With our trip to Lisieux canceled, we decided to visit this thinking man at the Rodin Museum as a replacement. I didn’t know much about Auguste Rodin, but I have seen his sculpture of this man in the commode position.
It’s his most famous work. I’m not much of a sculpture person unless we’re talking about Michelangelo. But I must say that Rodin is quite good at sculpting naked people intertwined as if their playing Twister. It was not a sufficient replacement for Lisieux.
We later headed up to the Montmartre section of Paris. It is the home of Parisian artists, the red light district, the Moulin Rouge, the hill where martyrs died (the word montemartre means “hill of martyrs”), and the Basilica of Sacre Coure (“Sacred Heart”). Our tour guide was Stanislaus, a Montemartre native.
The tour started at the Moulin Rouge and ended as at Sacre Coure. The most fascinating aspect of the tour was learning about St. Denis, one of the patron saints of Paris (the others being St. Genevieve and Saint Marcel). St. Denis was the first Bishop of Paris and was martyred during the Roman persecutions around 250 A.D.
His story is most interesting. Roman soldiers captured him while he was preaching in Northern France. He was tortured and beheaded on Montmartre Hill. After his head was cut off, he picked it up and carried it six miles while preaching a sermon from the mouth of the head in his hands. He carried his head to the place he wanted to be buried, and parishioners immediately did so. You can see statues of St. Denis holding his head all around Paris.
Sacre Coure is a gem. It has had perpetual adoration since 1887. Built atop Montemartre Hill, it is the highest point in Paris with a spectacular view of the city. The Sacre Coure Basilica is the youngest Catholic church in Paris built between 1875 and 1914. Stanislaus told us that many Parisians come up to Sacre Coure to enjoy the great view overlooking Paris; however, most of the people inside the Basilica are tourists. Rebecca and I couldn’t help spending a couple of hours there.
Of course we went to see the Eiffel Tower—at night—but I had no desire to pay the Euros to ride to the top. So we took an evening boat tour along the Seine River to see it lit up at night.
