Paris: Friday: Sainte-Chapelle, Les Invalides, and Eiffel Tower

Friday, our last full day in Paris, we went to Sainte-Chapelle. Sainte-Chapelle is a former church that was built by King Louis IX (the only French King to become a saint) to serve as a larger than life reliquery for the Crown of Thorns that he purchased from the Emperor of Constantinople who was struggling financially. He bought it for what would be $500,000,000 euros. The entire upper floor of the church is stained glass and tells the entire story of the Bible through pictures. Only the King and his family worshiped there and remarkably it survived the last 800 years in excellent condition. They are restoring the glass in 4 of the window right now so we missed out on seeing the books of Judges, Joshua and Ezekial. 

Map of the chapel

Lower level of the Chapel

Statue of King Henry the 9th of France, the crusader who bought the Crown of Thorns and had the chapel constructed

Walls of the lower level painted blue and red for his mother

Adam and Eve in the Garden

Cain and Abel

Cain and Abel offering their sacrifices to God

Cain slaying Abel

Noah's ark

Moses at the burning bush

God appearing to Moses in the burning bush

Moses with horns (result of a mistranslation)

Where they are restoring some of the windows

Tree of Jesse. Window showing the lineage of Christ

Rose window at the Back of the Chapel

Upper level under the rose window

Where the crown of thorns originally sat. Now it is in Notre Dame

Mary being told that she will be the mother of Christ by the Angel Gabriel

The Navitity (lower) and the shepherds being told of the birth by Gabriel (upper)

The adoration of the Christ

The Magi meeting with Herod (lower)

Christ with the cross

Christ being mocked with the purple robe and crown of thorns

St. Sebastian being shot with arrows

Statue of St. John, the only one they can tell who it is because it is without a beard

A prophet condemning praying before idols

The Rose window tells the book of Revelations

Telling the story of the king's mother getting the Crown of Thorns

Search for the crown of thorns

Crown of Thorns in Saint Chappelle above the altar

After the chapel, we went and saw one of the few surviving metro signs at the Metropolitan line and then went down to Les Invalides. Les Invalides is a veteran's hospital that was built by Louis XIV. To be there though, the veterans had to worship at the chapel there every day. Now, it is used as Napoleon and his family's tomb. His body lies in 6 sarcophagi under the middle of the dome. In the buildings around the capitola, there is a museum of the military in France from 1870 through WWII. This was Pieter's favorite museum of the trip. They had every gun and uniform used by every branch on both sides of every conflict, including a mud soaked coat from the trenches of  WWI. 

Les Invalides. Inside is Napoleon's tomb, WWI and WWII museum, and a VA

After the museum closed, yes we were the last ones out, we walked down to the Eiffel Tower with every intention of going to the top. Sadly, the top level was closed and the 1st level is being reconstructed, leaving only the 2nd level. They only had one bank of elevators open and the line stretched somewhere on the order of forever, so we ended up not going up. Have to save something for next time, right? So we went back, purchased some souvenirs, had a really nice French dinner, and said au revoir to Paris!