Ex-voto Journey : Day 4: Cathedrals, Ex-votos, & the Eiffel Tower

The sunshine of the past few days turned into rain on Sunday, the last full day in Paris. Parisians' & tourists' umbrellas came out.

People lined up by Notre Dame and waited for the doors to open.

The day's events began with a walk back to Notre Dame to hear the Laudes du Temps Ordinaire Dimanche II. I tried taking a video to record the music, which included a woman with a beautiful singing voice accompanied by the organ.

Next we went to hear the organ at St. Sulpice where renowned organist David Roth performs. I learned on an R. Steve's show featuring Paris that visitors can go up to the organ loft to meet him after the morning Mass. Mr. Roth was friendly to all of us admirers huddled around the immense keyboard.

Aunt Arlene, an organist for over 45 years, would have been thrilled to hear his exquisite artistry! In line we met a man from San Diego who had recently heard a performance by Mr. Roth in SD. We wished we had known about this event.

Looking down at the nave through stained glass by the organ loft

Besides hearing these music performances, the last day's plan included leaving some of the ex-votos. I'd found a particular church known for its votives, the Notre Dame des Victoroires, located by the Jardin du Palais Royal, not far from the Louvre.

A checkerboard of striped stumps filled the courtyard of a theatre connected with the Palais Royal.

The Notre Dame des Victoroires is tucked between two buildings.

Thousands of ex-voto plaques covered the church's interior. The plaques date from the 18th c. to the present.

We spoke to one of the cloistered Benedictine sisters who run the church and inquired about leaving ex-votos. She explained the church had a room where objects, such as votive gifts, were kept and that she would place one of the ex-votos there. Dad and I chose the heart for Mom inscribed with 'L' for Lillian in her style of handwriting. The sister also said they would bless the heart and say special prayers for Mom.

Leaving the heart in Paris has special meaning -- Dad and Mom were ready to travel to Paris in September 2009 when the trip was cancelled because of her health. She then passed away in May 2010, so leaving the heart in Paris represented for me the fulfillment of Mom's travel plans.

Before departing for the trip I ran out of time to take pictures of the finished ex-votos so I laid them out in our Paris apartment on Dad's shirt as a backdrop --

6 cast in beeswax & 3 sculpted as reliefs using 'paper clay,'

a lightweight air drying clay.

Votives in sheer fabric presentation bags I made for each.

To cap off our stay in Paris we went to the Eiffel Tower. I mistakenly thought our tickets bought online two months ago were for Sunday, June 9, but we discovered that they were actually dated for Saturday, June 8. After we explained this error to the ticket attendant he let us go anyway -- perhaps the sparse crowds on the rainy evening swayed his decision.