Brussels

Nathaniel, his girlfriend Maria, and Aaron.

After spending the morning in Amiens, the afternoon and early evening in Lille, our ultimate destination for Easter Saturday was Brussels, the capital of Belgium ("the Canada of France"). Lisa has a friend from OSU, Nathaniel, who lives there and with whom we could stay for a couple of nights, which was very nice of him. The high-speed train ride from Lille lasted about a half-hour and I think it was one of the more international trains we've been on - I heard English, Dutch, French, and what I think was Portuguese.

Braderie in Brussels.

Shortly before our arrival, Nathaniel informed us via text message that there was an impromptu transit strike in Brussels. Apparently, there had been a minor accident with a bus and a car, the bus driver called his route supervisor, the car's driver (who may have been intoxicated) called a couple of his friends (who were intoxicated), and one of the friends beat the route supervisor to death. Nathaniel said there's a whole host of issues with public transit in Brussels and the workers aren't very well respected, but regardless, the death caused all transit workers in the city to almost immediately go on strike for at least four days; they were still on strike when we left Brussels on Tuesday. That meant that for our entire time there, there were no buses and no trams in service. Fortunately, Nathaniel and his girlfriend, Maria, live relatively near a commuter rail station (commuter rail was unaffected by the strike) so we were able to get a local train from Brussels' central train station to his neighborhood train station where he met us and walked us back to his apartment. The apartment was very lovely - one floor of an old three-story row house with high ceilings, hardwood floors, and French doors between rooms. Unfortunately, we forgot to take any pictures of it to share with you!

Grande Place.

On Easter Sunday, we got a tour of central Brussels from Nathaniel and Maria. Because we had tour guides who knew where we were going and because we didn't really have a determined itinerary, it's hard to keep track of what we saw and in what order (in contrast to most of our previous blog entries!). But I remember we started in Brussels' Grande Place, which is similar to Lille's, but even more over-the-top with a mix of late Gothic architecture and 17th-century brick guild halls.

Mannikin Pis and Lisa.

We walked to see the Mannikin Pis, a famous fountain in the shape of a little boy peeing (it was surrounded by tourists, which I suppose should be no surprise). We also tried to get into the church of Notre-Dame de la Chapelle, but it was closed (surprising on Easter!) and then walked through an antique-dealer area to a Sunday flea market, which was cool but we're not really able to buy much more stuff to bring home! We had lunch there at a little greasy-spoon kind of place. I tried stoemp, a good Belgian/Dutch dish consisting of mashed potatoes and carrots served with a sausage on the side.

Sablon interior.

Belgian Waffle and Lisa.

After lunch, we walked through more of the central city and tried Belgian waffles from a little mobile food van. They were good and different from American Belgian waffles; these were almost caramelized on the outside but were still soft on the inside. We then went into the church of Sablon. It was a late Gothic church with no ambulatory, choir, or side chapels off the aisles, which meant that all the stained glass was much closer to us than any French church we've seen. There was also a cool aristocratic funerary chapel on one side, too.

Cathedral.

Cathedral interior.

We then walked past the national art museum, the royal palace, and a big park to get to the cathedral. The cathedral was full of tourists but was pretty nice. The stained glass was fairly new (mostly 19th-century) and so it used very vivid colors. We also went down to the crypt below the cathedral where we could see part of the excavations showing the original Romanesque cathedral from the 11th century. It was all very nice but I didn't think it was that fantastic of a church. Perhaps I was just spoiled by seeing the Amiens Cathedral the day before!

Cathedral crypt.

Stained glass from the cathedral.

It was now about six o'clock and Nathaniel wanted to introduce us to a couple of his French friends. We took a commuter train to the Brussels South station and walked from there into the Saint-Giles neighborhood (which was a bit grittier than central Brussels). We met them at a bar and they were very nice people - one had family from near Rennes. Meeting them at a bar also gave me an opportunity to try Belgian beer. It was lighter and wheaty but quite tasty. We stayed about an hour or so then went back to Nathaniel and Maria's house for a delicious meal of fajitas before bed.

