Today we took a visit to the city of Le Mans today. What a fantastic city it is, we totally loved it. There was lots to see, but the thing that stood out by a country mile was the cathedral - it was spectacular.
Above is a view of the back of the cathedral. It has these tremendous flying buttresses, which look amazing ! Quite astonishingly, construction on the site started in the 6th century - 1400 years ago ! However, it has been modified and changed many times over the years.
The cathedral sits up on the old town, which we had been exploring, and as can be seen the skies were completely clear and accordingly it was quite hot. So we were quite happy when we got there, because we immediately dived inside the cathedral where it was nice and cool !
I've seen a lot of nice cathedrals (in fact I've not seen any bad ones !) - however, this is one of the better ones I've seen. It was quite amazing inside - and absolutely huge.
There was a lot of nice statues and memorials, like the one above to Joan of Arc.
In places, coloured light could be seen due to the sun streaming through the stained glass windows - it was quite pretty.
There were some quite impressive paintings around, like the one above, which I assume shows David and Goliath (or something similar) - maybe a tad grewsome, but very interesting.
Next to the painting was the memorial plaque. The thing that struck me the most about it was the skeletons painted on the wall on each side of it ! I've never seen anything like that before in a church - angels and cherubs yes, but not skeletons !
Not surprisingly for such a huge cathedral, it had a huge church organ to go with it ! Unfortunately, no one was playing it when we were in.
The cathedral really is a marvel. The pic above shows the bell tower. Its roof is actually domed - I could not get a decent pic of it - but I certainly had not expected it to be domed.
There was also a beautiful fountain with a mermaid at the back of the cathedral - the water looked quite inviting on such a hot day - but we resisted !
The massive entrance door above was on one side. The carvings around it were very intricate and detailed.
A lot of the carving has been weathered, but its still pretty impressive.
Thats the view from the opposite side of the cathedral - it really is a beautiful setting. That part of town was just stunning in general - we really loved it.
Although I have to say the view at the back with the amazing buttresses and the bell tower was the most impressive for me.
The carvings inside and out where very impressive - completely stunning to see.
There really was lots to see. And it being so cool, we did stay inside for quite some time - but also needed to do that just to take it all in. And amazingly, it was really quiet. There was maybe a total of 20 people inside, including us. I'm amazed that it wasnt busier.
What a fantastic site to see, we loved it.
Le Mans is not a city I've heard much about apart from it being the host to the famous 24 hour car race, however, we were very impressed - it was stunning. An absolute must to see in France !