Moissac Cloister

The magnificent cloister of Moissac Abbey in southwest France is the oldest and largest cloister with narrative capitals in existence. Completed in 1100 AD, it contains 76 capitals plus marble pillar reliefs of apostles. Forty-six of the capitals depict narrative scenes from the Bible or the lives of the saints. Unfortunately nearly all human faces have been smashed by iconclasts, but the rest is

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by Jour ~ Monday, October 27, 2008 0 comments

Saint-Savin and Chauvigny

This morning we went on a short road trip to the east of Poitiers. The first stop was Saint-Savin-sur-Gartempe, whose abbey church is a World Heritage Site. It is very nice on the outside, but the reason it is a World Heritage Site is all inside - the ceiling is covered in early medieval murals.So imagine my disappointment when I discovered that the entire church is closed for renovations! I knew

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by Jour ~ Tuesday, July 15, 2008 0 comments

Poitiers

Poitiers is a medium-sized city with no less than six historic churches. We managed five of them yesterday, which are all scattered around the city, so it was quite a long and exhausting day. But I was thrilled with the abundance of medieval art and we had lots of fun, as always. Here are some highlights.The Baptistery of St. John, the oldest church in France. It was built in the 4th century and

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by Jour ~ 0 comments

Assorted Fun in Western France

Thursday 7/10: MoissacOn Thursday we made a short day trip from Toulouse to Moissac, home of a Romanesque abbey church known for its excellent carvings. An exceptionally long-legged and graceful Prophet Jeremiah on the south portal. This guy shows up in every one of my books on Romanesque architecture.Funny little character elsewhere on the portalSome of the 24 Elders of the Apocalypse above the

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by Jour ~ Saturday, July 12, 2008 0 comments

Toulouse

Tonight is the last of three nights we've spent in Toulouse, one of the largest cities in France and capital of Europe's aerospace industry. It's actually pretty nice for a big city and we've enjoyed our stay here. It's been consistently sunny and in the upper 80s; a little hot but not nearly as bad as the South was.Yesterday I had a busy day of "work" here in Toulouse, with David joining me

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by Jour ~ Thursday, July 10, 2008 0 comments

Conques

Yesterday we drove 1 hour and 45 minutes north of Albi to a little village in the mountains called Conques (pronounced "conk"). It was absolutely worth the trip, which was relaxed and scenic, too. The church in Conques is one of the best Romanesque churches I've ever visited. And it's in the middle of a wonderful little village, which still has all its medieval streets and buildings. And finally,

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by Jour ~ Tuesday, July 8, 2008 0 comments

Churches in the Eastern Pyrenees

The first of our day trips from Narbonne (last Wednesday) was to a couple abbey churches in the Pyrenees mountains near the Spanish border. The first church is called St Michel de Cuxa and stands in a very pretty valley setting in the middle of nowhere.Sadly we arrived in that witching hour between noon and 2pm in which everything in France is closed. It was 1:30 so we considered waiting, but

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by Jour ~ Saturday, July 5, 2008 0 comments

Three Days in the Auvergne

Our apartment complex, with some sunshine the morning we left.Our stay in Clermont-Ferrand was short and sweet. The apartment worked out really nicely for us and we enjoyed several home-cooked meals. There was even a dishwasher, which I could hardly remember how to use, it's been so long since I've seen one! With my breakfasts I had quail's eggs! They were tiny but delicious. Mostly like chicken

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by Jour ~ Sunday, June 15, 2008 0 comments

Tournus

The last major sight we visited in Burgundy was the Abbey Church of St. Philibert in Tournus, built in the 11th century. It was magnificent. Here are a few photo highlights.View of the west front through the abbey towers. We parked right here outside the gate, and there is even closer parking around the church.View from southwest.The west front is austere and castle-like with no sculpture, but it

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by Jour ~ 0 comments

Paray-le-Monial, Anzy-le-Duc & Some-Other-Ones

Before moving on to our latest experiences, I can't neglect our last big day of sightseeing from Macon, which was last Monday. We saw a whopping eight churches, most of which were in small villages with long hyphenated names. The sun actually shone most of the day, which hasn't happened in a long time. We had such a nice day of driving around and enjoying ourselves at a relaxed pace. And we had