Brussels reminded Lisa and me a lot of Chicago, with a very clean, touristy central area then dirtier, more immigrant neighborhoods with a large mix of architectural styles. All of this is in contrast to the next city we visited, Bruges.

Bonus picture: Detail, Sablon interior.

Lille

Lille's Grande Place.

Lille is a very different place than anywhere else we've been in France. It's the capital of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region ("the eastern Pennsylvania of France" - Aaron: 8/21 regions, Lisa: 12/21 regions) and it's practically on the Belgian border. Thus, throughout its history, it was constantly fought over between the French and whomever ruled Belgium and the Netherlands (usually the Austrians and Spanish) and it wasn't permanently incorporated into France until 1713. Because of its history, it has a lot of 17th-century Dutch-style buildings with lots of brick and ornamentation in a kind of flamboyant Spanish  Baroque style. It's also a very large city, surprisingly so for a city I had never really heard of before I came to France - its metropolitan area is the fourth-most populous in the country. In fact, as we walked from the train station to the tourist office for our free map, the streets were packed with people, out enjoying a Saturday afternoon stroll through the shopping district. I'm not sure we've seen a city that crowded since our Saturday in Nantes last fall!

Brueghel!

The main reason we wanted to stop off in Lille (other than to be able to say that we've visited the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region) was to see the art museum, which is supposed to be one of the best in France outside of Paris. Plus, we correctly guessed they'd have free baggage storage where we could get some weight of our backs for a few hours. Anyway, the museum lived up to the hype. It's in a huge 19th-century building and it's got a great collection of 15th- and 16th-century Flemish painting (which I suppose one should expect, with it being so close to Belgium). We spent about two hours there, enjoying the free audio guide (it was an iPod!), although I mainly used it to read about the art rather than listen. We didn't have time to see everything, but we did see some of the more distinctive parts of the collection, such as a bunch of 19th-century wax seals. They also have several massive wooden scale models of "the citadels of France," Lille among them It was a series of several hundred models that was first produced under King Louis XIV starting in 1688 and added to up until 1870. It was supposed to be a way to visualize military campaigns around these fortresses as well as plan additions or new fortifications. It was certainly a different kind of art than we'd seen at other museums!

Local décor.

Old Bourse.

After we got kicked out at closing time, 6 pm, we walked back to the central city and saw the Grand Place, the main square of the town surrounded by 16th and 17th century guild halls and the Old Bourse, a stock exchange built in 1652 that has a used book fair in the courtyard every day. We poked through the books then, on the way back to the train station, went into the church of St. Maurice.

St. Maurice Church.

This, too, was unlike anything else we'd seen in France. It was a 15th/16th century Flemish-style "hall church" - one big room without a choir, nave, aisles, etc. like in all the Gothic churches we've seen. Lisa also noted that it seemed to be one of the most "occupied" churches we've seen, with lots of banners and decorations up and a play area for children during services. Afterwards, we got take-out Chinese food from a place right across the street (we don't get much Chinese food in Rennes!) and walked to the TGV train station, which is different from the regional train station we came in at. We ate there and waited for our train. (It was 20 minutes late, but then again, its origin was Perpignan, in the far southwest of France. So 20 minutes late out of a six and a half hour trip is pretty good!)  Our next destination: Brussels.

PS.  This was actually written by Aaron.

Amiens

Hotel room at Le Prieuré.

Amiens is about 75 miles to the northeast of Rouen on the Somme River and is the capital of the Picardie region ("the central Pennsylvania of France") - 7/21 regions for me and 11/21 for Lisa. Our train arrived about 7:30 and we walked from the station into the center city. It reminded us both of Cardiff quite a bit: wide pedestrian-only streets with lots of chain stores on either side. Our hotel, Le Prieuré, was just across the street from the cathedral and was absolutely charming. It used to be the priory connected with the cathedral. In fact, our room used to be the monks' chapel, which you can tell from the pictures with the rib vaults in the ceiling. The guy at reception was also very helpful, giving us a map of the city, showing us where the main restaurant area of the city was located, and explaining about boat tours on the Somme for the next afternoon. We took his advice and walked to the main restaurant area along the river and ate at a pretty good place, although it was extremely crowded which made the service slow and absent-minded. It seemed like a very local place and the waiter was very friendly, too. We didn't end up leaving till almost 11!

