We planned to make the city and cathedral of Amiens a particular focus for our cathedral pilgrimage. Besides Rouen, we spent the most time exploring here than any other church or place in France. I initially considered spending our whole time exploring Chartres Cathedral, arguably the best-preserved Gothic cathedral in the country. That would have been glorious but limited. We wanted a broad experience of cathedrals and France rather than a focused one.

Amiens and its Cathedral was a good choice for a week-long stay. The 140 feet high vaults of Notre Dame de Amiens are the highest of any completed cathedral. Its history, features, and treasures are fascinating and exceptional. And as I shared in a previous post, the city has many historical places and monuments (and we found the residents to be exceedingly friendly – some of the nicest people we met on the trip).

If climbing the towers of Amiens Cathedral raises you closer to the heavens, walking through its portals grants you entrance to them. The rock roof floats high above the ground while Rococo ornamentation dances around you.

With a pilgrimage maze under your feet, the glazed triforium of the apse allows the light to dazzle your eyes.

Like the parade of statues on the exterior of the building, the inside narrative displays of sculpture and quatrefoils are equally full of meaning. Again, Lisa was lost in her study of them while I became a frantic shutterbug attempting to capture digitally what our eyes could barely absorb.

The choir sits behind the bars of a locked gate. What I could make out peering between them was the most ornately carved choir stalls I’ve ever seen. A gentleman saw us looking through the bars dumbstruck and approached us to say a tour was available in 15 minutes. The wait was handsomely rewarded, but more of that next time.

Index of blog posts for our Cathedral Pilgrimage

• 1. A Cathedral Pilgrimage
• 2. Preparing for a Pilgrimage
• 3. First Stop – Reims
• 4. Reims – City of Kings
• 5. Saint Remi and His Basilica
• 6. Christian Time Traveling
• 7. Second Stop – Laon
• 8. Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Laon
• 9. Third Stop – Amiens
• 10. Amiens Cathedral: Almost Heaven
• 11. Soaring Vaults and Great Treasures

The scale of Notre Dame de Amiens is hard to comprehend, a familiar experience when visiting Gothic cathedrals. Church architecture for medieval people served a didactic function; in other words, the building was a sermon. Approaching and entering such a structure is like accessing Heaven. It is simply impossible not to become transfixed at some level. Even repeat visits can’t quench the transcendent spirit of the church.

The sculpture and reliefs on the facade and interior of Amiens Cathedral were the most intriguing to us (besides those of Chartres Cathedral). They are rich in narrative and symbolism and “may well be the greatest single sculptural display in all of Gothic architecture.”* Like medieval pilgrims, we were caught up in biblical and church history while admiring them. We watched Professor Cook’s lecture and Smarthistory’s video on Amiens Cathedral several times beforehand (Smarthistory also has a companion article about the Cathedral).

We scheduled a week in Amiens so we could repeatedly visit the Cathedral. Each time we returned, something new and marvelous grabbed our attention. Lisa inspected and sketched the quatrefoils and statuary while I took Professor Cook’s advice to study the Cathedral’s features from various perspectives.

Near the beginning of our week-long stay, we chose to climb the towers. It was a little windy, so the woman at the Cathedral’s tourist office had to send a staff member up to ensure it was safe for visitors. Thankfully it was and cost just under €20 for both of us – worth every euro cent.

You enter the south tower through a door just inside the south portal on the western facade. There you climb up a narrow spiral staircase (similar to those in castles) until you reach a passage that takes you outside behind the Gallery of Kings and in front of the rose window. Just wow. I never imagined I would ever be so close to a rose window. We only saw one other couple exploring the towers. We asked them if they would take our photo by the rose window. The man was too scared to return to take the picture, but the woman boldly agreed.

From the rose window, you walk straight toward the north tower and enter a door leading to another spiral staircase up to the highest part of the Cathedral, the pinnacle of the north tower. The scout from the office awaited us at the top. After a mandatory “Bonjour,” we implemented Professor Cook’s recommendation and examined spires, buttresses, and panoramas from every angle possible, ignoring the wind and cold.

The outside of Amiens Cathedral is breathtaking, but the inside is stunning, which I will share in my next post.

