Saturday Night at Sacre Couer

After my afternoon in the Marais, I showered up & headed out to the Sacre Couer area. I was trying to remember why 'Sacre Couer' was a word that was so familiar to me & one that I knew how to pronounce. Then it dawned on me.... I was a HUGE Beauty & the Beast fan when I was young. Seriously, Abby & I would watch it everyday. We'd sing along to the songs & knew alot of the words. Yes, we were dorks, but anyways. There is a scene where Lumiere (sp?), the candle stick, sees something scandalous or surprising & remarks, 'Sacre Couer!' So that is why the name of the church is so familiar. Random, I know...

Anywho, back to France... I took the Metro up to the Mont Martre area where Sacre Couer is located. The Fete de la Musique Festival had gotten started so the streets were full of people! I got to the base of Sacre Couer (SC from now on), to see that I had 2 choices. Stairs or the 'funicular' which is a little tram that takes you to the top of the hill. I had just eaten some pasta for dinner so decided to take the stairs.

When I got to the top, the views of the city were just gorgeous. SC is perched at the top of a hill that is probably at the highest elevation in the city. So the panoramic views of the city were just gorgeous. I had read that this was a popular place for people to hang out at night and watch the sunset. There were probably even more people than usual since there was a band performing at the base of the SC.



SC was absolutely gorgeous. It's extremely massive! Construction began in 1873 but was not completed until 1919. The Catholics built it as contrition for the Franco-Prussian war. Not sure what the war was all about but must have been pretty bad if they built this beautiful church in retribution for their actions in the war!

I walked up the rest of the steps of the SC & turned around to a gorgeous view of the city which made all those steps worth it! I sat down & did some journaling. Talk about a great place to sit back and take it all in. A band was performing at the base of the SC so I had some nice music to listen to while writing... including Stairway to Heaven. Very appropo considering the fact that I was sitting on the steps of a church. :)

At 9:30 I headed into the church. Unfortunately since it is a place of worship, photography is not permitted. The dome of the interior had a gorgeous painting of what looked like the Resurrection possibly? Another time I wished my mom was along as I think she'd know what they were trying to depict.

The Divine Office (a prayer that is sung) was sung at 9:30 and then Mass started at 10. Of course it was all in French, so I didn't understand a whole lot. The beauty of being Catholic, though, is that no matter what church you go to, the order of the Mass is the same, so

even though I had no idea what they were saying, I knew what was going on & could say the prayers in English. An odd thing occurred at the end of Mass - after Communion, which is a time of quiet reflection, this old lady turned around and started yelling at the people in the pew behind her. She looked like she was a few fries short of a happy meal.... I felt bad for the people she was yelling at - it was clear that they didn't speak English. They were wearing "North America Student Volunteer" shirts, so I assume they were Canadian or Americans. She carried on for at least 2-3 minutes until a lady in the front yelled back at her to shut up (I presume). Very odd, and definitely a time when I wish I spoke French!

I headed by the hotel and hit the sheets since it had been another long day! Next stop. Lyon!