Street in Amiens.

We slept in the next morning (after our 18-hour day the day before!), went out for breakfast, passed through Amiens' Saturday farmers' market as well as through a square with an Occupy Wall Street encampment. The whole town had a rather British feel to it - lots of red brick architecture in a kind of Georgian or Federalist style. It was very different from the mix of 19th-century stone buildings, medieval wooden buildings, and modern stucco that we've seen in most other cities in France. We then headed back to the cathedral, the main tourist attraction in Amiens (unless you're into World War I battlefields - there are a lot of those in the vicinity, too, apparently).

Amiens cathedral.

For comparison with the other Gothic cathedrals we've seen, Notre Dame in Paris was built primarily between 1163 and the 1240s, Tours Cathedral was begun in 1170 (most of it was done by the end of the 13th century), Chartres Cathedral was mostly built between 1193 and 1250, Rouen Cathedral between 1202 and 1220, and Amiens Cathedral between 1220 and 1270. This means Amiens is the latest Gothic cathedral we've seen and this is important because it explains why it has the tallest nave of any completed Gothic church in France - 139 feet from floor to ceiling, so high it made me slightly vertiginous to look at it. See, each of these towns in northern France was trying to show off their wealth and importance by out-doing their rivals in making a bigger, taller, more impressive church. In being the last town to start a Gothic cathedral, Amiens knew it had to have a higher ceiling than everyone else. (By the way, Beauvais Cathedral, started in 1225, would have been taller - 159 feet, taller even than St. Peter's in Rome - but with the technology and skill available at the time, it couldn't be done without compromising the structural integrity of the whole building. Part of the church collapsed during construction in 1284, meaning only the choir was completed.)

Cathedral facade.

Cathedral interior.

Facade detail.

Anyway, Amiens Cathedral was certainly impressive. In addition to being unbelievably tall, most of the stained glass had been replaced with clear glass, making it fairly light inside. The pavement is all done in white and black tile and contains a labyrinth in the center of the nave. Lisa was the only one to try to walk it besides a six-year-old boy, perhaps because about fifteen percent of it was still covered by chairs. The cathedral once claimed to have the head of St. John the Baptist (stolen by French Crusaders from Constantinople following their capture of the city in 1204) but now only the reliquary is left. The exterior is also different from other churches, with a series of medallions at eye-level on the front facade with different biblical scenes on them. Sadly, the north portal (full of sculptures of the life of St. Firmin, whom Lisa studied for a project in grad school) was undergoing restoration, so we couldn't see the entire exterior of the church. It was also a very windy and chilly day, making it rather unpleasant to stand around outside looking at the facade! Still, it was a very interesting church and we spent an awful lot of time there.

Detail of the floor along with St. Firmin.

When we had our fill (and when we had a train to catch!), we bought some souvenirs from a store on the square in front of the cathedral, including a local Picard battu cake (we didn't like it very much!), got our bags from the hotel, picked up a sandwich-to-go for lunch and took the next train to Lille, another 75 miles to the northeast and the next stop on our whirlwind tour across northern France.

Lisa in the labyrinth.

Look at the height!

Rouen

Colorful houses in Rouen.

As Lisa and I finished our contractually-obligated hours on April 5th and as Easter vacation began on April 6th, we decided to spend a week traveling across northeastern France to Brussels (where Lisa has a friend from Columbus) to Cologne to Paris (to meet our friend Chris from North Carolina, who was coming to France to visit us). This whirlwind trip included seven cities in seven days and our first stop was Rouen (pronounced "rwahn" - all one syllable), the capital of the region of Haute-Normandie, "the western Pennsylvania of France." For those of you scoring at home, this was the sixth of France's 21 mainland regions I've visited and Lisa's tenth.

