Saint-Denis

The story goes that when Christianity first hit the fan in France, the pagans chopped off the head of a guy named Denis who was converting the people to Christianity (think of the name Denise, and then pronounce it without saying the ‘s’ at the end). After the deed was done, he picked up his head and walked to the hill where the basilica now stands, where he collapsed (more impressive than what Shiz did, don’t you think?). Needless to say, Christianity got a big boost after that. Can you spot Denis?

But we didn’t visit for the story—we went because it is where all the kings and queens of France (well, most of them, okay just a lot of them) are buried. We went down into the crypt and the most exciting thing we saw was a replica of the Dauphin's heart (Dauphin = son of Marie Antoinette). Unfortunately (or fortunately?) I did not get a picture (what was I thinking?). Instead I got pictures of the names of the dead kings and queens from the second dynasty (next to a creepy hallway that led to more names of dead kings and queens). However, I love that whenever Pépin is mentioned, “le bref” or “the short” is sure to follow. If he didn’t have a complex when he was alive, he must have one by now.

Okay, so its time I make a little confession: the royals are not actually buried under the church (whaaaat?). They were at one point, but during the revolution, there was a committee sent out to destroy all remnants of the monarchy, blah-dy, blah-dy, blah, etc. etc. and they ended up putting all the bodies into one mass grave and covering it with lyme (lye? I don’t know which one because the tour was in French), effectively eating up any remains. Drat.

Sidenote: we ran into this store on the way to the basilica.

Score.