Decline of the Western Church and A Brief O'Sullivans Sojourn

April 7, 2009

Greenwich. Tate Modern. Evensong at Westminster Abbey. Pork curry.

April 8, 2009

Heathrow airport once again with Picadilly line and District line both impaired. Pasta and Salmon. Buckingham Palace to Trafalgar Square. National Portraits Gallery. National Gallery. Covent Garden (Royal Opera): Dido and Aeneas & Acis and Galatea. Four Seasons for dinner. Not enough time for Bar Salsa.

April 9, 2009

Vauxhall Bridge to House of Parliament. British Museum. Chicken curry. Covent Garden (Royal Ballet): Giselle. Short stroll in Leicester Square.

April 10, 2009

Slow jaunt to Tower Hill via replacement two-decker bus. Tower of London. Bus back to Monument in crawling traffic. Tate Britain. Last dinner in London.

April 11, 2009

6:55 AM Eurostar to Paris. Hotel International near Republique. Stroll to Seine. Centre Pompidou. A short walk along Seine. Metro back to hotel. Dinner at L’Autre Café. What is this talk about shopping and Versailles?

April 12, 2009

Disastrous Gregorian Mass at Notre Dame on Easter Sunday (more on this later). Louvre. Walk to Arch of Triumph in search of open shops of haute couture. Some pizza on Avenue Champ de Elysees for dinner. Eiffel Tower. I couldn’t escape for an outing to Barrio Latino.

April 13, 2009

Boulangerie Kayser. A trip to Versailles where every building seemed closed. d’Orsay too was closed. Louis Vuitton, Chanel, etc. Perhaps ten minutes of Vespers at Notre Dame. Atelier for dinner. The waiter with a 5-day old son.

Of all places I visited during this trip, the services at Notre Dame have to be considered the biggest disappointment.

I think the services on Easter has to rank as the worst time to visit Notre Dame given the crowding leading to large number of people left to standing or sitting on the ground for up to a little over an hour. As a tourist or as a believer, the experience is likely to be highly unsatisfying.

Vast majority of people attending the mass have very little knowledge of how to act during the mass. Outnumbering the people attending the mass are tourists simply walking around the congregation while taking photographs with flash. During the Vespers service on Monday (when there were more free chairs), the tourists felt free to wander into the area for the congregation for photographs and videos.

At several places during the mass, the leader of the mass was waving his arms to extol the congregation to sing along. Most did not – in part because many people were without appropriate program. I imagine a rather large number of people did not speak French. Personally I felt rather sorry for his difficult task.

By comparison, Anglican services in England are considerably more dignified; I speak from experience in attending evensong at Westminster Abbey and Kings College Chapel in Cambridge. Only people attending the services are allowed in. Even though more than half of the people (and there are not many people) are tourists, everyone is compelled to act respectfully given the solemn setting. I suppose all these churches are in decline, but it seems to me that the English churches are dying with more dignity compared to French churches.

By the time dinner at Atelier was finished and back at the Hotel International, it was already 11; I had hoped for an earlier getaway to O’Sullivans. By the time I arrived it was 11:30 meaning I had barely over one hour if I were to take the Metro back to the hotel. It made for a very abbreviated night out not helped by the fact that I was rather worn out from this long trip. Probably the dancing wasn’t so bad but I did wonder seriously whether I would keep up with Salsa once I am far away from Cambridge and London scene. After all my previous pattern has been to abandon the old and take up something new and unexpected after each of my major moves. Bed around 1 AM.