Since the Christmas markets don’t open up early in the morning, we started today at Sainte-Chappelle. This is a royal chapel that was built in the 13th century as part of the royal palace in Paris. It was built to house medieval Christian relics. It is a Gothic-style chapel and is best known for its stained glass windows.

The upper chapel, which was solely for royalty and their guests, contains 15 panels of stained glass which are 15.5 meters tall. They depict biblical stories. The panels in the apse are slightly shorter at 13.7 meters. These windows were placed between 1242 and 1248 and 70% of the windows in place today are original. These windows are made possible by pillars and buttresses supporting them.

The rose window was placed in the late 15th century. It is 9 meters in diameter and depicts scenes of Revelation.

Carved angels holding crown of thorns (top of the arch) in the apse (13th century)

Detail of the portal of the upper chapel: Christ and the Last Judgement

The lower chapel originally had stained glass windows but they were destroyed in a flood in 1690.

Sainte-Chapelle was damaged during the French Revolution and was later restored in the 19th century.

We then headed out to 3 different Christmas Markets. We caught the first right as it opened and had to circle through a few times to see all of the booths opened up as some were late starters.

We moved around town to two other markets after having lunch. I also got more mulled wine…it’s cold out here!

After dinner we went to see Notre Dame. Not really out of our way as we can see it from our hotel room, but we walked up to the front of it. It is reportedly on schedule with its repairs to be reopened in 2024. All of the structural work to shore up the cathedral is completed, allowing for the actual reconstruction to take place. When we were here 3 months ago, they were apparently still finishing up the structural work.