Monet's view of the
cathedral.

Getting to Rouen involved waking up insanely early, getting to downtown Rennes to take a 7:15 am bus, then riding for four hours. The reason we put ourselves through this misery was because it saved hundreds of euros over taking the train (which also involved going into Paris, changing train stations, then coming back to Rouen). The bus ride itself was fine, just long. We stopped at a rest area outside of Caen (about half-way through the trip) and once we had all re-boarded the bus, a group of French customs officers got on with a (very happy!) dog who sniffed his way up and down the aisles then the luggage compartments under the bus. We're not sure what they were looking for, but they didn't seem to find anything!

Joan of Arc's tower.

Rouen is located on the Seine River about 80 miles downstream from Paris and is primarily notable for two things: its Cathedral (of which Monet did a series of 30 paintings, in different weather conditions, in the mid-1880s - here's the Wikipedia entry with about half of the paintings) and as the places where Joan of Arc was imprisoned and also where she was burned at the stake as a heretic by the English in 1431. Jimmy and Jenny left us their Rick Steve's guidebook to France (thanks, guys!) and we used that to get us around for our seven hours or so in Rouen.

Neapolitan nativity scene at the art museum--rather
flamboyant!

The bus dropped us off on one of the busy quais along the Seine and we hiked up from there into the central city to the art museum, ate our picnic lunch in the park out front, then went inside to take advantage of the free bag storage there (one of Rick Steve's tips!). The museum itself was surprisingly large and one of the better ones we'd been to up to that point - lots of Renaissance stuff, lots of French Baroque painting of the 17th century (which I don't really care for) and some good Impressionist paintings. The highlight was one of Monet's series of the Rouen Cathedral.

Plague cemetery, complete with dried cat to watch over
the souls.

After the museum, we followed Rick Steve's suggested walking tour, but in reverse (since the art museum was his end point). We walked to the church of St. Maclou, which, unfortunately, was being restored so we couldn't see much of the exterior. Rather than try to go inside we found the nearby Aître St. Maclou, and old 16th-century graveyard for plague victims. The buildings around the courtyard are now an art school but the wooden walls are carved with skulls and grave-diggers' tools. Grisly, but cool, stuff.

Detail from the plague cemetery.

Cathedral.

We then walked to the main attraction, the Cathedral, mostly built in the 13th century but with much of the exterior built in the 16th century. There, too, restoration work was being on the façade so we couldn't see the whole thing. When we thought about these two churches along with the fact that the interior at Chartres is currently undergoing restoration, we almost wished we were here two or three years in the future when all this work would be done! Inside, a service for the Stations of the Cross was being held (it was Good Friday, after all) so we couldn't see much there, either.

The men of Rouen cathedral's facade, hanging out inside
for cleaning.  Everybody needs a bath sometimes, right?

Cathedral interior.

Rue du gros horloge.

We went across the street to the tourist office, got our free map and a couple small souvenirs, then walked up the street to the Gros Horloge, a 16th-century civic clock tower built over the street, passing the Gothic Palais de Justice on the way. At this point, we decided to return to the Cathedral for the last 45 minutes or so of the Stations of the Cross. I had never been to one before - and certainly never to one in French! (I managed to understand a decent amount, though.) At the end of the service, everyone followed the cross into the choir of the church for the last couple stations and it was quite a crowd.

Crack in the ceiling where the
spire came crashing down
during the tornado of 1999.

Following the service, we walked around the cathedral and saw the tomb of Rollo, the first duke of Normandy (he was a 10th-century Viking lord to whom the King of France gave Normandy as a possession) and the tomb where Richard the Lion-Hearted of England's heart is buried. They also had an interesting little display about the freak 1999 day-after-Christmas cyclone that sent the Cathedral's 26-ton spire crashing hundreds of feet through the roof to the floor of the choir below. We also got to see some of the statues of the façade that had been moved inside and to appreciate just how large they are. All in all, it was a cool church and slightly different in style from some of the other Gothic cathedrals we've seen so far.

Palais de Justice, old home of the Parlement de
Normandie.

