Refine Search

What France Offers Its Visitors

By “Awake!” correspondent in France

IMAGINE a couple whom we will call Ray and Cecile. They have been planning their trip to France for months. Ray is very much interested in foreign languages and looks forward to the opportunity of using his recently brushed-up French. Cecile, shall we say, is a descendant of the Huguenots, whence her French name. Being keenly interested in history, she is anxious to visit the land from which her Protestant ancestors may be said to have fled.

Both Ray and Cecile are keen students of the Bible. They want to take advantage of such common Paris attractions as going up the Eiffel Tower, taking a boat ride down the Seine on a bateau-mouche, strolling down the Champs-Elysées or peeping over the shoulder of an artist painting in Montmartre’s Place du Tertre. In addition, they are determined to see at least some of the many places in France that are connected with religious history and the Bible. It is therefore with keen anticipation that they step off their plane at the ultra-modern Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle Airport.

Friendly Advice at the Branch Office

After a night of rest, Ray and Cecile decide first to visit the branch office of Jehovah’s Witnesses. They are shown the offices and home (Bethel), but learn that the printing, magazine and shipping departments are located in Louviers/​Incarville (Normandy), some 65 miles (105 kilometers) west of Paris. They are planning to rent a car after visiting Paris. So they look forward to seeing the rest of the branch a little later.

Right now they are anxious to know what is of interest to the Bible student in and near Paris. “First and foremost, the Louvre,” replies their Bethel guide. “But since today is Saturday and entrance to the Louvre is free on Sundays, I would suggest that you see a few other interesting places today.”

The Latin Quarter

The suggestions he gives take them first to the Latin Quarter or student section of Paris. To get there, they take a number 72 bus from the Porte-de-Saint-Cloud to the Place du Châtelet, an interesting ride along the Right Bank of the Seine. From there, they walk across the Pont-au-Change bridge onto the Ile de la Cité, the island where the ancient Gallo-Roman city of Lutetia was located. They continue on across the Pont-Saint-Michel bridge, onto the Left Bank of the Seine and up the Boulevard Saint Michel until they come, on the left, to the Cluny Museum, housed partly in what remains of the Roman thermae, or public baths.

Downstairs, in a crypt, they are intrigued by blocks of stone (labeled “Pilier des Nautes” in French) from a Gallo-Roman altar bearing the names of several pagan gods and an inscription revealing that it was built “when Tiberius was Caesar,” that is, at the time Jesus was on earth. “Hey, Cecile, look what it says on this notice.” Ray interprets for her and explains that this pagan altar was discovered in 1711 under the choir of Notre Dame cathedral. “Imagine that,” he exclaims, “the most famous Catholic church in France was built on the site of a pagan temple! Significant, eh?”

In that same crypt, Ray and Cecile examine the mutilated stone heads representing the kings of Judah, all that remain of 28 statues that, in 1793, the French revolutionaries brought crashing down from the front of Notre Dame cathedral, thinking that they were statues of French monarchs. These 13th-century stone heads, doubtless reverently buried by a monarchist, were discovered under a Paris courtyard as recently as April 1977. “My word!” exclaims Cecile. “They certainly show what people will do when they get mad at the church systems!”

Huguenot Museum

After a quick lunch in a little restaurant, Ray and Cecile walk to the impressive Place du Panthéon, where they take the 84 bus to the rue des Saints-Pères. At number 54 they find, at the back of a courtyard, the quaint little Library and Museum of French Protestantism (open from 2 to 6 p.m. Tuesday to Saturday; Tuesday only, from August 1 to September 15). In the various glass cases to the right, they are intrigued to see a 1520 edition of Luther’s book Prelude Concerning the Babylonish Captivity of the [Catholic] Church, a 1523 edition of his book Concerning the Wrong Use of Mass (French: Du mauvais usage de la Messe) and a 1561 English edition of Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion, all three of which were key works in bringing about the Protestant Reformation. They also look at some very old Protestant Bibles in French exhibited here.

