My
Gosh.
Papal rendez-vous complete.
The Pope was supposed to be headed to Notre Dame between 6:45 and 7, but my roommates had class from 5-7, so I had to go by myself. It takes 30-40 minutes to get from my house to Notre Dame, and the papeaparis website said that the Metros would be running as usual, so I left my apartment at 6. I had planned on taking the 1 line to Hotel de Ville, by school, and just walking down to the Cathedral, but then Jennifer told me the 4 goes to Cite, which is the stop nearest Notre Dame and the 4 is the line I usually take to class so it seemed like a better plan.
The Pope website lied. They closed the station at Cité (which is a really creepy looking stop by the way, and looks even creepier when it's completely deserted) AND the next stop at St. Michel. So everyone was forced off at Odéon, which confused pretty much every person who was trying to see the Pope. So there were huge crowds of confused people all stumbling out onto the street and just stopping and clustering... pretty much the opposite of my idea of fun. I walked down onto St. Germain away from everyone else, pulled out my Paris Practique (a little map book type thing that CEA gave us) and figured out the best way to get to Notre Dame.
I planned on walking to St. Michel and taking the Pont St. Michel (bridge) across there. Of course, once I actually reached the bridge they weren't letting people onto the island there. Notre Dame itself is on an island in the middle of Paris called Île de la Cité, which is only accessible by three bridges on either side (and also the previously mentioned Cité metro stop). St. Michel is the middle bridge, the bridge closest to Notre Dame was completely closed, with no one allowed on it. At this point I just started following the crowds. We walked to the far end of Île de la Cité, since apparently Pont Neuf was the only point of access open at the time. Fun fact: Pont Neuf is called the "new bridge," but is currently the oldest bridge in Paris.
As I was crossing the bridge I got a call from my roommates. When I explained to them that the area was a total madhouse, and that the nearest metro stops were closed and the bridges were closed... well, they weren't quite up for the challenge. It didn't help that while I was on the phone with Vicky I got shoved by someone. The crowds kept going straight, but I decided to follow the water and basically just try to walk to Notre Dame. As I was headed back toward Pont St. Michel I could hear the music from the vespers beginning.
Once I reached Pont St. Michel there were thin areas in the crowds on the bridge, so I found someplace to slip in. I was behind three super short little old ladies, so I had an awesome view. They had screens set up across the river, so I had Notre Dame in front of me to the left, the Seine river below me, and Pope-vision on my right. Obviously, I couldn't understand a thing that was going on inside. They were holding vespers inside the church with the Pope, priests, seminaries, monks and nuns. The acoustics of hearing the chanting and singing from the services inside the church broadcast out into the city was just incredible, I've never experienced anything like that. I took a couple of videos mainly for the effect of the sound, but obviously a YouTube video can't exactly convey how awesome it was.
The whole event was a really interesting mix of worship and spectacle. There were tons of old people with their heads bowed praying, and then obviously throngs of people who were there just to see the Pope. There were several school groups there, too. You could see people holding up signs with their school name and grade and little clusters of students following them. I can't even imagine trying to keep track of a class in a place like that. I also heard more American English there than I have this whole trip, aside from school.
I have TONS of pictures on my Flickr, but I'll try to only post a few on here, since this entry is long already
(EDIT: the blogspot layout cuts off the right side of the pictures, so anywhere it says "screens" there is another screen that you can't see. The full pictures are on Flickr though)
Crowds of people on Pont St. Michel, where I ended up watching
My view: you can see Notre Dame on the left and the screens broadcasting from within the church on the right. Also you can see people taking what must have been an awesome boat tour.
The screens broadcasting. You can also see people out on their balconies watching, but what you can't see is how crowded that road along the Seine was
The Pope actually showed up in this picture! In the others it didn't work because he was wearing white, and the screen just didn't photograph well.
See! Awesome!
And videos!
The first is really short, but you can hear the music and it sounds amazing. If you think it's cool and you want to watch more then check out the second one, which is longer and a bit more comprehensive as far as surroundings go. I tried to give an idea of what was going on so I showed the church, the river, tried (unsuccessfully) to zoom in on the screens, and scanned a little bit of the crowd. The music sounds better in the shorter video though.
PHEW, got all that? I'm so glad that I went. It was a really incredible experience and only served to remind me just how lucky I am to be here.
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