A Rouen wedding cake--a
rainbow-striped macaroon tower!

We then walked back to the big clock tower and stopped in a (very crowded) candy store, "The Tears of Joan of Arc," for a snack of macarons and then on to the old market where Joan of Arc was burned, passing a surprising number of panhandlers on the way. By this point, it was getting late and we needed to get back to the museum before they closed to collect our bags. We did, then walked up the street to the train station (passing the tower where Joan of Arc may have been imprisoned before her execution) and bought our tickets for the 6:30 train to our next destination: Amiens.

Bonus pictures: 

Lisa, showing the scale of the women.

Aaron, showing the scale of Aaron.

Sarah and Lisa's Visit to Paris

Window open at Notre Dame, just in case you need to
make a quick getaway!

To conclude Sarah's trip to France (and our time with visitors), Sarah and I (Lisa writing here), went to Paris for two days so that Sarah could see the capital.  She climbed the Eiffel tower while I was still in Rennes teaching, and then we went to the Square Saint-Jacques (the only time we got a bit turned around and the only place we weren't allowed to do sit-ups!), Notre-Dame, walked all around the Palais de Justice while seeing if we could get into Sainte-Chapelle (we could, but we chose not to), the Arc de Triomphe, the Père LaChaise cemetery, the Tuileries gardens, and the Louvre.  I was very proud of myself for not getting too lost anywhere and for figuring out maps without my geographer husband!  I guess he's taught me something this year.

Square Saint-Jacques, where sit-ups are strictly forbidden.

The Square Saint-Jacques marks one of the routes that head toward Compostelle.  We've visited many cities along the way, and each has seashells marking the path along sidewalks and buildings (we've seen them in Chartres, Tours, Mont St-Michel, Nantes).  At the Arc de Triomphe, we saw an official ceremony of some kind, though what kind, we don't know. 

Hotel de la Porte Dorée.

We stayed at the Hotel de la Porte Dorée as recommended by David and Lily, and it was an excellent choice!  They had bookshelves full for guests on every floor and adorable rooms.  We especially enjoyed the artwork in our room as well as the unique, antique furnishings.

The cemetery was a good way to start Thursday even though it took a while to find the graves.  We visited Chopin, Poulenc, and Apollinaire.  Poulenc was good for both of us since Sarah, a pianist, plays his music, and since I, a lover of Apollinaire's poetry, like the poems set to Poulenc's music.

Sarah taking a picture
of Chopin.

Lisa with Apollinaire.

Sarah's favorite sculpture in the Louvre.
Winter, embodied.

We had absolutely gorgeous weather and enjoyed lunch in the Tuileries gardens while looking at statues and people-watching.  We figured out Sarah's return journey to the airport and then forged our way through the keychain vendors to get into the Louvre, where we saw the Mona Lisa, a lot of sculptures, and an exhibit on some Greek and Roman discoveries in the Rhône river.  All in all, it was a great tour of the city in two days.  It was sad to say good-bye to Sarah because it's the last family time we'll have until Aaron's brother Matt comes and because it was so good to become better friends with Sarah.  We miss her already and look forward to our other visitors in April! 

March is Visitors' Month

This post is written jointly, just for your information and, of course, reading pleasure.

David and Lily in the rain at Fougères.

David, learning all about the history
of Fougères through the children's
information sites.

Much of March was spent hosting visitors, whom we were very grateful to have. First, Lisa's brother David and his girlfriend Lily came for about four days (plus another two and a half in Paris). We showed them around Cesson-Sévigné and Lisa took them to Fougères. This time, the castle was open and they got to go in, but it was cold and horribly rainy! Lily and David also went on their own to Mont-Saint-Michel one day (it helped that Lily speaks French!). It was very nice to have them here and to show them a little bit of Brittany. We made them the traditional dinner of cider, galettes, salad, a cheese course, soup, and baked apples, and by the end we all had eaten too much!  After their days here, Lily and David went to Paris for a few days where they enjoyed picnics in the park and art museums as well as venturing up the Eiffel tower.  It was good to have family time even if that involved what was sadly typical weather.

