Mon 26 Feb 2007
There is an interesting church in the second arrondissement called St Eustache. It is near the location of les Halles where a huge outdoor market used to be, part of it covered nick-named the stomach of Paris. The traffic got to be horrible and there were flies and rats and everything else that goes with food and they decided to do away with it. Now there are markets in many places all over Paris but I still would like to have seen this one. They made the mistake of tearing down the buildings and put a huge underground mall in its place. Rue Montoguille is really worth a visit as is this huge church, St Eustache. It’s very dark inside but full of interesting things and they do great concerts there as well.
There is, of course, always at least one statue of Mary
Many angels everywhere
You don’t see many painted angels
This modern sculpture is always a shock as you are walking around looking at objects hundreds of years old. This was done to commerate the market that is no longer in the neighborhood.
They had a very modern creche this year. This little statue of the baby Jesus made me smile.
That wall/mural is absolutely stunning in the first picture. Look at the detail of the carving surrounding the painting…the gold coupled with those brilliant colors! Absolutely beautiful.
I’ll make sure to look this one up…
Thank you for taking us there……beautiful
I’m so mad I could spit…We stayed in the 2nd for about a month and walked our dog to that patch of lawn in front of St. Eustache twice a day, but because the church looks so foreboding – we never went inside!
))
Thanks Linda for pointing out how “stupide” I am
Love those pictures!
Is the market sculpture inside the church? That’s great. Do they change the creche every year?
It’s amazing the history behind some of these places that perhaps would never be known to me if you didn’t share them! Thank you, I love hearing about all these wonderful places. Makes me want to explore and know my own city of Sydney better.
Love the photos and commentary. I love that little Jesus!
Linda, I rented an apartment in the 2nd a year and a half ago. I absolutely love that neighborhood, and I loved St. Eustace – most especially that sculpture of the people carrying all of their produce out of the market when they were forced to leave. I found it very moving! And you are right – if you don’t know it’s there (and I didn’t) it comes as a shock to come upon something so modern, and so non-religious!
Thanks for sharing! Donna
The angels are lovely. There are so many things to see in Paris that I never made it into St. Eustache, so seeing the close-up photos is a treat. However, MANY years ago when I was 20, I did go to Les Halles before it was moved to the banlieue. It was sometime between 2am and 4am and I had onion soup somewhere, which was the thing to do at the time. I remember all of the hustle-bustle, butchers walking about in bloody aprons, produce everywhere. I wish I could remember more details but the whole scene was overwhelming to a young girl who never had seen such a thing, so I mostly remember the \
WoW!! factor. (don’t know what happened to this post the first time but this was the end of the message.)
Angels, angels everywhere…here, there everywhere.
And so beautiful…
Meilleurs voeux!!
My bil lived many years on a sixth floor walk-up right across from one of the towers of St. Eustache. All the times we stayed at his place, I’ve never been inside the church, thanks for the peak.
I’m transported, immediately