*Footnote: The Cathedral Course Guidebook by William R. Cook, Ph.D.

Index of blog posts for our Cathedral Pilgrimage

• 1. A Cathedral Pilgrimage
• 2. Preparing for a Pilgrimage
• 3. First Stop – Reims
• 4. Reims – City of Kings
• 5. Saint Remi and His Basilica
• 6. Christian Time Traveling
• 7. Second Stop – Laon
• 8. Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Laon
• 9. Third Stop – Amiens
• 10. Amiens Cathedral: Almost Heaven
• 11. Soaring Vaults and Great Treasures

Continuing our circumnavigation around the Île-de-France, our next pilgrimage stop was the city of Amiens. France’s excellent highway system makes the drive from Laon to Amiens a pleasant hour-and-a-half cruise. When driving from Reims to Laon, we took the back country roads to visit Vauclair Abbey, but on this leg of our trip, we had no scheduled detour, so taking the highway seemed the best choice. If I had done a little research, I could have found a beautiful church to explore on the way, and I did briefly consider visiting Basilique de Saint-Quentin. However, I was still not confident enough to navigate narrow old city streets to take the plunge.

The main highways of France have tolls. You can have Google Maps or other mapping software create routes to avoid the tolls, but there are several advantages to using the paid highways, not the least of which are rest stops. We were starting to get a handle on the French road signs and the numerous roundabouts, but the toll booths were still a concern. I did not need to worry about them because they are similar to the ones in the States, and France, like the UK, uses contactless terminals everywhere, including at toll booths.

Since studying in Britain, I prefer making purchases with Apple Pay. Contactless shopping is ubiquitous in the UK and France. Using an Apple Watch with Apple Pay makes it more convenient. All I needed to do was roll down my window and plant my wrist against the contactless terminal, and voila, nous étions en route.

Amiens Cathedral, the largest Gothic cathedral in France, is a central landmark of the city, but Amiens is also known for other things. It is the capital of the Somme department (an administrative region similar to a county in the US) and was fought over and occupied by both sides during the World Wars. If the word “Somme” sounds familiar, it’s because it is the name of the river that flows through the city and region where some of the bloodiest battles in World War I were fought. Consequently, this region is home to several military cemeteries and monuments. Amiens is also the birthplace of President Macron. And the beloved author Jules Verne lived his last 35 years here, serving on the city council for 15 years.

Jules Verne House

Amiens is full of history, with over 1,600 historical places and monuments. We stayed in the medieval Saint-Leu quarter of the city (the oldest district of Amiens). It is called “The Little Venice of the North” and is packed with half-timbered houses and cafe terraces. The Cathedral is just around the corner from where we made our home base in the district (we could see it out the window of our bedroom). The region’s art museum, Musée de Picardie, is also a historic place initially founded as the Musée Napoléon in 1802 (the year of the Treaty of Amiens).

Saint-Leu quarter

Amiens Cathedral outside our bedroom window

Musée de Picardie

Despite all there was to see in Amiens, our priority was the Cathedral. After meeting our hosts and unpacking, we ventured out into the evening to get a look at this Gothic marvel. Unlike Reims, the Cathedral was not lit up and was closed. In the summers, they conduct a laser light show that colors the facade as it would have appeared in medieval times. But for now, we had to gaze at the imposing structure in the atmospheric light of the lampposts.

Index of blog posts for our Cathedral Pilgrimage

• 1. A Cathedral Pilgrimage
• 2. Preparing for a Pilgrimage
• 3. First Stop – Reims
• 4. Reims – City of Kings
• 5. Saint Remi and His Basilica
• 6. Christian Time Traveling
• 7. Second Stop – Laon
• 8. Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Laon
• 9. Third Stop – Amiens
• 10. Amiens Cathedral: Almost Heaven
• 11. Soaring Vaults and Great Treasures

The second stop on our Cathedral pilgrimage was in the hilltop city of Laon. Retaining a great deal of the charm of its history, Laon looks like a storybook town out of a medieval tale. High up on a hill above the Picardy plain, its ramparts and fortifications successfully checked the invasions of the Franks, Burgundians, Vandals, Alans, and Huns. We were privileged to stay in a beautiful apartment built along the medieval ramparts giving us a spectacular view of the plateau beneath the city stretching for miles.