Fougères intramuros and seen from across the moat.

The next week, my (Aaron writing here) cousin Sarah came and stayed for about ten days. She did an awful lot on her own, too, largely because Lisa and I had to work (obviously) and couldn't accompany her everywhere. She went to Mont-Saint-Michel by herself as well as the Paimpont Forest west of Rennes which is supposed to be the legendary forest of Brocéliande where Merlin is buried. Lisa took her to Vitré one day and I went with her to Fougères so that I, too, could see the castle and the little late medieval church next to it. It was a pretty impressive site and still mostly intact. We also visited a more recent church, St. Leonard, in the upper town which was nice, too. As Sarah said, she was on the "church tour of France" while she was here!

Rennes cathedral, interior.

Saint Amand.  Sarah wanted to know why he was giving
us the finger.

Lisa and I also did a couple things with Sarah in Rennes that we hadn't done before. We went to the cathedral here which is a 19th-century construction done more in an Italian basilica style than a French Gothic style. It's a beautiful space and we also got to see the tomb of one of the first bishops of Rennes, from the sixth century. That week, Andrew (our friend/colleague/son), invited us over for a dinner of traditional galettes and lots of conviviality.  He is a delightful host, and it was a good way to spend time together and to introduce Sarah to French cuisine.

Parliament of Brétagne.

Original entrance hall, Parliament.

The next week, we all took a tour of the Parliament of Brittany building. It was built in the 17th century to house the court of appeals for Brittany as well as offices for tax assessors (the regional court of appeals still meets there). In 1994, the building caught on fire as part of a strike and had to be largely restored and rebuilt. On the tour, we only saw five or six rooms, but they're all decorated with ornate wall and ceiling paintings and one has several tapestries (which we were created after the fire based on the original designs). It's a great building and I'm glad we did the tour, although it was all in French, so Sarah didn't understand any of it and I only understood parts of it! The guide barely took a breath, so there wasn't much time for Lisa to translate. We also had a very strange young man on the tour. When we entered the parliament building, we had to empty our pockets and go through a metal detector. He had TONS of stuff in his pockets and it was all odd things, like a tennis ball, some rope, and a few books. He also consistently lagged behind the rest of the tour, being the last one out of a room as we walked and he even pulled out a newspaper to read during one stop on the tour. We were vaguely concerned that he was looking to case the building for some not-so-peaceful purpose. It was very strange.

Ceiling, Parliament.

Modern furniture in an old-fashioned room, Parliament.

Aaron with window from Chartres for scale.

On the weekend, we went back to Chartres and this time we got to see the stained glass museum, which turned out to be about a lot of windows and a very out-of-date exhibit in the basement that was supposed to stop running two years before.  It was still interesting and gave us the chance to see reproductions of the Chartres windows that were too high to be accurately read from inside the sanctuary.  Our hotel was very cool, as it was an old monastery and had a book sale, where we over-indulged on Old French and Latin books.  It seemed like all the octogenarians had emptied out their shelves for this sale, and we were grateful!  The other cool thing about the hotel was that the year prior, an American group of pilgrims had built a labyrinth out back to mimic the one that was inside the church and which is almost always covered with chairs.  We got to end our visit there with a nice walk through that.

Sarah and Aaron in the labyrinth at our hotel.

Crypt, Notre Dame de la Couture.

Notre Dame de la Couture,
Le Mans.

On the return trip, we had a long enough layover in Le Mans that we finally got to see a bit of that city where we've spent collective hours, but only minutes at a time.  The church we visited was actually quite beautiful, with no aisles.  It felt very open as a result.  We ran into the sexton and complimented him on the church, at which point he offered to light up the crypt for us, which was very old, much older than we expected.  We can now officially say we've been to Le Mans!

Stay tuned for Sarah and Lisa's Visit to Paris.

Bonus Picture: Sarah and Lisa's favorite moment from the Parliament tour.
Dog Sees Pigeon, Boy sees Dog, Mom sees Boy.  On your mark, get set, go!