Holy Week at Nôtre Dame

It has been very busy at Nôtre Dame in the week leading up to Easter.  We took Julian to see it the evening he arrived.  We took the métro to Hôtel de Ville and walked over to Ile de la Cité to Nôtre Dame.

Julian at Hôtel de Ville

It was later in the evening and the cathedral was closed.  But we noticed a man on a platform right in the center of the parvis in front of Nôtre Dame who was in the way for us to take pictures.  Then suddenly the main front doors of Nôtre Dame opened and priests dressed in white robes started pouring out of the cathedral.

And they kept coming and coming and standing all along the front of Nôtre Dame.

Then two people kept telling us to "Reculez, reculez!"  So I asked why we had to move back.  It turns out the man on the platform was taking a picture of these priests.  In the meantime, priests kept coming out of the cathedral and lining up.

The Photographer's Assistant in Black Lines up the Priests When He Isn't Telling Us to Reculez

Finally some very important looking people wearing mitres came out and stood in the front of the group.  We thought they must be Bishops.  All this time the photographer's assistants kept telling us to reculez.

Then a very important looking man came out with a mitre and a staff.  Perhaps he was a cardinal?  The Bishops removed their mitres as he came out.

Then it was all over in a moment and they streamed back into the cathedral.

 We just never know what we will see when we go for a little stroll in Paris.