But how can S. Geneviève's bones be at S. Étienne when we know they were burnt on the Place de Grève? is a question answered by the _Moniteur_ of 3 and 4 Frimaire, in the year II. (23rd and 24th November, 1793), which declares that the body was not entire; and we further know that previously, in olden time, relics of the Saint were distributed to many churches, the abbey of Chelles amongst others.
The ordinary offices at S. Étienne are in no way remarkable for splendour of ritual or of music, but one is worthy of notice--the Washing of the Feet in Holy Week. In spite of so-called uniformity, certain functions have a totally different aspect at the various churches. Take, for instance, the ceremonies of Holy Thursday, the Washing of the Feet, and the Distribution of the Bread and Wine. At many churches the priest who performs this function generally passes down in front of an array of old men and women; each receives a loaf and a bottle of wine, and that is all. But at S. Étienne it is a very quaint affair. A square portion of the nave is railed off; within sit the boys whose feet are to be washed, and upon a table are rows of loaves and bottles of wine. Then comes the _curé_, a tall, elegant-mannered man, and kneeling to each, he washes and wipes their feet, and then distributes the wine and bread. It is a very curious function; seeing all those boys taking off their boots in the middle of a church is most extraordinary; and then the quaint expressions, the keen curiosity or stupid dull gaze, the costumes and the surrounding audience, form a picture which is eminently quaint and queer.
S. Eustache, often called by the ancestors of _les dames de la Halle_ Notre-Dame des Halles, though by no means one of the oldest of Parisian churches, is, after the cathedral, the largest. In plan and arrangement it is Gothic, while its decorations and details are in the Renaissance style. It has double aisles, octagonal shafts, round-headed arches, and curvilinear tracery. It was finished in 1641, having been more than a century in building; but in spite of this, the original plan was carried out, and few churches that were so long in course of construction present so harmonious an appearance. Unfortunately, the west end, the towers of which were left unfinished, was sacrificed to the stupid taste of the 18th century; Mansard de Jouy and Moreau being allowed to replace what an old print shows to have been an interesting _façade_, in keeping with the rest of the church, by the heavy structure we all know, because, forsooth, the artistic gentlemen of the day found the original to be in a "_goût barbare qui choquait les yeux!_"