The Sainte Chapelle.

Heaven on Earth

The Sainte Chapelle

By Paul Jensi

Paris Kiosque - July 2000 - Volume 7, Number 7
Copyright (c) 2000 Paul Jensi - Used with permission.

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4, boulevard du Palais
Métro: Citè/Chatelet
01.53.73.58.51

I looked for you in heaven, where sunlight falls through stained glass like candlelight bathing in red wine. There were angels I serenade by first names and poets who live on a spare change, afraid only of poetic justice as they pass counterfeit nights. I saw you then in heaven, where lady saints congregate to contemplate prodigal daughters who await redemption. There were princesses seeking brave enough knights to fight the monsters of last night and teenage muses looking for inspiration amongst the remains of dragons lying slain by the hands of a clock. And that was when I found you in heaven, where light plays like a gifted child and beds of music are written on sheets of glass. The seraphs are statuesque and the floor is littered with us desolate sinners looking up to the pedestal on which we've placed you, so out of reach that all we have left are these pathetic prayers of forgiveness.

The inspiration for this prose poem - by yours truly - came from a box more beautiful than the gift it held.

A Bit of History

• 1239 The Byzantine Empire goes bankrupt and sells their holy relics. (Relics = God's souvenirs. The Shroud of Turin is perhaps the best known contemporary relic.) Louis IX, King of France and soon to be Saint Louis (as in the arch) spends $200,000 on pieces of the Holy Cross and the Crown of Thorns Jesus wore.
• 1242 - 1248 Louis drops $40,000 on the Sainte Chapelle to hold the relics. It is built inside of what was then the King's Palace.
• French Revolution: The church is trashed and is used as a storage room. The relics are taken, some are sold and some are lost and the rest make their way to a small museum inside the Notre Dame Cathedral, where they are currently housed.

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1. Stained glass window of the Apostles and is in the lower chapel.
2. The `Tribune', or wooden tower in which the relics were displayed.

The Tour

• Stand in line on the sidewalk for at least half an hour before the guards search your backpack .
• Chapelle Basse (Lower Chapel):
• The floor is made of tombstones dating to the 1300 and 1400's.
• The chapel is dedicated to the Virgin and was used by the King's servants.
• The stained glass windows portray the apostles.
• Take the Stairway to Heaven to the Chapelle Haute (Upper Chapel)
• There are no walls in the Chapel of the Kings. The soaring ceiling is supported by simple pillars and rainbows cast by the stained glass.

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3. One of the windows in the Upper Chapel (Chapelle Haute) which tells a biblical story.
4. Image from the lower chapel, representing a statue of Louis IX (St. Louis). Each panel of the stained glass windows tells a story (read from left to right, top to bottom). Most of them represent the Old Testament, while the three at the back tell the story of John the Evangelist, Jesus' Crucifixion and John the Baptist. The one on your right as you enter is the story of the relics coming to the Chapel and the rose window over the door is the Apocalypse.

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5. The rose window on the western wall of the upper chapel represents the apocalypse.
6. The relics were kept in the wooden house, a copy of the original, which burned in a fire during the Revolution of 1789.

In addition to candlelight choir concerts that will melt your heart, the Sainte Chappelle is appropriate for:

• Finding love
• Growing young
• Giving thanks for Living fun
• Seeing yourself In Gods' eyes or
• Starting over in Paradise.

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In 1990 Paul quit his job in the United States and sold everything he had in exchange for a one-way ticket to Europe and a train pass. Figuring he would ride the rails until his money ran out, he voyaged through most European capitals before marrying the first French girl he met and moving to Paris in November of that year. Since then he published 123 articles and posted 192 of his photographs during his one-year tenure as Chief English writer at AOL France's Digital Paris Web site. His current goal of walking on every street in the city has revealed not only the importance of comfortable footwear but also the splendor of the city he calls his own (despite copyright infringement laws). He currently rents himself out as a guide and is working on ``Paris Misguided'', an unguide that will help him spread this love around. He can be contacted via PJensi@aol.com.