Day 3-Versailles!!!!

Paris Day 3-Notre Dame

Today, Thursday the 27th, was our first full day of enlightenment at the Notre Dame. Notre Dame is one of the most magnificent structures I have ever seen. I'm not religious at all, but every church that I see it grabs hold of me, like I am supposed to be apart of it in a way.

Analysis:

One of the main focuses of today when going through the Notre Dame was to think of how it was built and why it was built. As I was sitting there taking pictures and taking time for myself I realized that its not just for one person to worship, I believe that it was made to unite a whole population while worshiping and coming together under one roof. Having this would make the Notre Dame more powerful than ever. Having all those people in there at once. This Cathedral was made for 9000 people on the island, but over time 14000 or so people starting showing up. They didn't have any chairs back in the 1500s. They either stood or they kneeled down.

This structure was built to start in the middle, towards where the priest spoke during mass, then out to the two sides where MASSIVE circular stained glass windows were. After that you would walk down the isle and view the large pillars and ceilings above and around.

The color in side Notre Dame had a simple approach. There are different shades of grey with subtle dark reds and royal blues for the accent colors. The accent colors were located on decoration parts of the pillars and in the stained glass windows. When observing the stone around me more and more I noticed that the further you walked to the sides of the gold cross which was located behind where the priest spoke the deeper the grey got, because there were smaller ceilings, walk way, I think this made the surrounding area of the mantel more powerful because of the contrast it gave between the smaller ceiling color and the taller ceiling colors.

The Rest of the Day:

After Notre Dame, the group split up in two and I ended up staying with the group that analyzed Notre Dame more. We walked around it and then proceeded to walk over Pont Neuf canal. We walked around till around 5pm. We got ice cream, took amazing pictures and got to spend time with some amazing people who all have a very interesting opinion on a lot of architecture, seeing that most of us come from different majors.

Today was a really good day. I learned more in those 4 hours we spent over at Notre Dame than I would in a text book that we get in class. I learned more because I actually got to witness it and be apart of it as a whole. Reading about it and being there is WAY different. It makes a whole difference when it comes to learning about something as big and ancient as Notre Dame. GO SEE IT!!!!! More powerful than a picture or movie.

SCC