Visit to France, Part 1

I was able to spend 12 days of Winter break in France with Fr. Cusick. Here is part one of some photos of what we visited.

First we spent a few days in Paris. We stayed with the Fathers of the Blessed Sacrament near the Champs Elysees, which was lit up at night and full of people:

I'm not sure why there was a petting zoo with donkeys, but this photo is for Fr. George (his favorite animal is the donkey, which carried Christ!). Visit his website and support him in his apostolate of praying for the Church as a hermit!

Fr. Cusick and I went to Rue de Bac in Paris for Mass - the site where Our Lady appeared to St. Catherine Laboure and revealed the Miraculous Medal to her.

Warning to priests - it took us over an hour to get permission to offer the Extraordinary Form in a side chapel. If you visit, you might want to take a copy of Summorum Pontificum with you, as the priest-in-charge initially told us it was "not possible" to offer Mass in Latin at his shrine.

A beautiful day overlooking the Seine River:

We visited Sainte Chapelle, which was build by King Louis to house the relic of the Crown of Thorns. The Sainte Chapelle is now a part of the French Parliament building, and I believe the relics have been moved to Notre Dame:

The inside of Sainte Chapelle:

The original reliquary:

Notre Dame Cathedral:

We made a quick stop to the convent in Nevers to see St. Bernadette:

This is the actual statue (Our Lady of the Waters) that Saint Bernadette loved to visit each day:

The Cathedral of Nevers:

We stopped at the Cathedral of Orleans....

And then visited Chartres with a friend from the Institute of the Good Shepherd. A great restaurant in Chartres:

Buying food for our New Year's celebration that night:

The Cathedral of Chartres:

A very famous statue of Mary from the 1500's in the Cathedral of Chartres:

Up next, New Years celebration in Courtalain with the Institute of the Good Shepherd, and a tour of the Brittany region of France...