A Friday for Churches 9-25-15

We had arranged for a visit to Notre Dame with Mel to see the cathedral and to talk about the architecture and oddities we've learned since we've been taking our visitors there all summer.  He wanted to attend an early mass so we arranged to meet after the conclusion of mass at 9:30.  So we took the subway with about 45 minutes to get there thinking that it would give us a good cushion of time.  We didn't account for technical issues on a couple lines that caused backups throughout the entire network, so with stops at several stations that ran to about 5 minutes apiece we ended up about 15 minutes later than expected.   Mel was standing at the back of the nave and enjoying the view when we finally arrived.  
We spent the next couple hours just working our way through the cathedral and talking about all the tidbits that both we and Mel know about the building and admiring what a really beautiful building it is.  It is fun to be able to identify at least 3 of the architectural changes that took place over the 300 years of major construction.  It's also impressive to note that once they got enough of the building completed to consecrate it there were services being conducted continuously throughout the construction phase.
After our trip through the interior we then walked around the exterior and pointed out interesting bits out there as well, like the one still existing original flying buttress.  It's still stable after more than 900 years and quite beautiful.   We finished our visit and then Mel went back to collect Marlyne for lunch while we headed over to our favorite Italian restaurant  L'Osteria del Passepartout.
After lunch we walked through the latin quarter and stopped at another two old churches, St. Severin and St. Julien-le-Pauvre.  

St. Severin has a notable column in the ambulatory at the back of the church that has a twisted fluting from the base up to the capitals that then melds into the vaulting quite beautifully.
St Julian-le-Pauvre is along with St. Germaine des Pres one of the oldest churches still extant in Paris dating back to around 500.  The parish is now an eastern orthodox sect and has a quite lovely iconostasis separating the nave from the altar.  Very interesting a combination of Romanesque along with some gothic arches towards the back of the church.