Crossing the room, they examine, in a glass case, various articles and sermon books used in the “Desert” (underground) by the Huguenots during the persecution they underwent in the 17th and 18th centuries. Going back toward the entrance, Ray tries out his French on the historical documents and posters banning any non-Catholic religious meetings in France. Cecile shudders as he translates these infamous decrees. She begins to understand better why her forebears decided to flee from France.

After leaving that very interesting but somewhat musty building, Ray and Cecile are glad to get out into the air and walk down the rue des Saints-Pères to the Seine, where they catch a beautiful view of the Louvre across the river. They turn right and amble along the embankments, past the French Academy building and the characteristic stalls of the bouquinistes (secondhand-book sellers) perched on the embankment wall, until they come to the bridge leading to Notre Dame cathedral.

Notre Dame

They pause in front of this 12th-century Gothic cathedral and gaze at the central porch, where the weighing of souls in the “Last Judgment” is depicted. “After seeing that,” remarks Ray, “I don’t see how any Catholic could deny that his church teaches physical torment of the damned in hell.”

Cecile calls Ray over to look at the left portal, the “Porch of the Virgin.” Pointing to the sculptured scene above the doors, where Mary is shown being crowned by an angel while Christ hands her a scepter, Cecile says dryly: “Boy, they’ve really got her fixed up as the Queen of Heaven!” “Well, yes,” Ray replies, “it all fits in. Notre Dame means ‘Our Lady.’ The whole cathedral is dedicated to the worship of the Queen of Heaven. Yet even the Catholic Jerusalem Bible [Jer. 7:18, footnote] identifies the Queen of Heaven with Ishtar, the pagan goddess of fertility.”

Turning right, into the rue du Cloître-Notre-Dame, they head for number 10, the Notre-Dame-de-Paris Museum (open Saturday and Sunday only, from 2:30 to 6 p.m.). This small museum is well worth a visit, if only to see in a glass case to the right of a passageway between the two inner rooms the late Cardinal Verdier’s “red hat,” and a notice explaining that cardinals receive the red hat from the pope as a symbol of the fact that they must show themselves intrepid, “to the point of shedding blood,” in furthering the interests of the Roman Catholic Church.

Various documents exhibited in glass cases or on the walls of the innermost room show, on the one hand, how the clergy collaborated with the monarchy and then with Napoleon, and, on the other hand, what happened to the clergy and to church property during the French Revolution. “It gives you an idea of what could happen when the prophecies of Revelation, chapters 17 and 18, are fulfilled on Babylonish false religion, doesn’t it?” remarks Cecile, as she and Ray head for their hotel room, tired but satisfied.

The Louvre, Versailles and Saint-Germain-en-Laye

The following day, Sunday, Ray and Cecile decide to visit the Louvre. They take the Métro and get off the train at the Louvre station, which is an artistic masterpiece in its own right. The Louvre opens at 10 a.m. So they devote the morning to the Department of Oriental Antiquities and the afternoon to the Department of Egyptian Antiquities. Bible in hand, they follow the itinerary outlined herein on pages 13 and 14.

Monday, our two Bible students rent a car and spend the morning in Versailles. Cecile, quite informed on French history, is particularly eager to see the palace, symbol of royal luxury, yet also the scene of the birth of the French Republic. Ray, for whom royal palaces have no particular attraction, is nevertheless intrigued when his eye catches a Tetragrammaton (the four Hebrew letters of the divine name Jehovah or Yahweh) above the altar of the palace chapel. He also reminds Cecile, while she is admiring the 246-foot- (75-meter-) long Hall of Mirrors, that it was here, on June 28, 1919, that the peace treaty was signed, which included the Covenant of the League of Nations (succeeded by the United Nations). Cecile is impressed, since the United Nations seems destined to play such an important part in the modern-day fulfillment of Bible prophecy.

