Christy English

Christy in Paris: Notre Dame

Monday, January 11th, 2010 | Eleanor of Aquitaine, The Writing Life, Video Blog Entries

Here’s the first video I took while in Paris, visiting Notre Dame cathedral. Please pardon my lack of a hair comb…that difficulty runs rampant throughout the videos I took during my travels.

I was fortunate enough to be able to celebrate the sale of my first novel by going to Paris this April. I had been there before, but never when spring was in full bloom.  I made a few videos of my time in France, as I visited different sites related to Eleanor’s life.

I went to Notre Dame first, my favorite building in Paris. It was an interesting experience to go there, and to see it from Eleanor’s point of view. I love that building, but she associates it with her first husband Louis and her rival for power, Abbot Suger.  To me, that church is a beautiful Gothic symbol of faith and light in a time of darkness. To Eleanor, cathedrals like Notre Dame were symbols of the Church’s power.

The whole time I was in Paris I had similar experiences. I reveled in the beauty of the place, the food, the architecture, the wine and the art.  But during this visit, I also saw all those things from Eleanor’s point of view. She never liked Paris and was always glad to leave the city I adore to return home to Poitiers.

Of course, the medieval Paris Eleanor knew was very different from the modern city I visit, but still, the differences in our perspectives is fun. When I am working, this kind of duality happens a good deal, especially with a character as strong and with a voice as powerful as Eleanor’s. She had divorced Louis by the time the cathedral that stands today was begun. But when I see that place now, and for the rest of my life, I will think not just of my own joy in the space, but of Eleanor’s more cyncial perspective. My life is richer for occasionally seeing things from her point of view.

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