The Chautauquan, Vol. 03, February 1883: A Monthly Magazine Devoted to the Promotion of True Culture.; Organ of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle.Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle
History
The Chautauquan, Vol. 03, February 1883: A Monthly Magazine Devoted to the Promotion of True Culture.; Organ of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle.
Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle
Chautauqua Institution -- Periodicals; Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle -- Periodicals
But we cannot see all, and we can linger in but very few. We must go to
the Hotel des Invalides, under whose dome lie in solemn splendor the
remains of Napoleon I. We must stand for a moment, at least, in the
spots made interesting by associations with history that can never be
forgotten. Who would not go out of his way, for example, to hear for a
few strokes the bell of St. Germain L’Auxerrois, when he remembers that
it gave the midnight signal for the massacre of St. Bartholomew? Who
would not seek his opportunities to sit for a while under the towers
of Notre Dame, or behind the porches of the Madelaine, or to rest in
the rustic chapel behind the high altar of St. Roche? Here, as they
should be everywhere, the churches are open all day long. The busy
mother of a family on her way to market, may come in and, dropping her
basket on the floor, kneel and pray for patience and strength for her
round of common care. The world-weary soul may creep into the shadow
of some high column, or kneel at some dim altar, and find the rest he
craves. It is, at least, a spot to escape for a while into blessed
stillness from the wearing turmoil of the world, and forgetting the
papal altars, and the tinsel, and the gaudy images of the Virgin, and
caricatures of angels, and remembering the great sea of human sin and
sorrow surging forever beyond, the stranger can but be glad that the
gates stand open wide.
Little time have we to linger in the most interesting, but we must
surely go out to the church of St. Denis and see where, for thirteen
hundred years, France has laid her royal dead. It is a drive of only
five miles, and that is only a fair walk for some of our number, who
would enjoy walking it every step alone, and calling up out of the past
a procession of priests and courtiers bearing a dead king to his rest.
Alas, that so many of them blessed France on the day they were borne to
St. Denis more than in all their long, luxurious lives.
And to St. Denis is not the only little excursion that must be made
from Paris. We cannot turn our faces southward without having visited
Fontainebleau, and having had at least a long bright day in the palace
of Versailles.
For the former excursion, only thirty-five miles from Paris, a day may
be taken, though a charming little hotel outside the wood will tempt
one to linger for a night, and thus secure an uninterrupted day for
visiting the palace, strolling about the grounds, or driving in the
charming roads through the forest.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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