities, and to talk about how people of every faith participate in pilgrimages to holy sites.

One of three western portals.

A close-up of the woodwork on the doors in the same portal.

The stunning rose window. The stained glass in High Gothic churches never disappoints.

One of my favorite photos of the whole trip so far.

I also never get tired of hearing church bells. Sometimes I wish our LDS chapels had bells.

We headed home after visiting the Wallace water fountain Ed found the other night, then spent a nice Sunday afternoon napping and relaxing.