After the baptism of Clovis by Saint Remi (who was from the surrounding district), Laon became one of the main towns of the kingdom of the Franks and eventually became the principal city of the late Carolingian kings. Early in the twelfth century, Laon was an important center for learning, hosting the famous Anselm of Laon‘s school for theology and exegesis. Since the French Revolution, Laon has lost its prominence, but its architectural beauty, medieval legacy, and magnificent cathedral make it a magical tourist destination.

Laon can trace its history back to the ancient Roman Empire. Today it has an art and archeological museum in the former Templar hotel preserving ancient artifacts and historical works from the city and elsewhere. We spent an enjoyable afternoon combing through its collection.

Of course, our primary purpose in coming to Laon was to visit the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Laon. It is one of France’s best-preserved early Gothic cathedrals and is notable for its unity of style and bright interior. I will dedicate my next post to the cathedral.

At the far end of the city, away from the cathedral, are the abbey and church of Saint Martin, which were unfortunately closed when we visited. They are now part of a complex of buildings that include the local hospital and a library.

Laon has a lot to offer, including an old Templer chapel and a citadel, not to mention a plethora of lovely shops and restaurants. As much as we would have loved to frequent these places, we had only limited time in this magical city, and the Cathedral awaited us.

Index of blog posts for our Cathedral Pilgrimage

• 1. A Cathedral Pilgrimage
• 2. Preparing for a Pilgrimage
• 3. First Stop – Reims
• 4. Reims – City of Kings
• 5. Saint Remi and His Basilica
• 6. Christian Time Traveling
• 7. Second Stop – Laon
• 8. Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Laon
• 9. Third Stop – Amiens
• 10. Amiens Cathedral: Almost Heaven
• 11. Soaring Vaults and Great Treasures

The original 1963 set of Doctor Who (2014 reproduction) – Wikimedia Commons

Our cathedral pilgrimage was essentially a journey back through time. Although there are cathedrals built in contemporary architectural styles, our interest generally does not point in that direction. We’re interested in the Romanesque and Gothic styles mainly due to their beauty and because they reflect the medieval attitude. That “God-centric” culture produced buildings and works of art that astonish even today. So, after saying goodbye to Reims we hopped into our Tardis, I mean Peugeot, and set the controls for the medieval city of Laon.

Ardon Gate – Laon, France

Laon is less than an hour’s drive from Reims so we had time (ahem) before checking into our apartment to visit the ruins of Vauclair Abbey, a medieval Cistercian monastery founded by Saint Bernard of Clairvaux in 1134. Winding our way through the beautiful Laonnois countryside (a small natural region centered around Laon) we found the extinct monastery standing in shattered beauty nestled in the palm of a verdant valley. Exploring these ruins one could imagine themselves actually traveling back in time.

Once established the Abbey received several estates and farms and quickly prospered, even sending out monks to found another monastery near Épernay. Between the 100 Years’ War and the 16th-century French Wars of Religion, Vauclair Abbey suffered heavy damage, but it wasn’t until the French Revolution in 1789 that it met its final demise.

Wandering amidst the remnants of Gothic vaults, pointed archways, and decorative pillars you can almost see the ghosts of the monastic inhabitants going about their daily duties.

While doing research for our trip I learned of a small town near Vauclair where Merovingian tombs had been discovered containing the first Christian burials in the region. We headed to the town of Vorges to see for ourselves. Unfortunately, the medieval church was closed, but it was still a delight to visit the town.

Finally, heading to the old city of Laon we traversed several narrow country roads until we came within view of the cathedral standing prominently on the city’s hilltop. Pulling over to the side of the road, we stared at our next destination and prepared for another journey back in time.

Index of blog posts for our Cathedral Pilgrimage

• 1. A Cathedral Pilgrimage
• 2. Preparing for a Pilgrimage
• 3. First Stop – Reims
• 4. Reims – City of Kings
• 5. Saint Remi and His Basilica
• 6. Christian Time Traveling
• 7. Second Stop – Laon
• 8. Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Laon
• 9. Third Stop – Amiens
• 10. Amiens Cathedral: Almost Heaven
• 11. Soaring Vaults and Great Treasures

The Baptism of Clovis by Master of Saint Giles – National Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C.

