we took the high-speed train from barcelona to narbonne, france--a 250 km trip that took us two hours. for comparison, the "baby bullet" train from san jose to san francisco covers 80 km in 90 minutes. at one point during our trip, the train was traveling 186 miles per hour! someday, california.
narbonne, a lovely town in southern france, was the site of our first french cathedral of the trip, which wasn't about cathedrals at all, but happened to become a theme enroute. narbonne has an interesting history and was a short distance away from our ultimate destination in southern france, the canal du midi (more on that in another post). narbonne was settled by the romans around 100 bc and was an important port near the mediterranean, but it now lies 15 km inland because the aude river silted in during the 14th century. the loss of the port had a tremendous effect on the economy of the town. those effects are perhaps most evident when visiting the cathedral of justus and pastor. the gothic cathedral was built on the site that had been occupied by at least four other churches during the town's history. the cathedral was started in the 1200s, worked on in fits and spurts throughout the 1300s, and then construction stopped. forever. there was not enough money to continue construction and the cathedral was going to be so massive that they would have had to demolish part of the city walls, which would have made them more vulnerable to invasions.
it was quite possibly the most interesting cathedral we visited on our trip. they built the choir (choir and altar areas) but not the nave so the church is very tall and wide but short. where the nave would start is a solid wall that is adorned with an enormous pipe organ. if you walk around to the other side of the wall outside, there is empty space where the nave should be, but all of the side chapels were constructed so it is lined on each side with outdoor chapels (some are used as parking spaces). the cathedral maintained parts of the roman church that stood on that spot prior to the cathedral, so there were some beautiful frieze pieces incorporated into the chapels around the choir.
there's a little bit behind me, but this is
the entirety of the cathedral.
roman frieze
the lovely pipe organ where the nave would have started
the exterior nave wall
gargoyles and flying buttresses made it into
the early phases of construction
even at only a quarter of its intended
size, it is still a massive structure!
jenny, andrew, pete, and i
not the cathedral, but my favorite photo from narbonne
from narbonne, we cruised on the canal du midi for ten days before heading north to catch our flight home from paris. our route north was largely determined by a bridge, a cathedral, and a chateau.
the millau viaduct spans the 1.5 mile wide valley of the river tarn 900 feet above the ground. it is the tallest bridge in the world and considered a great engineering achievement. it was opened in 2006 in an attempt to alleviate summer traffic through millau. quite impressive on and off the bridge.
the millau viaduct
we arrived in bourges just in time to see the bourges cathedral (st. etienne) in the beautiful evening glow. the next morning we went inside and were blown away by its size and all of the stained glass. this cathedral is unique because it does not have a transept--the cross that divides the choir from the nave--so it looks longer than it's 300 feet. the stained glass was some of the best we saw. the windows behind the choir were nearly floor to ceiling stained glass with incredible detail. these windows were great because they came so close to eye level that you could see the relief in the lead frame and glass pieces. we climbed the north tower for a birds-eye view of bourges and the flying buttresses (nicknamed the "butter tower" - the tower collapsed in the 1400s and the church relied on donations from the congregation to rebuild it. if you donated you were given an indulgence that allowed you to eat butter during lent, hence the name).
west facade - five doors in all
the "butter" tower
300 feet from one end to the other
entering the zone of amazing stained glass windows
the windows were so beautiful in the morning light
so much detail in the stories these windows tell
flying buttresses from above
(they are quite slender on this cathedral
because the walls are also quite thick,
providing additional support)
a beautiful view from the garden
from bourges we traveled deeper into the loire valley to a non-cathedral site that was one of andrew's travel goals...chateau chenonceau. chenonceau has a long history, but much of the current character of the chateau was designed by king henri ii's mistress, who owned the chateau. when henri ii died, however, the queen took the chateau from his mistress and sent her off to another chateau in the french countryside. chenonceau is a bit of a photographer's delight because part of it is build over the river. we rented a rowboat and got to boat down the river through the arches of the chateau. there were a gazillion rooms in the chateau; the most interesting to me was the bedroom of king henri iii's wife. she had it decorated in all black after the king died and the wallpaper had crosses, tears, and gravedigger shovels on it. a tad morbid.
chateau from the beautiful garden
the gallery (ballroom)
wallpaper in the mourning bedroom
pete rowing us in our little boat
chateau over the water
cathedral #3 was notre dame de chartres. chartres is one of the least altered cathedrals in france from its original structure and weathered wwii largely intact. all of the stained glass was removed from the cathedral in 1939 and reinstalled after the war. the cathedral is a pilgrimage site because the birthing veil mary supposedly wore when jesus was born resides in one of the side chapels. one of the unique features of chartres is the labyrinth on the floor in the middle of the nave. the choir screen was one of the most elaborate that we saw and was quite impressive.
the labyrinth
original stonework that has been painted over
throughout most of the cathedral
beautiful stained glass rose window
part of the elaborate choir screen
mary's birthing veil
chartres cathedral
our final cathedral was notre dame in paris. we were a bit overloaded on gothic cathedrals at that point, but it was raining outside so we took refuge inside her walls (along with just about every other tourist in the city). the choir screen at this notre dame is also quite ornate and has one of the few depictions of jesus as a child (generally we only see him as a baby and as a grown man).
notre dame (paris)
piece of the choir screen depicting jesus as a child (upper left)
notre dame from across the river
the winner of all things church-y on our trip was, hands down, sainte chapelle in paris. pete and i visited this royal chapel in 2008 and were just as impressed with it eight years later. the stained glass is magnificent and completely surrounds the entire chapel. these windows are unique because they only tell stories from the old testament. all of the cathedrals we visited tell stories of the old and new testaments in their stained glass windows. restoration work was recently undertaken to clean the stained glass of years of "human skin and breath." gross.
altar
fisheye view of all the stained glass in the chapel
if you made it to the end of this post, well done. our adventures on the canal du midi are up next...which may include just as many photos...
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