Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Paris 1900: IV. Notre Dame




Written 4 June, 2007

Paris 1900

Part IV: Notre Dame


I was spotting areas that looked decidedly Rive Droit and decidedly Rive Gauche (I especially love the Left Bank; there are no Burger Kings there, or at least there weren’t the last time I was in France). But Paris’ famous river was conspicuously missing.

I thought that was inseine.

Eventually I spotted Notre Dame, which of course, straddles the river, way the hell out in the ocean on a sim corner.

What was it doing out there? Being built so it could be transported later?

Who knows? But there is was, far in the distance.

I scanned the base of the small island on which the cathedral sat; the walls were vertical, and there seemed to be no way up (remember, no fly).

I was telling Sweetie and Mordecai in chat I would heroically undertake the long undersea journey and teleport them if I found a way up, but before I could hit enter, they were already underwater, running toward the sim corner.

What the hell! I hit CTRL-R and newbie-ran after them.

When I reached the base of the island, I tried walking up the vertical walls. No dice.

“Ha, ha, I’m inside!” This from Sweetie.

She’s getting REALLY GOOD at camera control.

Mordecai and I tiled our cameras up and sat at one of the many benches, and we were inside, too.

Take that, you no-fly French bastards!

The cathedral was stunningly done. The flying buttresses characteristic of gothic architecture were nicely made, although I thought a better Rose window texture was needed.

Before long we were holding an impromptu Mass, with Cheyenne on the organ and Brother Scaggs at the pulpit and Sweetie shouting Halleluiah and waving her arms and speaking in tongues. It was no doubt the first Holy Roller service ever performed in Notre Dame.

After exploring the cathedral, we hit a couple of Rive Droit shops, where Mordecai bought a steampunk boat (think “The African Queen”) and I bought two gowns that Sweetie found too common. “But they’ll look good on you, she said. “Everything looks good on you.”

And it does!

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