La Conciergerie

Once upon a time, when my mom and Cathy were here, we tried to go to St. Chapelle. The über-gothic "second" cathedral of the Île-de-la-Cité (the "first" being Notre Dame), St. Chapelle boasts some of the oldest and most beautiful stained-glass windows anywhere. It's tough to get into, not just because it's a prime tourist destination, but also because it's hidden away within the Palais du Justice, a complex that houses (among other things) the French Supreme Court. In addition to waiting in line for tickets, you have to wait in line to go through security, which they take very seriously.

Once upon a time, when my mom, Cathy, and I woke up early on a Monday morning to beat the rush and be among the first in line to enter St. Chapelle, our plans were thwarted by unforeseen circumstances.

The fine print on this sign blames the weather for management's inability to open the church to the public. Keep in mind that it wasn't snowing, and there was no chance of icing within the church. We concluded that the "bitter" cold (temperatures hovering around freezing) were behind the closing, but never really figured out why.

Our back-up plan was to visit the Conciergerie, so visit we did. Famous as a Revolution-era prison that held Marie-Antoinette for several months before her demise, the Conciergerie also includes the largest medieval room still in existence in Europe, and serves to teach visitors about the royal stronghold on the Île-de-la-Cité whose origins stretch back to the 6th century.

The "Men-at-Arms Room" (above, constructed 1302-1313) served as a gathering and lodging space for the King's servants. Originally, these columns supported an even larger space above, called the "Great Hall", where the king and his court did their thing. When the palace was abandoned in 1370, the "Men-at-Arms Room" became a prison and the "Great Hall" became the meeting-place for Parliament. During the Revolution, this room was known as the "antechamber of death" - in other words, it's where those condemned to die spent their final days.

The beauty of the first room we saw was rivaled only by the corniness and sensationalism of the room you see above, which is a recreation of Marie-Antoinette's cell. (She was imprisoned separate from the riff-raff in the "Men-at-Arms Room.") See the veiled figure? That's Her Majesty. The resemblance is unmistakable. Today, she'd still be in jail, assuming they succeed in passing a ridiculous anti-Burqa law here.

One of the most interesting parts of the Conciergerie was the room that serves as a memorial to those who lots their lives after being imprisoned there. If you click on the picture and scroll to an area that's in focus, you'll see that each person is listed with their occupation, and that the Revolutionary tribunes went after people in every walk of life. Fascinating. ("Ex"-nobility and clerics may have borne the brunt of Revolutionary vengeance, but servants, shoemakers and fabric salesmen also apparently attracted some attention.)

If you try to visit St. Chapelle and it's closed, you might pop into the Conciergerie. But if I were part of a modern-day, museum-focused Revolutionary tribune, my verdict on the Conciergerie would be "guilty." You have to walk through a gift shop to get from the medieval part to the exhibits on the Revolution, there is no attempt at interactivity or multimedia, and even though the "Men-at-Arms Room" offers a wonderful opportunity to explore the lives and lifestyles of non-royalty during the 14th century, we learn little more than the architectural merits and original floor plan of the palace. Shameful. They should lock up this former prison/historical monument/"museum" and throw away the key.