Tag: Normandy Adventures

Several years ago, I read Mad Enchantment: Claude Monet and the Painting of the Water Lilies by Ross King.  While this was really a focus on the water-lilies he painted, it did make me aware of Monet in a much different way and in particular his impressionist paintings of the Cathedral of Rouen.  Over the course of several years, Monet painted more then 30 different versions of the Cathedral during different times of day and periods of the year.  When Monet painted all of these impressions the Cathedral of Rouen was the tallest building in the world.  Unfortunately, I have no recollection of seeing any of the ones he did, at least one of which is in the National Gallery of Art in DC, but I did get to see the actual Cathedral. Our sunny day made the façade shine.

Rouen Cathedral is famous for its three towers, each in a different style. The cathedral, built and rebuilt over a period of more than eight hundred years, has features from Early Gothic to late Flamboyant and Renaissance architecture.  These towers are also famous for being the tallest in France with its 19^th-century spire rising to just under 500 feet! 

The cathedral has a fine collection of stained glass from the 13th to the 20th century.

The stained-glass windows were installed progressively during the cathedral’s construction. One of the oldest examples is the booksellers’ rose in the north transept. 

A quite interesting site is the staircase that leads to the Cathedral Library – This late Gothic stair case was built, under the direction of archbishop William d’Estouteville, by Guillaume Pontis in 1480. The stairs used to lead to the Cathedral library which was situated just above the Flamboyant Gothic arched door. In 1788 another story was built above the library to hold the Cathedral records and the upper flights of stairs were added then.

However lovely the Cathedral is, we have been in a number of different ones over the last couple of months and we really wanted to spend some time in the Christmas Market so we didn’t tour the inside fully.

The Rouen Christmas market did not disappoint.  There were a number of stalls and lots of holiday decorations. The stall with UGG- like slippers and silk scarves also provided gifts and a story. The center city also provided a fine Vietnamese meal for Beth, David, Ryan, Christopher, and Janeen before heading to the car.

After the Market, as we headed back to our car, we passed under Gros-Horloge a 14th century astronomical clock. The clock is installed in a Renaissance arch crossing the Rue du Gros-Horloge. The mechanism is one of the oldest in France, the movement having been made in 1389.  

A fascinating piece of history.

Have you enjoyed our adventures? Please leave a comment and let us know!

Once we left the river cruise, we traveled by train to Livarot France – where our son has a ‘gite’ (holiday home) and is developing a B&B operation.  (https://www.ledouetfleury.fr/en) Beth, our friend from Sonoma, joined us for several days.  She had never been to this part of France before and was anxious to see where our son and his husband, Christopher, lived.  Livarot is about 3 hours northwest of Paris.

Livarot-Pays-d’Auge, as it is officially known, is a commune in the department of Calvados and became the central municipality of the 22 former communes in January 2016.  With a population of just over 6,200 it is known for cheese – a major cheese plant is in the town producing the three main cheeses of Normandy – Livarot Cheese, Normandy Camembert and Pont-l’Eveque.  A free tour of the factory is available most days and Beth along with Christopher took the tour (I went a week or so later after Beth had left).  Livarot also has a large apple processing plant turning apples into juice and apple sauce.

After settling in for the evening, we gathered our resources and planned our next trip – to Norte-Dame de Chartres.  

The construction Chartres Cathedral started about 20 years after the more famous Cathedral in Paris (one of the other Norte-Dame Cathedrals).  Chartres is one of the best-known and most influential examples of High Gothic and Classic Gothic architecture,

It stands on a Romanesque basements, while its north spire is more recent (1507–1513) and is built in the more ornate flamboyant style.  Long renowned as “one of the most beautiful and historically significant cathedrals in all of Europe,” it was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1979, which called it “the high point of French Gothic art” and a “masterpiece”.

The Cathedral is well-preserved and well-restored: the majority of the original stained-glass windows survive intact, while the architecture has seen only minor changes since the early 13th century. The cobalt blue of the windows makes Chartres unique. The building’s exterior is dominated by heavy flying buttresses which allowed the architects to increase the window size significantly, while the west end is dominated by two contrasting spires – a 349 ft plain pyramid completed around 1160 and a 377 ft early 16th-century Flamboyant spire on top of an older tower. Equally notable are the three great façades, each adorned with hundreds of sculpted figures illustrating key theological themes and narratives.

One of the more interesting aspects of the Cathedral, which makes it stand out from others, is that it has a medieval labyrinth dating from the early 13^th century on the floor.  The labyrinth is a stone inlay with only one path whereas a maze has a choice of paths.  

This labyrinth has 11 concentric circles and rounded sides with twists and turns to lead to the center and then back out and symbolizes the journey of Christ’s salvation. 

The entire area around the Cathedral is under construction making the area a pedestrian area only with paving stones replacing the roadway.  Unlike the other cathedrals we have visited during this adventure, there was NOT a Christmas Market happening which was nice.  

There is extensive restoration happening both on the  exterior and interior of the building so there was scaffolding making it more difficult to see some of the features of the building.  Once inside, we picked up the audio guide and began our tour – it was one of the best audio tours I think we have had!  It described the Cathedral in detail and highlighted various areas.  

After completing our tour, we went across the ‘square’ and had a lovely lunch prior to heading back to Livarot.