In addition the towns that surround them are also fascinating and well worth a visit. There are several other towns not included, but this is a good sample of the variety.
In short this blog highlights most of our favourite aspects of France, except perhaps the food and the flowers - but it does show the history, architecture, shop signs, scenery, etc. Starting with the smallest and oldest first - Troo.
Troo - old frescoes and trogladytes!
Troo was a small village not far from our farm gite in Prunay. It is well known as one of several troglodyte villages in the region. These are villages where the original inhabitants built their homes into the cliff sides so that they were more like cave dwellers. However, as time and safety progressed they built freestanding houses and churches, and these days the caves are used for storing wine, etc. Some more freestanding buildings seem to still be occupied as houses. The early Romanesque churches from the 6th - 11th centuries are now renowned for their frescoes and the two churches at Troo, one in the village itself and one on the other side of the river, facing Troo, called St Jacques de Guerets had some fabulous examples. We called into Troo on our way to Le Mans with Dot and Joyce. First, photos of St Jacques with the Troglodyte dwellings, the old Romanesque church and its frescoes and also some lovely examples from its graveyard. The flowers were all carved and painted and looked lovely. Many of the local gravestones had done something similar.
Lavardin Church - some brilliant frescoes
I have already written up Lavardin castle in the blog on Chateaux a short while ago. It is a small but pretty village also near our farm gite in Prunay and not far from Troo, above. The little village church did not look much from the outside, but once again proved that secrets lay hidden within. The inside proved to be a veritable treasure trove of early Romanesque frescoes. Note the beheaded St Denis their patron saint, the last supper, Christ as part of a Tree of Life, the angels playing instruments, the monsters from Hell over the arch and the beautiful tracery on some of the support arches.
Josselyn Church - Brittany
We called in on Josselyn on the way home from Lorient. Denise's sister had sent excellent reports of the town and they lived up to expectations. There was the inevitable castle right on the edge of the river, which looked spectacular but we didn't have time to visit. However we did spend time in the church - again late Romanesque with a fantastic bell tower that you could climb to the top of on a very narrow spiral stone staircase! (You would not have wanted to meet an obese tourist!!!!). We also had lunch at a tiny half timbered pub - check out the height of the building! and had a lovely conversation in Breton, French and English with one of the locals who had been to Australia to work!
Chartres Cathedral
This cathedral is meant to be the high point of High Gothic Cathedral building, highlighting all the skills and magnificence of 13th century cathedral building in France & Europe. It is a magnificent building and the external carving on the doors etc is superb, but I actually preferred Le Mans & Bourges Cathedrals (see further below) for impressiveness. They were both sited better and appeared bigger and more awe-inspiring, even though Chartres has so many spectacular carvings and windows. Chartres Cathedral is also famous for its two spires that were built over a century apart, one highlighting the more simple mix of Romanesque style and the other a flamboyant example of 16th century High Gothic architecture. To quote from our guidebook (Eyewitness Travel France): "Chartres has the greatest Gothic Cathedral in Europe. According to Art Historian Emile Male, "Chartres is the mind of the Middle Ages manifest". Begun in 1020, the Romanesque cathedral was destroyed by fire in 1194. Only the north & south towers, the south steeple, west portal and crypt remained. ... Peasant and Lord alike helped to rebuild the church in just 25 years. Few alterations were made after 1250, and fortunately, Chartres was unscathed by the Wars of Religion and the French Revolution." etc etc.....
Here are samples of the exquisite carving. I particularly liked these old Testament figures and Alan loved the detail on their clothing. One of the dresses even looked like lace!
Inside the Cathedral
The Cathedral is justifiably famous for its stained glass windows and for the carving on the Choir Stall Screen. The choir screen is poorly lit - I was not sure whether this was for protection of the marble or just because they weren't turning on lots of lights. Either way, it was difficult to do justice to it in photos, as without flash or tripod they were under exposed and with flash their colour became distorted. But I have tried. The screen is very long, made of white marble and full of 3 dimensional carvings of biblical figures. The carving is amazing.
The windows were used as educational tools for the people of the town, as most people at that time could not read or write. So the windows tell not only bible stories, but also about life in the town, about the exploits of the local lords and king, and about the working people and what they do. The colours and detail are quite fascinating. Once again to quote from my guidebook: "Donated by royalty, aristocracy, priests and the merchant brotherhoods between 1210 and 1240, this glorious collection of stained glass is world renowned. Around 176 windows illustrate biblical stories and daily life in the 13th century. During both world wars the windows were dismantled piece by piece and removed for safety." What more do I need to say??!!
One more thing, the nave reaches a height of 121 feet or 37 metres.
Our Lady of the Pillar Chapel. The statue is a 16th century copy of the 13th c. original.
the carving on the pulpit box and then the choir screen.
A small sample of the windows. The rose window here is from the north portal (c. 1230) and depicts the Glorification of the Virgin surrounded by the Kings of Judah and the Prophets.
Chartres town
An exceptional town - in some ways better than the famed Cathedral.
