Jun
16
HCHC Senior Trip 2011 – Paris, France Photos
Paris was an amazing experience, and a bit of a surprise. We had been told we’d be going ‘somewhere’ in Europe before going on to Greece, but we didn’t know where. It turned out to be Paris. After Rome, Paris was my second choice. It was great because did this first so I wasn’t exhausted from traveling yet, as I now am, and it’s just a beautiful city. Since I am with a tour group, we had, as is common with these groups, to see everything at a dead run. However, unlike our travels in Greece we got a little more free time to walk around on our own.
The Louvre was, I thought, the best part. Some of the best exhibits were packed with people. In front of the Mona Lisa was a small sea of humanity pushing and shoving their way to the front to take photos with expensive cameras with hundreds of settings which they leave on ‘Auto’. Why would anyone want a photograph of the Mona Lisa or any other painting or sculpture? Look at it while you’re there. If you need a picture later google it. I did have a funny experience, all the bad-mannered, pushy Chinese tourists reminded me of going to McDonald’s while I was living in China. I really wish I had taken a picture of people taking pictures. Why didn’t I think of that?
The Sunday we were in Paris we went to the parish of our tour guides. It was a small church and one of the first established by the Russian community in Paris. The unusual icons were done by the famous iconography Leonid Ouspensky. Elder Sophrony, Nikolai Berdyaev and Vladimir Lossky were also connected with this parish during their time in Paris. Many of the Russian churches in Europe after the revolution came under the Church of Constantinople, such as the huge Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Paris, but this small one is the under the Moscow Patriarchate. It look like a massive cathedral will be built near the Eiffel Tower soon. ARTICLE Since I was there for a Sunday liturgy I didn’t try to take any pictures. They gave us a nice book to remember the trip by, though.
See the pictures below for full commentary.
