La Légende de Saint Denis

Saint-Denis is a suburb that lies just north of the city of Paris and is easily accessible by train, metro, or bus. In my opinion, it is much more similar to New York City or Boston or major cities in the United States than Paris simply because it is much more diverse (socioeconomically, culturally, etc.) and more down-to-earth than the almost-too-beautiful, bourgeois, tourist-filled streets of the French capital. We took the metro there from the center of Paris and were pleasantly surprised by a lively, clamoring street market is present every day in Saint-Denis. Full of shouting vendors, Parisians looking for cheap produce, stands of 5-euro watches and 20-euro fake leather jackets, Muslim women wearing hijabs, men with full beards wearing loose lightweight matching shirts and pants in brightly-colored patterned fabrics...it was so refreshing!
Now, who was Saint Denis? He was one of the people who tried to evangelize France. He was sentenced to death by beheading. There is a legend that Saint Denis, after being beheaded, picked up his own head, and survived long enough to walk to the place where he wanted to be buried...the current location of the Basilica of Saint-Denis.
On the outside front wall of the basilica, there is a stone placard that reads: "En cette eglise le mardi 13 September 1479 Jeanne d'Arc blessée devant Paris en hommage a St.-Denis offrit ses armes." Which translates to English as: "In this church, on Tuesday, September 13, 1479, Joan of Arc, injured outside of Paris, offered her services to Saint Denis."
The outside of the basilica is unfortunately very dirty, as you can see from the first picture. The state doesn't have enough money to fund restoration of all of the historical buildings and places in France, and unfortunately, Saint Denis doesn't make enough of its own revenue through tours, souvenir shop sales, etc., to keep the building maintained. Therefore, you see that the outer walls are filthy, and the windows very dirty, as well. However, the inside is absolutely stunning. The colorful stained glass windows, the varying styles of architecture behind the transept of the basilica (showing how changes over time affected the style of the additions to the basilica)...it was all very beautiful. Here are some pictures to give you an idea:

But the best part of the basilica is that all the kings of France are buried HERE. Think about how much history that is in ONE place! The bodies are in their ornate stone tombs within the basilica or their tombs are within the basilica and their bodies are underneath the floor in the crypt. Whether the tombs were above or below ground, they were all quite creepy and somewhat unsettling. The stone tombs have likenesses of the people that are enterred within them. The older ones all look very rudementary and relatively cartoon-like and impersonal. However, as the tombs get younger and younger, the likenesses become more realistic and detailed, and some of them, even gruesome.

The part that I loved the most was the crypt...although when I first got down there I was super creeped out and seriously considered returning upstairs to ask someone to come and look around with me. It's not that it's poorly lighted or anything, but it smells weird, and well, there are lots of dead people buried down there. It was absolutely amazing. So amazing, in fact, that I ended up spending WAY too much time down there and was late to meet the rest of my group.
While I was down there, I discovered something that almost made me shout down in the crypts because I was so excited. During my junior year of high school, I did research about Louis XVII, the son of the king that was beheaded during the French Revolution. I learned that there was a legend/myth/piece of history that says that this very very young prince was rescued from imprisonment and eventual beheading/death by someone who disguised him and raised him elsewhere. Since then, there have been all sorts of claims that he survived. However, they later found a heart that is supposedly his. And guess where that heart is? Yeah. It's in small ornate glass jar with gold-leaf detailing in the crypt of the freaking Basilica of Saint-Denis. I freaking stumbled upon that thing. Paris is ridiculous. France is crazy. I love it.

It was really interesting to see another part of France that isn't all fine wine, $200 high heels, good cheese, expensive cafés, famous bookstores, artisan bread, aaaaaand only caucasian people. I feel that in general our group has been prone to acting and feeling as if France is some fake fairyland place that we see in movies and that even when we're in the country, we're so outside of the society that people feel comfortable being ridiculously loud and ostentatious. I think that seeing other parts of France and experiencing different cultures and environments will be a good way for all of us to learn that France isn't just la vie en rose through the eyes of Amélie.