Incidentally pictures have been added to some earlier posts.
It’s a bright and sunny Sunday morning, so it is off to look at churches, among other sights. The first is Eglise Saint Aubin.
It turns out to be the site of a busy Sunday morning market – the stalls are four rows deep all the way around the enormous church, selling all manner of vegetables and other foodstuffs, as well as delicious looking street food, and the normal market junk.
The church itself is large and impressive, although it only dates from 1850, and finished in 1929. It was built on the site of a former cemetary. It has a collection of well done carving, and some very fine stained glass, although not old. The church will feature in my forthcoming photo essay on The Stations of the Cross in European Churches. Been years in the production.
Then on to the Cathedrale Saint Etienne (that’s Saint Stephen for we anglophones). It has a curious architecture – it is two incomplete churches built in quite different styles, overlapping at one corner. The older, from the early 1200s is sort of early southern gothic, built on top of a Romanesque beginning, with a wonderful collection of gargoyles. The north portal is curiously off center, but has a large rose window (not quite) above it. The newer structure, started about 1270, and modified into the 1500s, reminds me from the outside of a modern brick office block. It was intended to demolish the older as the newer was built on a grander scale, but a fire interrupted that plan, and both were left unfinished. Subsequent achitects each added their own strange contribution. Inside, the older portion forms today’s church, and has a flamboyant altar, and fine wooden choir carvings. The newer portion suffered water damage last year, and is now undergoing repair. The vast open space of the two connected structures could easily hold a thousand worshipers.
The masses of both these churches were well attended this morning, with a couple hundred in each. That is pretty good, especially when France is not considered a major religious country today. We finally found a single statue of Santiago, although St Roche is quite common. Vic continued my education on the lives of the other saints.
The next mission was the Jardin des Plantes, down a long shady avenue of plane trees. We first encountered anther market, this one catering more to the Muslim clientele, to judge by the female clothing worn and sold. Probably somewhat less open to photography as well – don’t want to start an international incident in France.
We got sidetracked from the garden looking for a square Vic had been told about, but inadequately located, and found ourselves in a residential area with absolutely no resturants. Where do the locals eat if there are no resturants? By the time we found a resturant area, we were almost home, so missed the garden, in favour of a long al fresco lunch.
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