Une Autre Belle Église: La Madeleine

View of La Madeleine from the other end of Rue Royale
(Yes, I was stood in the middle of a road #realtourist)

I'm afraid I've not been very good at keeping up with all of this! It's difficult when lots happens in a couple of days - especially when I don't have much access to internet (only on my French phone which is really hard to type on, plus all my photos are taken with my English phone... complicated).

I've got loads to post about my time in the Vosges still which I have yet to write, and have lots of interesting stories to tell about Cherbourg which, as I'm not writing them daily, I'm forgetting. This is really annoying as some of them are really funny - especially the ones including Marc!

Anyway, to help me catch up I'll just do what I did for my last post (Juste Un Autre Touriste à Paris) and add my photos of La Madeleine with captions...

While I was at La Madeleine there was a Christening. I walked in when they were about half way through (I think) right before the baby-head-water thing. They had a violinist playing 'Ave Maria' and a few other similar tunes which was quite nice.

Apparently the Bishop of Paris in the 12th Century stole the sites from French Jews, and built a church on it dedicated to Mary Magdalene. Then, in 18th Century (ish) Napoleon came along and decided to built a grand temple dedicated to the glory of his Army. I believe the design ideas came from the Roman temples (Pantheons) because Napoleon thought they were great conquerors too (or something...). For more, and potentially slightly more accurate, info about Madeleine, I'd suggest Google or Wiki. Good luck!

Now on to the photos!

Inside La Madeleine...

The inside of La Madeleine towards the front
(I'd love to give the technical names for the inside of a
traditional French Catholic Church,
i.e. Knave, Aisle, Altar, Baptistry etc. but I don't know them...
#NotCatholic #what'supwiththehashtags!?)

Angel Statue (I know, detailed stuff...
There was no guided tour for La Madeleine!

This was one of those 'Pay 4euros to light a candle' things like in Notre-Dame.

Lovely paintings on the ceiling
As you can see, it was no where near as busy as Notre-Dame.
I suppose no one wrote a famous book about it...

This was a memorial for soldiers in the Parish
who lost their lives in World War I and II

A list of the soldiers' names 

The Organ (above the main entrance doors)
Apparently this is where the grand one is in Notre-Dame, but totally missed it if it was there!
They had an Organist playing for about an hour from 2pm
(about 20 mins after the Christening). Was quite nice really.

Another Statue. No idea who it's supposed to be.

A Statue of post-resurrection Jesus

Back outside...

There were some really pretty flower beds
at the front of La Madeleine

Asian couple having a wedding photoshoot
on the steps/by the pillars outside La Madeleine.
Why not by the flowers I don't know...

Check out that dress! Just, umm, wow?! It was so sparkly/blingy too!
But you probably can't see too well from the picture.
My personal favourite is the HUGE bow. I think there was one of the front too...

There were loads of statues of different Saints
all along the sides of the church.
In case you didn't guess, this is Saint Adélaide.

The back of La Madeleine

The gates/doors were closed from this side so it was completely deserted
(except for a load of kids climbing on the other side of the fence and picking all the flowers)

"Eurgh, Humans. Think they own everything!" "Probably *American*"

But first, let me take a selfie...

P.S. I've made this large so you can see the lovely detail on the church,
not cos I think you should take a good look at my face!