First, go see the Rocky Horror Picture Show some Saturday night at 10pm at the Studio Galande. It's not 100 meters from the facade of notre dame, just across the Seine in the latin quarter. The cast are "The Sweet Transvestites," and they're fabulous people. I performed with them for six weeks back in '05 and they treated me like family. They love hip Americans and they will love you. Let me know if you can check them out and I'll make sure they fete you beforehand. http://www.rhps.fr Brigitte, the cast manager and Magenta, is a dear dear friend; tell her you're a friend of mine and she will embrace you!
PS- avoid the friday night cast at all costs. They stink.
BASILIQUE DE ST. DENIS: The abbey is where the kings of France and their families were buried for centuries and is therefore often referred to as the "royal necropolis of France". All but three of the monarchs of France from the 10th century until 1789 have their remains here.
The main sightseeing recommendation is to visit the Basilique de St. Denis in Northern Paris. St. Denis, first patron Saint of France (before Louis), was martyred by the romans by beheading in the 300s in Montmartre (hence the name). He shows up frequently in French religious statues (like the facade of notre dame) holding his own head-- sometimes with water coming out of his mouth!
His basilica is gothic and roughly contemporary with the construction of Notre Dame, and also very impressive. It's on the site of a church going back very far indeed- if you go to the farthest excavated level, you can see a cluster of early christian/pagan tombs in an arrow shape pointing north. Neat.
During the revolution, churches, religious & royal monuments, and graves across france were vandalized and desecrated. During King Louis XVIII's restoration of the 1814-1824, the various tombs, sacred and royal sepulchres and bodies, and monuments were recovered and placed in the "Necropolis" at the Basilique de St. Denis. You have to buy a ticket to see this part of the church, but it is SO WORTH IT.
It has beautiful marble monuments made for the renaissance kings, including the stunning duplex Catherine de Medici made for her husband, Henri IV and herself. It also has decorated sarcophagi for knights, bishops and nobles going back to the 1100s, and the ossuary in the basement holds the bones of the early Frankish kings of the 800s. The basement also holds the rather somber black onyx coffins of Marie-Antoinette and Louis XVI, as well as their very short-lived son Louis XVII.
This place is so magical I cannot BEG you hard enough to go and visit. Because it's a little far afield in the furthest northern extremity of paris, most average tourists never go, and most books mention it only barely. But it's very near the big marche de st. puce/st. ouen flea market, so you can stop by there too.
A French actor I was working with bugged me every day for a week to go visit St. Denis and made me promise to do it. I owe him a lot. GO!
First, go see the Rocky Horror Picture Show some Saturday night at 10pm at the Studio Galande. It's not 100 meters from the facade of notre dame, just across the Seine in the latin quarter. The cast are "The Sweet Transvestites," and they're fabulous people. I performed with them for six weeks back in '05 and they treated me like family. They love hip Americans and they will love you. Let me know if you can check them out and I'll make sure they fete you beforehand. http://www.rhps.fr Brigitte, the cast manager and Magenta, is a dear dear friend; tell her you're a friend of mine and she will embrace you!
PS- avoid the friday night cast at all costs. They stink.
BASILIQUE DE ST. DENIS:
The abbey is where the kings of France and their families were buried for centuries and is therefore often referred to as the "royal necropolis of France". All but three of the monarchs of France from the 10th century until 1789 have their remains here.
The main sightseeing recommendation is to visit the Basilique de St. Denis in Northern Paris. St. Denis, first patron Saint of France (before Louis), was martyred by the romans by beheading in the 300s in Montmartre (hence the name). He shows up frequently in French religious statues (like the facade of notre dame) holding his own head-- sometimes with water coming out of his mouth!
His basilica is gothic and roughly contemporary with the construction of Notre Dame, and also very impressive. It's on the site of a church going back very far indeed- if you go to the farthest excavated level, you can see a cluster of early christian/pagan tombs in an arrow shape pointing north. Neat.
During the revolution, churches, religious & royal monuments, and graves across france were vandalized and desecrated. During King Louis XVIII's restoration of the 1814-1824, the various tombs, sacred and royal sepulchres and bodies, and monuments were recovered and placed in the "Necropolis" at the Basilique de St. Denis. You have to buy a ticket to see this part of the church, but it is SO WORTH IT.
It has beautiful marble monuments made for the renaissance kings, including the stunning duplex Catherine de Medici made for her husband, Henri IV and herself. It also has decorated sarcophagi for knights, bishops and nobles going back to the 1100s, and the ossuary in the basement holds the bones of the early Frankish kings of the 800s. The basement also holds the rather somber black onyx coffins of Marie-Antoinette and Louis XVI, as well as their very short-lived son Louis XVII.
This place is so magical I cannot BEG you hard enough to go and visit. Because it's a little far afield in the furthest northern extremity of paris, most average tourists never go, and most books mention it only barely. But it's very near the big marche de st. puce/st. ouen flea market, so you can stop by there too.
A French actor I was working with bugged me every day for a week to go visit St. Denis and made me promise to do it. I owe him a lot. GO!
Site officiel:
http://www.ville-saint-denis.fr/jsp/site/Portal.jsp?page_id=87
Wiki:
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Denis_Basilica
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