It had a real mix of medieval, half timbered and stone buildings, 17th & 18th century French buildings and some fabulous art deco buildings including the former Post Office that has now been converted into the very modern Municipal Library! Some of the buildings are the most amazing shapes to fit old street corners, etc. It was also full of the lovely French shop signs that Denise & I fell in love with. The street signs were great, providing a great source of historical information. I would love Melbourne and Australia to take up the process of providing plaques about the history of street names in the street itself. Again to quote from my guidebook: "As one of the first urban conservation sites in France, Chartres is a success story. Quirky half timbered houses abound along cobbled streets, ... . Steep staircases lead down to the river Eure providing views of mills, humpback stone bridges, washhouses and the cathedral." The central plaza area, although surrounded by old buildings, has a vibrant and thriving commercial centre. It was fun just wandering around.
The Library:
This half timbered house was called the Trout House because of the fish carvings in its wooden frame.
Le Mans
We went to Le Mans twice - once as a day trip with Dot & Joyce and the 2nd time on the way back from Lorient, with Denise. We had only ever heard of Le Mans as the Formula 1 car racing town, but we discovered much more, and in fact, although we went looking for the race track we never found it - it was buried in amongst the modern shopping complexes and light industrial zones of the outer suburbs.
The inner city however was a delight, built on old Roman foundations, it still had remnants of its early Roman city wall - very impressive. According to my guidebook "the ancient fortified centre is surrounded by the greatest Roman walls in France". It also had a fabulous Tudor style village centre - half timbered buildings complete with decorative sculptures on the wood, beautiful & different street lanterns and of course a huge High Gothic Cathedral, St Julien, complete with flying buttresses, fabulous windows and sculptures, gargoyles, etc, and "a Romanesque portal to rival that of Chartres", to quote my guide book once again! The whole area has been extensively restored and is now used for many movies eg Cyrano de Bergerac. A highlight was the overpass - as the old city was built up high (as per normal) they have tunnelled a road underneath and decorated all the arches with lovely colourful fresh floral arrangements. It just showed what a bit of pride in the city and a value of flowers can do. And the overpass gave a great view of the surrounding countryside.
Le Mans turned out to be one of our favourite towns.
Inside Le Mans Cathedral
More impressive than Chartres in some ways. Certainly it felt larger and more awe-inspiring to me. It was here we first experienced the amazing reflections of the stained glass windows on the pillars of the cathedral. (See La Charite further below for some excellent examples of this).
La Charite
A medieval cathedral city, now a city of medieval (antique) books. We decided to visit here on the way to another town and never left La Charite, at least on that occasion! The town had an interesting history, with a very early church that was built on top of Roman ruins. When the old church fell into ruin, they built another large cathedral in the middle ages. For a time this was one of the largest cathedrals in France. For a number of reasons, but primarily because it was on the pilgrimage route for Jacques de Compastella in Spain and because the monks who resided here became famous for their charity and good works (hence the name of the town), La Charite therefore became a very large religious centre. After the headquarters of the church moved to due to political changes, the cathedral fell into ruin and the villagers began to build their houses in the ruins of the old church walls! Several centuries later, the church decided to resurrect the cathedral and in the 20th century the town was declared a heritage area. So now you have this fabulous cathedral surrounded by medieval housing and a whole village. Part of the old town wall / ramparts are still standing and you can walk along them for a great view of the town. The entry to the cathedral is now the old inner door of the cathedral and in the outdoor area between the original front door and the current one are the ruined walls where people built there houses. One of them has been converted to the excellent tourist office!
The town now specialises in old books and has a big book fair every year. Also of interest in the town were the number of very strange roof shapes, all tiled but the most odd angles!
Inside the Cathedral
The highlight here was the reflections of the light shining through the windows onto the floor & pillars of the church. It was the brightest we had seen anywhere and created a stunning effect. It would have been very awe inspiring in medieval times when the people believed so much more. It also had some lovely stone carvings and 20th century windows.
Bourges Cathedral & Town
Bourges was the largest regional town close to our gite at Savigny en Sancerre. It was a fabulous town that we took our visitors to, but we never seemed to have enough time to it justice or to see all the sites properly. The cathedral was very impressive and looked lovely lit up at night. the old town was another half timbered delight. And the 1453 palace of Jacques Coeur was excellent. It even had 3d sculpted tromp l'oeils rather than painted ones! Jacques Coeur was the financier and foreign minister to King Charles VII, and he built town houses, palaces and chateaux throughout the Loire Valley and eatern central France. He was famous as an arms dealer as well as a self made merchant. Bourges was his home town and there are lots of reminders of his presence. The central town was vibrant and lively, as it is a university town and like Montpellier, therefore has a very active young population. The town centre also had another fabulous art deco post office, and some lovely fountains and parks. Also in the centre of town opp the cathedral is an old building that houses the winning entries for craftsmen who have earned the French equivalent of master craftsmen, entitling them to join the craft guild etc. There were some brilliant modern examples of glass work, metalwork, woodwork, jewellery, and textile crafts. The green hat with music took my fancy! The other highlight of Bourges were the hysterical translation of menu items at a great restaurant we went to. Unfortunately I don't have photos of the menu showing steamed fish as "great beefy bloke" (true) etc but those of you who know Denise, Richard & Cecily can ask for a copy! Even if the translation was a bit off, the food certainly wasn't.
The Cathedral:
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