Bourges

We are in the charming village of Bourges.  The primary sight in town is its cathedral, which is one of the largest Gothic cathedrals in France. The architect was a brother to the architect of Notre Dame in Paris, and they competed to see who could build the better cathedral. This one is the widest in France and has five naves but no transept. It was built over fifty years  (1195-1245) with a five year gap in the middle when the king ran out of money.  In fact, it was built so rapidly that one of the bell towers neared collapse and had to have a reinforcing tower built alongside it and the other bell tower did collapse and had to be replaced. 

Notice the rain pouring down from the gargoyle. One of the functions of gargoyles was to scare away evil spirits, and the other was to protect the building by directing rain away from the stone. It has been rainy off and on most of our trip, and the night we first visited this cathedral it was pouring. 

 

The cathedral has beautiful stained glass, most of it 13th century, and some from later. We learned to read stained glass -- from the left to right and bottom to top. At the bottom are representations of the guild that paid for the window. The oldest glass color was made by embedding the color in the molten glass. Later stained glass was clear and color added by painting on the glass. The first stained glass you see is old and financed by the bricklayers guild. See the brick layers making mortar and bricks along the bottom. 

The next stained glass comes from later. Notice the change in color representing the change in technique. This glass shows the story of Mary.

Bourges suffered a big fire in the 14th century, when most of the houses burnt and were replaced. Most of the houses remain. In fact, there are over 400 of these beautiful half-timbered houses remain in use in town.