Dear Subscribers, thus post was supposed to go out on Monday, but I had problems with my email subscription server and it's now fixed. Sorry for the delay. Enjoy!
I am a sucker for any kind of illumination or light show, as I have posted about many of the ones I’ve seen over the years in Invalides, Chartres, and Avignon.
Last Thursday night, Notre Dame had one of the grandest of all. The masterpiece of Gothic architecture was the ideal façade for a light extravaganza. Bruno Seillier is the creative wizard behind most of the illumination presentations I’ve seen, including Avignon and Invalides. Due to the success of the first Dame de Coeur last year, Seillier was invited back again to prepare another show.
It was a brisk, clear night and a half moon shared the stage ready for the big event to come. The square in front of Notre Dame was filled cheerful adults and children, patiently waiting for the show to begin. A group of excited adolescents sitting next to me were raring to go and standing in front was a group of nuns looking just as excited.
At promptly 8PM, the lights in the square went dark, then a moment of silence and suspense came, and after the roar of music and thunderous voices spilled out of the loudspeakers.
The theme was about WW I and below is a short synopsis from the Dame de Coeur website.
On a battlefield in 1917 we are in the dark, about to attend a meeting between a young French nurse and a dying American soldier. At the twilight of his life, he tells her he regrets he never could visit Notre-Dame. Through a historical, and mystical dialog, these two souls find each other to access together to Notre-Dame mystery that’ll be their “Dame de Coeur”.
The light sequences were breathtaking, changing ever so briskly, I hardly had time to focus my camera before the next came and went. All the nooks and crannies of the intricate stonework of the cathedral with saints, angels and stained glass windows were saturated with the most gorgeous colors and patterns.
After 25 minutes of the razzle and dazzle, it appeared that the show was over. But low and behold, the middle doors of the cathedral dramatically parted and a white mist seeped out. It was an invitation to come inside the cathedral, as there was another light show awaiting us. More about that tomorrow, sorry to keep you hanging.
Dame de Couer is a twenty-five-minute show and features seventeen sound and light scenes plus eight projectors placed in the Notre-Dame plaza and 80 inside the cathedral.
Dame de Coeur plays two times a night, 7:30PM and 9:30PM, until October 25.
Entry is free but you must access a ticket online and a donation to the cathedral is requested.
Click link below to order tickets
I am so pleased to have Ann Mah as my guest this week at on A Bite of Paris. We went to Le Mistral, her favorite Paris bistro and had their signature dish, aligot, a rich, creamy mix of whipped potatoes and cheese from the Aveyron region.
Click here or link below to watch Ann and I enjoy aligote.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiRHIW7Oitw&t=4s
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