A Week In France (5/8)

 

These pictures were taken when Mark and I drove around northern France during September 2008.

  

 

 

 

 

The cathedral has many beautiful stained glass windows including some dating back to the 13th century. Despite its attractive and highly modern geometric shapes, this one is among the oldest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stained glass was the picture book of its age describing stories in the Bible that would have been known to peasant and nobleman alike, but are probably unfamiliar to most eyes today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Outside is a beautiful formal garden which serves as the foreground to the magnificent flying buttresses of Bourges Cathedral.

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Thursday we left Cluis driving north-west via Tours to the Loire valley where we visited Les Grottes Petrifiantes de Savonnieres, near the Chateau de Villandry. In these caves, items are placed under stalagtites dripping limestone-rich water for weeks, months or years to give them a veneer of stone. Some glitter because they contain particles of quartz.

We bought a DVD in the shop that contained a five minute programme about the caves, the petrification process and... the gift shop. Wish we'd bought two bottles of rosé instead.

 

 

 

 

 

 

That evening we arrived at Falaise in Normandy, where the next morning we visited this museum of department store window animated models.

 

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