[youtube]http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=bkWLUulT24U[\/youtube]<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0 I made a few videos of my time in France, as I visited different sites related to Eleanor’s life.<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0 To me,\u00a0that church\u00a0is a beautiful Gothic symbol of faith and light\u00a0in a time of darkness. To Eleanor, cathedrals like Notre Dame were symbols of the Church’s power.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0the art.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0that 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\u00a0seeing things from\u00a0her point of view.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[youtube]http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=bkWLUulT24U[\/youtube] 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 …<\/p>\n