We are off to Narbonne today. We have never been there but we can easily see the HUGE cathedral from the freeway. We set the GPS for the cathedral and head off. It is about a 30 minute drive. As we start to drive into the center of town, the GPS tells me to drive down an incredibly narrow alley. I balk. I turn left just before the alley and we find ourselves in a very small parking area. Incredibly a lady is just pulling out and we have a parking space. And when I ask a nice man in the adjacent park for directions to the cathedral, he directs us around the corner and straight ahead. So we are incredibly lucky to have found ourselves in that particular parking area.
There are many, many small boutiques along the pedestrian promenade that leads to the church. I could spend hours here! We walk through the cathedral square and look around the Archbishops Palace. From there it is just a few steps to the cathedral. The garden is surrounded by a covered terrace with interesting arched ceilings.
There are what’s left of ancient statues; they are in varying states of decay.
The cathedral, built between 1272 and 1340, is huge and it’s amazing to consider that it was never completed! The original plan was for it to be more than twice the size. Apparently the town’s defense walls needed to be removed in order to increase the size and there were concerns they might need those fortifications. When the 100 Years War descended on the area the town was fortunate to have the walls intact.
There are efforts at renovation. In 2000 the depictions on the back of the altar were uncovered. There are more than 200 carved figures depicting the horrors that are in store for unrepentant sinners. YIKES! The vaulted ceiling of the choir is 130 feet high. The church is filled with frescoes, early 16th century Flemish tapestries and gold and ivory.
We take a walk. The ancient Roman road passed through this town and there is a small portion that is visible in the town square. The Canal du Midi runs through the town.
The canal stretches from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean and “barging” is a popular mode of travel for vacationers. We missed seeing the covered market so we must come back again.
We find a very small restaurant that was mentioned in a blog I was reading so we try it. There are probably 6 tables in a basement dining room. One table has 2 young women and 3 screaming babies. The other table has 6 or so young women drinking cocktails–maybe it is a reunion or a bachelorette party. The last table has a single woman–I don’t know how she can stand it!
It takes quite a while for the server to approach us–I was ready to just leave. But we are eventually glad that we stayed. Howard had a Niçoise salad. The rest of us had “gallettes”–savory crepes that are always folded differently than sweet crepes. These looked like a long, flat burrito.
On the way home we pass a HUGE supermarket and stop for a little shopping. Bart finds the pastry dough he’s been looking for and we are anxious to have baked Brie. For dinner the Franks cook a delicious sausage and pasta dish.