Height and Light

This week was a little rough since I spent most of it sick, but I still saw some pretty great stuff. I felt like I finally got to really kick off October with a visit to the underground catacombs. I was a little claustrophobic but the thousands of skeletons was definitely worth the trip down through some old tight tunnels. The walls were literally made of human bones. While that kind of macabre doesn’t really spook me out, there is a super unique atmosphere to the catacombs that doesn’t really match anywhere else I’ve been. A little dark, and a little reverent at the same time.

The big trip of this week was to Reims, which was actually really cool. I keep thinking that eventually every new church I go into is going to start looking exactly the same and I will stop being impressed at some point, but that has not happened yet. The cathedral at Reims was amazing. The variety of stained glass from so many different centuries was so incredible to see, as was the more flamboyant gothic style that saturated the stonework with detail and movement. As the location of the baptism of Clovis, as well as the coronation of the kings of France, there was some strong thematic symbolism that was very relevant to the history of the site in the architecture itself. And while not as dynamic on the outside, the basilica in Reims was just as cool as the cathedral itself. The attraction of the basilica was the tomb of Saint Remis, who baptized Clovis, and that was a really special place to be too because it was so empty that you really got to be one-on-one with him. The last part of Reims that I got really excited about was the building where Nazi Germany surrendered to the Allied Forces at the end of WWII. I didn’t think that would be that exciting to go to before I ended up going, but I went because there were other people in the group that wanted to go. At the beginning we were shown a movie of the last part of WWII leading up to the signing, and then the actual surrender in the room with all of the generals. And that was pretty interesting, but not anything too new or special. But then I went up the stairs and stood in the exact room that they had just shown in the movie, and it really hit me there that this place was a big deal. It really got me looking forward to the WWII sites in Normandy that I’ll be visiting later here in France.