I was in Auxerre, so I went to the cathedral.

 

 

I take pictures of a lot of churches, because they are interesting to look at and there are a lot of them.  The cathedrals are especially amazing.  

This particular one is named for Saint Stephen and is in Auxerre, which is between Dijon and Paris.  I was traveling north from Dijon, so it was a good stopping point on the way.  

 

I’m doing what they call wild camping, which is to say, I find a place where I can park and stay there overnight.  I do this for two nights (more or less), then go into a campsite for a night.  That lets me plug into shore power and do a water exchange, dump the old water and fill with new.

In Auxerre, it took three tries, but I did find a good place to park.  It was under trees and the first place had branches that were low enough to scrape the roof, yikes.  I moved over one spot and it was fine.  

So far most of the places I’ve been have parking areas on the street or parking lots that are fine to stay in.  At least, no one has bothered me, so it must have been ok.

In Auxerre, the place I found was a short walk from the cathedral.   I expect that is the old, original part of the city.  In the morning, after breakfast and such, I put on my shoes and headed off to see the sights.

They were having a concert there that morning, which is probably what the vans were about.  They were setting up for it when I went in.

It has a lot of decoration.   All those things that look like bumps over the door in the picture are individual sculptures.

The sculptures by the door have lost their heads.

It is super tall inside.  It is tall outside, of course, but I’m used to buildings that are tall on the outside.  I’m not used to buildings that are tall on the inside.   The wikipedia page says that the area in the center is 30 meters (almost 100 feet).  I didn’t measure it, but I can tell you that you have to crane your head back to look up in the middle.

There have been 5 sanctuaries on the site.  This one was begun in 1215.  The original plans were abandoned eventually.  France had its wars of religion, during which the city was sacked in 1567.  The cathedral was damaged, and while some of it was restored, they gave up on the south tower.  It took three centuries for them to get from started to where they stopped adding on.

I hadn’t actually noticed until I read it in the wiki page, but the building does look a little lopsided.  It’s like it has an ear sticking up on the left (in this photo), but not there on the right.

 

Looking straight up is somewhat dizzy making.

Some of the windows are stained glass and some are clear.  The clear glass is partly original and partly replacements for broken windows.  The original clear glass was because the architects wanted to bring more light into the building.  That way, people could see the priests as they said mass and the like.  It is also less expensive. 

Both versions are lovely to view.

You need a flower.  🙂