Just a short drive from Versailles is Saint-Germain-en-Laye, with a fine castle housing a very well-set-out museum containing interesting artifacts from Gallo-Roman times (open 9:45 a.m.​—12 noon and 1:30—​5 p.m. every day except Tuesday). Here Ray and Cecile go straight to Room IX. There they open their Bible to Luke 19:43, 44. A scale model, based on archaeological finds, shows how the Romans besieged the Gauls in Alesia, in 52 B.C.E., using “a — (continued on page 15) What France Offers (Cont’d from page 11) fortification with pointed stakes” as they did to besiege Jerusalem 121 years later, in 70 C.E. Upstairs in Room X, in glass case 1, they see proof that the Gauls worshiped a Trinity of gods long before Christendom’s Nicene Council adopted a triune God in 325 C.E. In Room XI, Ray and Cecile are amazed to see that the same thing holds true with regard to Mariolatry. Several statues (for example, in case 9) of Gallic mother-goddesses with child remind them of “Virgin and Child” images and statues to be seen in the churches of Christendom.

Other Places to See in France

Having spent three days digging up the past in and around Paris, Ray and Cecile decide, on Tuesday, to come back to present-day Christianity by visiting the two Bethel annexes located in Louviers (2, rue des Entrepôts) and nearby in Incarville (8-bis, rue de la Forêt).

They tell their Bethel guide what they have already seen and ask him what else in France is of interest to Bible students. Knowing that they plan to attend one of the French assemblies of Jehovah’s Witnesses, he gives them the following information:

“If you decide to attend the Nantes assembly, you might like to break your journey in Angers. In the ancient fortress castle, there is the 14th-century Apocalypse Tapestry, over 350 feet (107 meters) long and containing 68 scenes based on the book of Revelation. Incidentally, Cecile, since you say you come from Huguenot stock, you might be interested in visiting a Huguenot museum at Le Bois-Tiffrais, Monsireigne, near Pouzauges, some 50 miles (80 kilometers) southeast of Nantes.

“Should you travel south to attend the Toulouse assembly, within a 50-mile radius you will find many places packed full of religious history. You can make notes about a few, such as Le Mas d’Azil (near Sabarat), Montségur (near Lavelanet), Carcassonne, Mazamet and the Château de Ferrières (near Vabre). Some of these places, and many others, bear witness to the terrible persecution of ‘heretics’ by special crusades, the Inquisition and other means. Mind you, in places where the Protestants were in the majority, they were not tender with the Catholics!

“If you go to the Marseille assembly, either before or after attending you might try to visit Nîmes. They call it the Rome of southern France. It has a very well-preserved Roman amphitheater, a first-century temple and the remains of Roman baths. A museum (Musée du Vieux Nîmes) contains historical objects relating to the Huguenots. A few miles south of Nîmes, there is a very quaint medieval walled town called Aigues Mortes. The 13th-century Constance Tower there was where Huguenot women were imprisoned (one of them for 37 years) during the 18th century, simply because they insisted on meeting together to study the Bible. In fact, at a place called Le Mas-Soubeyran, near Anduze, 30 miles (48 kilometers) northeast of Nîmes, you can visit a house where such underground meetings were held. It is called ‘The Desert Museum’ and when you see the subterfuges they had to use, it really makes you think of the precautions our Christian Witness brothers have to take to continue studying the Bible in those countries where Jehovah’s Witnesses are banned today.

“Well, Ray and Cecile, it’s been grand meeting you, and I hope that will give you enough to work on for your trip. Bon voyage!”

“Merci beaucoup!” Ray replies. “Yes, thank you for all that helpful information,” adds Cecile. “I really didn’t think there were so many interesting things for Bible students to see in France.”

[Map on page 12]

(For fully formatted text, see publication)

France

LILLE

Louviers

St.-Germain

Versailles

PARIS

NANTES

Angers

Pouzauges

GRENOBLE

Anduze

TOULOUSE

Vabre

Nîmes

Mazamet

Le Mas-d’Azil

Carcassonne

Aigues Mortes

MARSEILLE

Lavelanet

Sites given are assembly locations and nearby places of interest

[Picture on page 9]

France has more to offer than wine, cabarets, and the Eiffel Tower

This summer there are assemblies of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Lille, Nantes and Marseille (July 26-30), and in Paris, Grenoble and Toulouse (August 2-6). This article tells of some of the places that will be of special interest to those in attendance.