Climbing the Cathedral

So it's the last week in Orleans. I am actually really sad about this, although rather excited about the two weeks of traveling around France, London and Dublin that await me.

Today we visited the oldest part of Orleans, it's a crypt, which was built under a since destroyed church to house the bones of a saint (whose name I have forgotten!)

It was built in the 11th Century and rediscovered in the 19th!

Here is the 11th Century part of it! This is all underground, and very cold, so it was rather spooky!

 

And after that, we climbed the Cathedral!

This was achieved via a series of spiral stair cases... for those of you who want to see what the inside of a Cathedral roof looks like - regardez!

 

You can't quite see it from here, but the artisans used the same technology they used to build a boat (a medieval one) - but they inverted it!

Here are some of the shots I got from the roof of the Cathedral, at various points on the ascent. It was truly spectacular and really called for a more accomplished photographer than me, but alas. 

 

Here it is from the ground with the banner of Orleans fluttering nearby.

 

From the First Level.

 

Looking up from the First level.

 

A very bizarre view of a Cathedral from the Second Level.

 

Finally the Third level, where you can see almost all of Orleans. Sorry for the dark photo....

 

This one is just for fun. I like it!

Until next time!

 

 

An Australian, a Finn and Three Americans walk into a cave....

Yesterday was the big adventure to the Lascaux Caves, in the South of France. The caves are home to 17,000 year old paintings in a state of near-perfect preservation!

The only problem is that Lascaux is inaccessible via public transport, and to get there we needed to make this journey.....

 

right across France......

a car......

...where the steering wheel is on the wrong side of the car, 

the gears are on the wrong side of the car, 

the clutch and accelerator are on the wrong side of the car

.....and everyone drives on the wrong side of the road!

 

Not to mention that most of the driving was on roads that looked like this...

 

and this...

 

and this.....

 

 With five girls in the car, it was really only a matter of time before someone needed a toilet stop. Of course, with infinite faith in GPS technology, I veered off the beaten track in search of a rest stop. 

We ended up in Luane. 

This is Luane. 

This is ALL of Luane. 

 

We bought bread and cheese and ate it with our hands!

 

Then we got back on the road....

Mackie and I, who were the designated mum and dad of the trip (by virtue of sitting in the front seats) had programmed the GPS to go to Lascaux, Centre-Ville. Sensible, right? 

Well.....

This is Lascaux Centre-Ville. 

 

Not a cave in sight....

And when we programmed the GPS to the address of the Office of Tourism where you buy the tickets for the caves, which is in Montignac we realised we were still an hour and a bit away. I gave up driving at this point (after four hours) and Finnish Laura took over.

This allowed me to take some photos out the window of the super pretty country side...

When we finally arrived at Montignac we found that it was, itself a remarkably beautiful town.

 

Where we promptly busied ourselves eating the delicacies of the local patisserie. 

 

 And then we were off to the caves...

The caves were a truly amazing experience. The original caves were closed off to the public after the pigments used in the paintings started developing incurable diseases due to their exposure, after 17,000 years, to people breathing all over them!

You are however, able to see an exact replica built on the site. They were painstakingly sculpted to mimic the exact rockface of the cave, and then painted over a period of six years by a French artist. 

The result is remarkable, although because the replica is made of the same sensitive pigments, you are not able to take photos. Here are some internet happy snaps to give you a bit of an idea of what it was like: 

 

All of the paintings in the Lascaux Caves are of animals, including a large number of bulls, cows, ibexs and horses. At the time of the paintings all these animals were wild as argiculture and domestication were yet to be developed. 

When you walk under the ceiling, decorated with these images and the natural texture of the cave, you can't really can't help but feel a sense of awe. 

One of the most remarkable paintings is this one, the Upside Down Horse. 

 

It is difficult to see here, but he is painted around a bend in the cave. It is impossible to see from the front the back of the horse and from the back, the front of the horse. The painter who made it never saw his work whole or completed. 

Yet, with today's technology, we are able to look at the horse flattened and we have since found that it is the most realistic, and beautiful horse in the caves, the closest to life and the most richly detailed. 

 

As you can see in this happy snap, they have evidence that the painters in the caves invented a type of lamp, stencils made of animal skins and even scaffolding to complete the art. 

 

We had an absolutely amazing time, and it definitely made the 9 hours of driving worth it. 

However, on the way back we managed to get lost again. This time we ended up out on a long road where I tried to do a u-turn, only to find a car approaching us from behind. We had no choice but to go forward, where upon we realised that this "road" was actually a drive way and we were approaching the guy in the car behind us' house! EEK! Luckily we were able to do a u-turn near his garage and escape with no questions asked. 

This was also the moment where my rage at French roads not making any sense was interrupted by a fox and a hare darting across the road in front of me. Yes. An actual fox. And an actual hare.

