I am calling this last day of our sightseeing The Final Judgment. I think it’s been building up to this – a devil here, a leviathan there, a pot of boiling souls, thumbs up, thumbs down, you’re saved, you’re damned. Today at the Cathedral of St. Stephen, judgment is everywhere.
Imagine yourself in 13th century Europe. Most of the things that even everyday citizens knew was lost with the fall of the Roman Empire. Knowledge was for the few and the privileged. Religion gives you hope for a better life in the hereafter. You walk into this amazing cathedral full of light with beautiful windows and carvings telling you how to achieve eternal bliss and how to avoid eternal damnation.
St. Stephen’s Cathedral was built in the late 12th century as a replacement for a mid-10th century structure. That 10th structure was probably a replacement for a Gallo-Roman church and before that a Roman temple. Architecturally it is surprising. There is no transept, the cross part of a church. It is light an airy. Buttresses have been built to support a bell tower and the fragile glass walls.
My 13th century self wants to know how to behave and what is the penalty for breaking God’s rule. It is all over this church. And it is scary.
Another interesting aspect of the 13th century stained glass windows is that many of them are sponsored by local trades. The tradesmen want to make sure that everyone knows who paid for the window and how they have obviously bettered their chances of getting into heaven. Most windows are read from the bottom up so the advertisement for butchers or masons is the first thing you see.
Needless to say we do a pretty complete inspection of the cathedral. We decide to skip lunch and have a little relaxing time in the hotel while we wait for the afternoon’s sites to reopen at 2 PM.
After non-lunch we visit the palace of Jacques Coeur, Steward and Director of the Mint for Charles VII. During the 15th century he amassed an enormous amount of wealth, enough to build a fleet of armed vessels to trade all over the Mediterranean and India. He used his wealth to build a splendid palace. Unfortunately he fell out with the king, was sent on a crusade and died. His wife got to live in the palace but not Jacques Coeur.
We are pretty tired out from all the walking about today. We decide to partake in the quintessential French relaxation, sitting in a cafe. Since we’ve skipped lunch we share a croques-monsieur and watch Bourges pass by.
Tomorrow we won’t be doing anything other than getting back to Paris to catch the plane on Wednesday so we treat ourselves to one final French dinner at La Bourbonnoux.
Great day, great trip! Looking forward to being home.