Barcelona

Barcelona, wow.  What a cool place.

It's Buenos Aires with a better economy... or LA without traffic... or Miami without the hurricanes.  It's edgy, hip, fun, modern, and a great place to unwind for a few days.  It's like your smart and sophisticated friend who works as a designer for Apple, is fluent in the history of medieval church architecture, and can own you on the dance floor until the sun rises at 6am.  

Barcelona's charm is in the unexpected daily delights.  And it's affordable!  Everything felt on sale in Barcelona.  Even the food, which was perfectly matched to the local wines.  The museums weren't as famous as those in Paris, but they were interesting, perfectly sized for a 2 hour visit and almost completely devoid of tourists.  The parks, the views, the weather... the list goes on.

Gaudi's post-modern religious monument, the Sagrada Familia, is a must-see.  The Vatican is bigger and more ornate, but Gaudi takes the prize for most inspiring and delightful architecture.  After admiring the church - which is barely half complete - have a tapas lunch in the sun, take a siesta, and party with the locals until sunrise.

So here it is, Barcelona.

Sacred Paris

Paris's heart is on an island in the Seine River, where the city was founded.  For its medieval founders, the island was a refuge from warring tribes.  In it they found a sanctuary.  To defend their island fortress they built a series of fortresses, with churches alongside them.  To borrow a quote from Hobbes, life in Medieval France was nasty, brutish and short.  Religion provided a powerful emotional buffer for the extremes of life and death, feast and famine, and peace and war.

Every civilization had its immense public works projects, and the French were no exception.  It's unclear if it was a competition - it's unlikely that French monarchs ever tried to one-up other European kings on the artistic stage - they probably never traveled far outside of Paris itself anyway.  Regardless, what they achieved in their religious architecture is simply incredible.  The pictures below are from Sainte Chapelle and another gothic church on the right bank.  Sainte Chapelle is rightly a world heritage sight.  The other is a gothic church unmarked on any tourist map, but which would be an attraction in and of itself in a lesser city.

Both are awe-inspiring both in their grandeur and flawless execution of details.  You could spend a career examining the details on the stained glass, marble carvings and paintings which cover every square inch of the buildings.  Sainte Chapelle, which makes quite an impression when crowded with tourists, must be a truly powerful experience experienced the way its architects intended - quietly, and in solitude.  

The following pictures try to capture the spectrum of the experience - from the tiniest of details to the powerful sweeping central cathedral vaults.

Perhaps the most impressive presentation of stained glass in the world.

All made by hand in the 13th century.  

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Word carved to look like cloth.

Empty seats.