A bientot!

Troyes: Rashi, more rain and the Knights Templar

Today I went to Troyes! For those who don't know/are interested this is in the Champagne region, which is in Northern France close to Germany.

You can tell you are in a different (more German) part of France just by looking at the houses!

Mackie and I went to Troyes to see the European Institute of Rashi. Rashi was a Medieval Jewish scholar who wrote a remarkably famous and influential commentary on the Torah.

 

Unfortunately for us, when we got the to the Institute, there was no one there...and the permanent exhibition entitled "Rashi and the Jews of the Middle Ages" was no where to be found!

There was however this memorial which marks the place where Rashi is believed to be buried.

There was also a remarkable and free exhibition about the Knights Templar who were founded at the conseil de Troyes!

This document was one of the many on display. Most of them granted minor lords protection for their lands after they joined the Knights Templar.

 

 I have stuck this picture of St Bernard of Clairvaux in here because he also lived in Troyes! Bernard of Clairvaux founded the Cistercian Order and was largely responsible for preaching the Second Crusade.

 

Here is a memorial to the First Indochina War! As in, before the Vietnam War. You don't hear of that one much!

 

And here is Mackie being pious in the Cathedral. First one I have seen which supplied scarfs. Unfortunately my pictures didn't turn out because all of the bright lights :( But suffice to say, it was very beautiful!

Tomorrow we are going to the Lascoux Caves, where they have 15,000 year old cave drawings. However, I am feeling very anxious about the fact I have to drive there - on the wrong side of the road!!!

Until next time!

Clermont-Ferrand: rain, hail and shine!

I spent this weekend in Clermont-Ferrand - a beautiful and historic town in the Mastif-Central region of France.

My Aunty Terry, or Sister Marie Aimee lives in Clermont-Ferrand in the community of Little Sisters of the Poor. As I wasn't able to go and see her last time I was in France I was very keen to go this time, and luckily for me, my awesome new friends Mackie and Laura were willing to come with me.

We had to catch three trains there...

 

....but as you can see from the smiley-smiles, this was okay because French trains are super comfortable and watching the French countryside roll by is like the prettiest thing ever! 

The first port of call was the Little Sisters of the Poor where we were greeted by Aunty Terry who promptly offered us cheesecake, brownies, yogurt, fruit and almost everything else imaginable!

 

We then realised that I had forgotten to write down the name of the hotel.....

and the epic hike to an internet cafe began.....

....and then....

....there was a hailstorm. 

 

Yes. That is hail. That is actual hail. And all we had were umbrellas!

And we walked and walked and walked. And it hailed and hailed and hailed. And we did not find a single internet cafe. Not one. And it was now 6pm at night. 

Luckily I remembered how to attach my brain to my spinal column and realised, about three hours too late, that the name of the hotel was on my email and iphones allow access to previously received emails even if you don't have wifi access at present. 

So we found the hotel... and eventually got dry. 

The next day we struggled out of bed to go site-seeing.

Clermont-Ferrand excites me for two reasons. 

Number One: Urban II declared the First Crusade here after the Council of Clermont in 1095. Here's a vintage happy snap of the proceedings:

 

And here is the big guy himself proclaiming things and rallying armies in Clermont-Ferrand outside a beautiful old church. 

 

 

Number Two: Close to modern day Clermont-Ferrand, Vercingetorix (a Gaul) won a battle against the Romans (yes - actual Romans. This was a big deal, they were like, kind of a big deal back then).

Vercingetorix was a Gaulish tribal leader, who united the Gaulish tribes against the Romans. At that time the Romans in Gaul were led by Caesar, so he ultimately lost at the Battle of Alesia. He surrendered and was imprisoned for a few years and then paraded through the streets of Rome in Caesars triumph and then executed... :( For those of you familiar with the Rome TV series, it's this guy:

 

He kind of dies embarrassingly in the series, but I promise he is awesome. Napoleon III, when looking for French heroes to rally his people around got pretty keen on him. 

 

Hence the epic statue of him here in the main square of Clermont-Ferrand....

It happens to be by the same sculptor who made the Statue of Liberty, Frederic Bartholdi.

 

Here is a close up of him without me being a fan girl.

 

Here are some more Vercingetorix's I found in the museum at Clermont-Ferrand which happened to be FREE today because it was the first Sunday of the month. 

 

And here he is, hanging out with Joan of Arc.  It seems they were buddies. Or at least both helpful symbols of French unity in the 19th century, when the French were not exactly united and experiencing a fair bit of political upheaval. 

 

Dead couple...creepy!

The morning after the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre during the French Wars of Religion.

I found this one very moving.

And finally here is a happy snap of the ville itself, note the much darker colours used in the buildings, this is, my "host-dad" tells me because they are made from volcanic stone from the surrounding hills. 

 

Until next time!