The Treasury at Cathedrale Notre Dame de Paris

Last year I got married and went to Paris, and while wandering around one day we ended up on the Île de la Cité so we went to Notre Dame and went in.  Both of us had been to Notre Dame before, but something we had neglected to check out on previous visits was the treasury, which was full of freaky ancient treasures.

The treasury houses religious objects like bones from saints, fancy gold cups that popes drank from, and objects given to the church at various royal baptisms, weddings, or coronations.  It is dimly lit, macabre.  The treasure is in gold vitrines and lit by florescent lights.  There were robes that Napoleon wore, an ancient shroud, a crown.  By turns, things look either impressively expensive or dusty and creepy. 

In a chapel.

The vestments that Napoleon wore to the baptism of his son on the 14th of June 1856.  To put them on and to wear them in Notre Dame must have felt incredible.  I guess it went to his head.

The glove of Denis-Auguste Affre who was the Archbishop of Paris until 1848, when he was killed by angry workers at the Barricade of Faubourg Sainte-Antoine.  The hanger is very delicate.

Fall 2012 anyone?  The coins could be necklaces.

Loving the stonework.

Crown.

Dudes hanging out.

When we left.  The people all stood there quietly.  The smoke drifted, you could smell the incense. 

Next time: BREAD.