Sacre Coeur

My dear Friends

In all my years of visiting Paris, I had never seen Sacre Coeur until this last visit. In my mind I had built up an image of it which was touristy, noisy and full of steps! Well the last was certainly ture, but, claiming a sore foot-from all the pilgrimaging!-I persuaded Alexia to come with me on the 'cable car' which still leaves quite a few steps to climb, so you feel you are doing the real thing.

At the foot was a carousel, at the top a breathtaking view over Paris. We sat on the steps and pondered and watched the tourists and non-tourists having a good time on the lawn below, picknicking and listening to the harpist, who was officially busking above. You could see all of Paris except for the Eiffel tower-to see it you had to go round a corner and peer quite closely into the sky. It was a fine day, no clouds and you could almost feel you were in heaven.

Inside, no cameras were allowed, which made a huge difference to Notre Dame. Prayer was going on all the time, and we found great solace in sitting in one of the Lady Chapels, where Our Mother poured out her grace on us, which very comforting. Unlike in Notre Dame there was a tribute to Cardinal Lustiger, who died recently. I had the privilege of meeting him, when The Little Sisters of Joy had just begun, in Jan 1999, and he was the Archbishop of Paris and a Jewish convert like me. It was a poignant meeting and I was delighted to see that the notice in Sacre Coeur read:'Notre Cardinal est mort'- our Cardinal is dead, making it very personal.

Afterwards we wandered down to Montmartre, the artist quarter and had a meal in a restaurant with red and white checked tablecloths. Then we had a tea in 'The Rose House,' a lovely cafe, which had been a meeting place for artists in former times. There we met a couple of charming English ladies from Manchester, who seemed to love Paris as much as I do.

It was very hard to leave Paris, and France, the next day. Fortunately I have found a cheap ticket on the Eurostar, and I am going back to Paris for 6 days on 13th December.

A bientot!
Sister Gila xxxx