2015-09-04-Paris, FR-The Gargoyles and Chimeras of Notre Dame

In architecture, a gargoyle is a carved or formed grotesque with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building, thereby preventing rainwater from running down masonry walls and eroding the mortar between. Architects often used multiple gargoyles on buildings to divide the flow of rainwater off the roof to minimize the potential damage from a rainstorm. A trough is cut in the back of the gargoyle and rainwater typically exits through the open mouth. Gargoyles are usually an elongated fantastic animal because the length of the gargoyle determines how far water is thrown from the wall.

The term "gargoyle" originates from the French gargouille, which in English means "throat" or is otherwise known as the "gullet". When not constructed as a waterspout and only serving an ornamental or artistic function, the correct term for such a sculpture is a grotesque, chimera, or boss. Just as with bosses and chimeras, gargoyles are said to frighten off and protect those that it guards, such as a church, from any evil or harmful spirits.

Gargoyles have a functional purpose, usually as water spouts to direct rain away from a cathedrals walls, whereas chimeras are used as simple decorations. At Notre Dame most are on the façade, seated on a gallery, watching the people below and scanning all of Paris. The sculptors really used their imagination on these statues. They are animal and human figures, half-man and half-beast, grotesque, horrific, fantastic creatures with eagles’ beaks and wings, lions’ talons, serpents’ tails

The Panthéon is a building in the Latin Quarter in Paris. It was originally built as a church dedicated to St. Genevieve but, after many changes, now functions as a secular mausoleum containing the remains of distinguished French citizens. The inscription above the entrance reads AUX GRANDS HOMMES LA PATRIE RECONNAISSANTE ( "To great men, the grateful homeland"). By burying its great people in the Panthéon, the nation acknowledges the honor it received from them. As such, interment here is severely... 
View More restricted and is allowed only by a parliamentary act for "National Heroes". Among those buried in its necropolis are Voltaire, Rousseau, Victor Hugo, Émile Zola, Jean Moulin, Louis Braille, Jean Jaurès and Soufflot, its architect. In 1907 Marcellin Berthelot was buried with his wife Mme Sophie Berthelot, the first woman to be interred. Marie Curie was the first woman interred based on her own merits.Geneviève de Gaulle-Anthonioz and Germaine Tillion, heroines of the French resistance, were interred in 2015.

The Pont de l'Archevêché is the narrowest road bridge in Paris. It was built in 1828. You can see jn this photo that the bridge is laden with "love locks" for its full length. These so called "love locks" are attached to the bridge by lovers to symbolize their mutual attachment and devotion and have become a major headache for municipal authorities in Paris as they add tons of weight to bridges and create unsafe conditions. Some years ago a panel on the Pont des Artes collapsed from the weight of locks and the bridge had to be temporarily closed. After the Pont des Arts was cleared of padlocks by authorities in 2010 lovers started to place their 'love padlocks' on this bridge.

The Church of St Eustace is in the 1st arrondissement of Paris. The present building was built between 1532 and 1632. The name of the church refers to Saint Eustace, a Roman general of the second century AD who was burned, along with his family, for converting to Christianity. Mozart chose the sanctuary of this church as the location for his mother’s funeral.