The baptism of Clovis I, King of the Franks, by the Bishop of Reims, Saint Remi, was a pivotal event in the Christianization of the Franks. A few blocks from the Reims Cathedral is a basilica dedicated to the Saint. Our Cathedral Pilgrimage didn’t restrict us to visiting only “cathedrals,” a church as beautiful and old as the Basilique Saint-Remi is a must-see. A twenty-minute walk from our home base to visit the basilica was both worth it and enjoyable since Reims is such a lovely city.

The Basilica dates from the 11th century (with additions and modifications in the 12th, 13th, 15th, 17th, and 19th centuries) and is the largest Romanesque church in northern France. Because of the additions and modifications, it has a mixture of Romanesque and Gothic styles.

Basilica of Saint-Remi

As often happened, because our pilgrimage was during the off-season, the church was almost exclusively ours to explore with very few people around. In fact, outside the church, an American woman mistook me for a French person when I let her know in French how to enter the building (hey, I guess my language studies weren’t a total failure). I love that these churches are generally open to the public throughout the day. The opportunity to explore and reverently wander through medieval places of worship is sublime. The thick Romanesque walls and Gothic vaults of Saint Remi Basilica transport you back to a different world. Accent lighting periodically snapped on making the experience even more dramatic.

The tomb of Saint Remi is situated in the apse of the church while a monument commemorating the famous baptism stands in the courtyard outside.

Next to the Basilica is the former Saint Remi Abbey, now an archeology and art museum, complete with a cloister. The refectory is converted into a gallery displaying sculptures and mosaics.

Musée Saint-Remi – old refectory

Ancient Roman mosaic at the Musée Saint-Remi

Reims also has an Art-Deco library built with money from Andrew Carnegie who also financed the restoration of the Cathedral. Our short three-day visit to the unofficial capital of the Champagne region bubbled with experiences, and that’s without even sampling a drop of the patron beverage.

Carnegie Library of Reims – Art Deco goodness

Index of blog posts for our Cathedral Pilgrimage

• 1. A Cathedral Pilgrimage
• 2. Preparing for a Pilgrimage
• 3. First Stop – Reims
• 4. Reims – City of Kings
• 5. Saint Remi and His Basilica
• 6. Christian Time Traveling
• 7. Second Stop – Laon
• 8. Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Laon
• 9. Third Stop – Amiens
• 10. Amiens Cathedral: Almost Heaven
• 11. Soaring Vaults and Great Treasures

During my first encounter with Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Reims I stumbled upon the spot where Clovis, King of the Franks, was baptized a Christian. His baptism made Reims the birthplace of Christianity in France and the place where future kings would be crowned. That precedent led Joan of Arc to fight for the coronation of Charles VII to be performed at Reims in the cathedral.

Jeanne d’Arc’s legacy is still felt here through the equestrian statue outside the cathedral and the chapel dedicated to her inside. Her effigy, with eyes closed, makes her presence seem to almost haunt the church. While this young woman’s story of remarkable faith and obedience is embedded in the psyche of France, she deserves a place in the hearts of all Christians regardless of nationality.

Reims Cathedral has between 2,000 and 3,000 statues. The most famous of them is the Smiling Angel. After the cathedral was bombarded during World War I the damaged statue became a symbol of “French culture destroyed by German barbarity.” Preserved by the abbot Thinot, it later was restored and placed back on the cathedral and remains a beloved figure of Reims today.

Because of the wars most of the original glass in the cathedral was destroyed. 20th century artist Marc Chagall designed the glass of the central chapel of the ambulatory. It is quite beautiful. My sister-in-law, an accomplished artist, recognized his style instantly when she saw our photos. Much of the original glass on the west façade does remain, but the windows in the portals are more modern. Below the rose window is a gallery of kings in glass, fitting for the cathedral of coronations.

Windows designed by Marc Chagall.