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by Jour ~ Friday, June 13, 2008 0 comments

Old St. Vincent's, Mâcon

We were mainly in Mâcon because it is a such good base for seeing lots of Romanesque churches in southern Burgundy, but it also has a nice church of its own. It's called Vieux St-Vincent and has been in ruins since the 1700s. The very impressive facade above actually faces east, and was originally inside the church - when taking the picture I was standing where the nave was. Most of the church

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by Jour ~ Wednesday, June 11, 2008 0 comments

Church and Temple Crawling

Last Wednesday we drove a loop north of Mâcon and saw some great churches as well as an ancient Roman temple and a Buddhist temple! We came back with lots of pictures; here's a small selection of them.The drive was, as always in rural France so far, beautiful and easy. There was almost no one on the roads and they were smooth and wider than those in Britain.First stop was the village of Chapaize.

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by Jour ~ Monday, June 9, 2008 0 comments

A Day Out in Cluny

Greetings from Mâcon (rhymes with bacon), a fairly nondescript town on the River Sâone in southern Burgundy. We're staying in the Novotel Mâcon Nord, which is just off the A6 freeway. This location means there isn't anything of interest nearby, but it is convenient for making our day trips. The weather has continued not to cooperate with our photography plans, but yesterday we visited some

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by Jour ~ Tuesday, June 3, 2008 0 comments

Avallon

Yesterday we drove 30 minutes west to Avallon, primarily to check out the carved portal of its church. The drive was beautiful and there were hardly any other cars on the road, which was what we were hoping it would be like here! The countryside and villages we've seen so far look a lot like England. In fact, as we drove through one village, which had old stone houses on either side and a

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by Jour ~ Sunday, May 25, 2008 0 comments

Bergamo and Milan

The beautiful Galleria in MilanYesterday we took the train from Bergamo into Milan. This is the reason we're in Bergamo - hotels here are cheaper and easier to access here than in Milan. But we had a hard time getting ourselves to the train station and we considered skipping it entirely! We're just so tired of big cities and neither of us had any huge interest in Milan other than to get some nice

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by Jour ~ Tuesday, May 13, 2008 0 comments

Carrara

Tuesday afternoon we left Lucca for Levanto, our base for the Cinque Terre. Along the way we made a detour to Carrara, home of the famous white Carrara marble that has been shipped all over the world since medieval times. My guidebook says 1.5 million tons of it are still shipped out every year.Our detour off the motorway took us first through Massa, quite an ugly town, where marble seems to be

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by Jour ~ Thursday, May 8, 2008 0 comments

Florence

The Ponte Vecchio, bridge over the River Arno in Florence.On Monday, our last day based in Lucca, I took the train into Florence. David stayed behind at the hotel because he had ordered a new camera lens from the USA and there were some technical difficulties with customs he had to deal with (involving many phone calls and faxes). These typically Italian complications caused more than a little

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by Jour ~ 0 comments

Pisa

On Friday (May 2) we drove from Lucca to Pisa. It was just a super-easy (toll) freeway drive and then a bit of slow traffic once we arrived in Pisa, for a total of about 20 minutes. The parking situation in Pisa is far better than I would have dreamed - there is a large, free(!) parking lot just outside the north wall by the Campo dei Miracoli (where all the main attractions are), with separate

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by Jour ~ 0 comments

Spoleto

We loved Spoleto, a smallish town in a beautiful location overlooking the Umbrian countryside. It is filled with old and interesting churches, the streets and buildings have an authentic medieval feel, and the shops and restaurants are excellent. But they aren't kidding when they call it a hill town - those streets were some of the steepest we've encountered yet! Unfortunately a lot of the town

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by Jour ~ Thursday, April 24, 2008 0 comments

Rome, Day 1

We were only in Rome for two full days, and they were a whirlwind! We walked about nine hours each day and took about a gazillion photos of churches and ancient ruins. Most of the walking was actually more like hiking - the "seven hills of Rome" isn't just an expression! It was exhausting, but so worth it. There really is nothing like Rome and the amount of interesting sights is incredible. We

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by Jour ~ Sunday, April 20, 2008 0 comments