a hipster Mary, Chaggal, Hitler, a cyclop abbey--and yes, Joan of Arc!

windows by Mark Chaggal

Notre Dame de Reims

Before going into today's treasures from our pilgrimage through the French countryside, I want to share another wonderful image of Mother Mary, from yesterday's visit to Amiens:

I absolutely love her smile and how she's pointing to Jesus as if saying (a very motherly thing), "hey, did you hear what he just said?"  

By the way, I learned that this "style" of pose is called "hipped" because of its posture. How appropriate! I don't know any mother that has not held their young child at some point by posturing the son or daughter on her hip!

Today began with a visit to the Armistice Museum, just outside of our home base of Campaigne. This is where the Germans surrendered to the French at the end of WWI, and where the French surrendered to Hitler as they advanced into France during WWII.  It was quite provocative and 

I'm still pondering emotions from that one.

From there we drove to Soissons, where 80% of the town was destroyed by German artillery at the final retreat of the war. The cathedral itself was so seriously damaged that the Michelin Battlefield Guide declared it "beyond hope of repair" at the end of WWII.  Yet it still stands!

artillery shell on the facade of the cathedral

Also in Soissons, we visited St. Jean desVignes Abbey, or rather -- its remains. Only the facade of the Abbey church remains, but what a sight it is! I've never seen anything like it. It was huge, and still felt alive. Perhaps its because I kept thinking that it looked like a mythical one-eyed cyclop overseeing the valley before it! 

Also, I am obsessed with the vast yellow fields we keep driving by all over the countryside, a crop we think is mustard, although some of the sources I've read call it rape seed -- which turns into rapeseed oil used for cooking oil, paints, animal feed, margarine. All  I know is that I keep taking pictures hoping one will capture its awesomeness, but alas, I don't think it's possible!

As MarySue noted today, our great cathedrals are growing in stature and beauty by the day, like a major crescendo on our great Gothic French cathedrals pilgrimage ! Our finale today was Notre Dame de Reims, dedicated to Our Lady of the Assumption.

 Joan of Arc was everywhere. The Reims Cathedral is where Joan of Arc brought the man who was to be declared King of France--and where a long line of French kings have been coronated. Today we saw Joan in traditional form, and as part of an exhibit by contemporary artist Greg Tricker:

St. Jeanne, la colombé: St. Joan, the dove

the utterance of the unutterable: Amiens and Beauvais

After a wonderful breakfast at our B&B, today’s pilgrimage through the French countryside took us to two Gothic Cathedrals: Amiens and its neighbor Beauvais, rivals since the 13th century when the cities argued over who could build the biggest cathedral. 

Beauvais was by far the biggest loser!

Notre Dame d' Amiens is the tallest and largest complete cathedral in France. According to a guidebook, Notre Dame d' Paris would fit twice inside the Amiens Cathedral!

St. Thérèse of Lisieux, another local favorite!

labyrinth, on the nave floor

An unexpected find here was a relic of John the Baptist, whose cult can be found in several chapels and images around the cathedral. In a special case, we saw what since the 12^th century has been venerated as John the Baptist’s head:

At our other stop, I found St. Peter's Cathedral at Beauvais quite endearing in a very unexpected way.  It's not just that the Cathedral is missing critical parts, like a nave! According to the story, this bishop wanted to build a taller and bigger structure than any other cathedral -- but the building collapsed, twice! 

I know that technically this makes it an architectural failure. Yet I think this is part of why I liked it so much. It's almost human.

Its tall walls reach up like arms extending to heaven, yet it needs continual support to safeguard the buttresses that remain. The building is not just unfinished, it will never be complete, not in this lifetime – how’s that for a great spiritual metaphor? And of course there's the obvious, pride comes before the fall.

I love being Catholic. I can walk into a new church in a different continent, 

not speak the language, 

and recognize the world-wide symbol for the Year of Faith!

our dear Thérèse of Lisieux

Not unexpectedly, both cathedrals had special shrines to St. Joan of Arc. I learned that the bishop of Beauvais headed the Inquisition case against Joan. Some say this is why “his cathedral” began to collapse…

Joan of Arc at Beauvais

One more thing -- I should note that my mother-in-law MarySue Schriber is an Edith Wharton scholar. Much to our delight, as we travel on our modern "motor-flight," MarySue has been reading pieces of one of Wharton’s books (edited by MarySue!), “A Motor-Flight Through France.”

Here’s what Edith Wharton had to say in 1908 about her encounter in  with the Beauvais Cathedral:

“Beauvais has at least none of the ungainliness of failure: it is like a great hymn interrupted, not one in which the voices have flagged; and to the desultory mind such attempts seem to deserve a place among the fragmentary glories of great art. It is, at any rate, an example of what the Gothic spirit, pushed to its logical conclusion, strove for: the utterance of the unutterable.”