Fin

Notre Dame Cathedral.
Gargoyles were Soren's favorite part.
Main Tympanum. The typanums include the virtues/vices, times/seasons, occupations/crafts, saints/scholars, astrological things, future sequences. They basically represent universal human life. ("Catholic" means universal). It was awkward knowing that I was milling around while people were there to worship--imagine going to church/temple/masjid etc and having people walking around you taking pictures of all you deem sacred while you were going through your prayers/ordinances/rituals. I almost wanted to apologize--several teary women looking for peace and comfort there. I hope they found it inspite of tourist buzz. Inside the different chapels there were quite a few reliquaries holding items from either saints or miraculous events. I could not understand French enough to know what most of them were, but there was a crown of thorns suspended in a block of translucent red resin at the chapel just behind the altar. I was intrigued to think that this could actually be THE crown of thorns. There was also a nice wall carving briefly highlighting the life of Jesus. One section also intrigued me. It would have been the right sequence of the wedding at Cana, Jesus's first miracle of turning water to wine. Jesus sits between Mary and Joseph and on the other side of Joseph is a woman (without the mandorla over her head ((ps. For those of you who like symbology, the madorla is a great one to study). I have heard speculation that the wedding feast was Jesus's. This carving looked like it could be. Just speculation on my part ala Dan Brown. My other questions surround Jesus and wine drinking. I know that Nazarites kept separate from alcohol for specific time periods and it is generally accepted that Jesus was a Nazarite (the sect, different from "Nazarene" meaning from Nazareth. I found a summary on Wiki about it: "A Nazarite (נְזִיר) was a Jew who had taken special vows of dedication to the Lord whereby he abstained for a specified period of time from using alcohol and grape products, cutting his hair, and approaching corpses. At the end of the period he was required to immerse himself in water. Thus the baptism of Jesus (Matthew 3:13-15) by his relative John the Baptist could have been done "to fulfil all righteousness" at the ending of a nazirite vow. However, following his baptism, the gospels give no reason to suppose Jesus took another Nazirite vow until The Last Supper." See the flying buttress toward the upper left in the back? Cool.

Paris's Metro stations are great examples of Art Nouveau organic lines. Metal looks like a living thing.

After visiting Notre Dame we patronized Galeries Lafayette, Paris's premier mall. Heaven. Lots of gray on the racks this season. Here's Soren by a Stormtrooper made of Legos.

And today, we leave in the afternoon. I have already added things to my calendar like garage sales, get togethers, pack meetings and church stuff and have started planning the next trip. My main focus will be to measure Soren's math progress to make sure he's not too far behind. I am excited to see Cyler and Ellery and be together again. Strong, healthy primary relationships that last a lifetime really help me feel happy and loved.