Just walking in and around the cathedral was captivating. If this was the only stop on our pilgrimage we could have easily busied ourselves learning about the statuary and architecture and been quite happy. But, amazingly, we were only scratching the surface.

Notice the bottom right sculptures: Melchizedek and Abraham

“The hell-bound figures from the Last Judgment sculpture here are unusually calm; interestingly, among the damned, we find a king and a bishop, a reminder that authority on earth is not a free pass into heaven.” Professor William R. Cook

Index of blog posts for our Cathedral Pilgrimage

• 1. A Cathedral Pilgrimage
• 2. Preparing for a Pilgrimage
• 3. First Stop – Reims
• 4. Reims – City of Kings
• 5. Saint Remi and His Basilica
• 6. Christian Time Traveling
• 7. Second Stop – Laon
• 8. Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Laon
• 9. Third Stop – Amiens
• 10. Amiens Cathedral: Almost Heaven
• 11. Soaring Vaults and Great Treasures

Once we decided to do a cathedral pilgrimage we had to choose the location and extent of our journey. Columbia University’s Mapping Gothic showed us that our task would not be an exhaustive one. We were going to have to be selective. Since the Gothic style was invented in the Île-de-France (the region surrounding Paris) it was logical to make that our focus. Mapping Gothic confirms that it has the greatest concentration of Gothic churches in the world.

Circumnavigating the Île-de-France counterclockwise, we could hit some of the best examples of Gothic churches while taking in the beauty and history of France. Our plan could not have easily been accomplished using public transportation, so we decided to rent a car. Since we were going to be traveling for about a month a short-term car lease made a lot of sense. You get a brand new car, full insurance, and unlimited miles. We were very pleased with our experience and it gave us the freedom to visit places off the beaten track.

For housing, we picked six strategically located cities to use as our home bases. We rented apartments from Airbnb and Booking.com. All of them were equipped with kitchens so we could cook most of our meals, saving time and money. We chose inner city locations close to cathedrals so we could revisit them several times during our stay (with the exception of Mont-Saint-Michel for various reasons).

Of course, a cathedral pilgrimage in France would be incomplete without visiting the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Chartres, the best-preserved Gothic cathedral in the country. Since Rouen has three magnificent Gothic churches itself, we decided to use it as a home base from which to visit Chartres. And since we would be in striking distance of Bayeux, which has a beautiful cathedral and the famous eponymous tapestry chronicling William the Conqueror’s conquest of England, we had to include that lovely city.

While in Rouen I kept looking at our itinerary and realized that when we went to Bayeux we wouldn’t be that far from Mont-Saint-Michel, so we decided to turn our day trip into an overnight stay in order to visit the ancient abbey. It’s hard to elevate one of our many experiences to the category of a highlight, but Mont-Saint-Michel is a contender. There really is nothing like it.

Finally, we made it back to Paris, spending two nights at an airport hotel. This allowed us to sneak into the city for a day before our flight home. Paris has so much to offer, but our concern on this trip was primarily cathedrals. We had to “see” Notre-Dame (sadly, that’s all you can do since it’s being repaired) and visit Sainte-Chapelle; those were absolute requirements. We didn’t visit Saint-Denis (the fountainhead of Gothic) or famous sites like the Eiffel Tower because there’s only so much you can do.

Lisa and her many talents made this trip possible along with the loving support of our community. Our deep dive into Christian France has changed my worldview. We are standing on the shoulders of giants.

“Bernard of Chartres said that we are like dwarves perched on the shoulders of giants, and we can see better and further than them not because our sight is more piercing or our size is larger, but because we are raised into the air and carried up into the air thanks to their gigantic height” Wikipedia

Index of blog posts for our Cathedral Pilgrimage

• 1. A Cathedral Pilgrimage
• 2. Preparing for a Pilgrimage
• 3. First Stop – Reims
• 4. Reims – City of Kings
• 5. Saint Remi and His Basilica
• 6. Christian Time Traveling
• 7. Second Stop – Laon
• 8. Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Laon
• 9. Third Stop – Amiens
• 10. Amiens Cathedral: Almost Heaven
• 11. Soaring Vaults and Great Treasures