Month: June 2023
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Fourth Stop – Beauvais
The fourth stop on our cathedral pilgrimage was more of a pause than an extended visit. Rouen was technically our next destination, but we could not pass up the chance to visit Cathédrale Saint-Pierre de Beauvais since it was on the way. Beauvais’ cathedral has the highest Gothic choir in the world (48.5 meters or…
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Amiens: A City of History, Art, and Culture
We spent a week in Amiens during our cathedral pilgrimage. Since our trip focused on cathedrals, religious sites, and French history, Amiens gave us a lot of bang for the buck. Of course, the Cathedral drew us here, but it was marvelous exploring the city, too. Our narrow purpose necessarily kept us from experiencing many…
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Enchanted Chanting
The Cathédrale Notre-Dame d’Amiens is the third of the great cathedrals built in northern France during the thirteenth century (the others being the cathedrals in Reims and Chartres). Besides being the largest Gothic cathedral in France, it has an impressive set of medieval sculptures on its facade and many old polychrome sculptures inside. But the…
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Soaring Vaults and Great Treasures
We planned to make the city and cathedral of Amiens a particular focus for our cathedral pilgrimage. Besides Rouen, we spent the most time exploring here than any other church or place in France. I initially considered spending our whole time exploring Chartres Cathedral, arguably the best-preserved Gothic cathedral in the country. That would have…