Churches in Paris and elsewhere

  My little amateur blog was a bit intimidated to be visiting Westminster Abbey. The abbey is an exceptional building. It is not controlled directly by church authorities, but by the monarch himself or herself. Perhaps this is why you have to pay 25 pounds to get in, since we all know the royal family is short of a bob or two.   I have friends who do not like cathedrals, because they represent for them the power of religion, which has very frequently been deployed in the interests of the 1%, against the mass of the people. But cathedrals were built by workers, not bishops, and they often employed the best artists of the time.   To get back to Westminster Abbey, this is of course where you get coronated and buried if you are a king or queen. But some important people are buried here too. Poets and scientists in particular, the most recent name being that of Stephen Hawking. As well as actual tombs, there are many commemorative plaques for respected writers and scientists, from Farad