Reims has a Joan of Arc Festival because of her signficance to French history and the crowning of Charles VII in the cathedral there. We just missed the festival this year, but we didn't miss this statue of St. Joan of Arc.
Reims Cathedral is known as the primary place where French rulers were crowned from the early 11th century to 1825. It is built on the site where the first king of the Francs was baptized in 496. And that was built on the site of some Roman baths.
The Cathedral is the only one to have angels with unfurled wings. This smiling angel is unique.
We walked all around it as well as visited the interior. Trout was very impressed, especially since he had skipped St. Denis.
This is a side door. Click on it to see the vegetation growing above it.
Because it is known to be one of the most beautiful Gothic cathedrals, we were prepared to be impressed.
Trout always has me take pictures of the organs which are always dark. I have to "fix" the picture so you can see them and that distorts the other colors.
He likes clocks, too.
This is a side chapel for the Virgin. Most churches we go into have one for Her and often for other female saints. I always light a candle, say a prayer and sit quietly for awhile. My prayer is always the same. I ask that She watch over the women of the world, relieve them from any terror in their lives, comfort them, make them safe and make it possible for them to lead the lives they want to lead.
In this cathedral, I was also able to do the same with St. Joan, even though her chapel was being renovated, as you can see by the plastic hanging behind her.
Some of the stained glass was destroyed and unrecoverable from the two world wars that affected Reims. Marc Chagall did some stained glass windows in this cathedral.
These pictures give a feel for the size of this cathedral.
These are some of the original stained glass windows.
I was also impressed by these lighting fixtures. They actually hung very low.
If you click on this picture, you may be able to read something more about Notre-Dame de Reims.
It would have been lovely to attend a mass here, or perhaps some kind of musical event, but we simply were not there at the right time. It is a tourist attraction, but it is also a functioning cathedral. I hope you all get to be in at least one of these masterpieces of Gothic architecture sometime in your lives.
