Paris_ The Collected Traveler - Barrie Kerper [151]
If you are tempted to climb the stairs leading to the towers or the steeple to enjoy a panoramic view, remember that there are hundreds of them—narrow, hollowed in the center, very steep, and in spirals. Climbing cathedral steps is not for the weak of heart; Notre-Dame de Paris, for one, counts 387 steps in its northern tower!
Sunlight streaming through the verrières (stained-glass windows) of large cathedrals such as Chartres, Amiens, and Bourges offers a kaleidoscopic effect, so select a sunny day for your visit if possible. If not, try to visit each cathedral at its optimal time of day. For example, Notre-Dame de Paris is very dark inside, so if you must visit on an overcast day, do so at midday. Chartres and Amiens, on the other hand, are naturally bright, so you can visit them later in the day. Different parts of the churches—all oriented the same way—are also best seen at particular moments of the day: the light through the windows of the apse (behind the altar) is at its most joyous in the morning, whereas the sunset light creates very dramatic effects on the rose windows of the western façade.
Even if you are not religious, you will have an enriching experience if you attend high mass on Sunday mornings, because a cathedral is fully alive during mass. Attend a service to experience the organ music, the vapors of the incense, the flowers, and the liturgical chants. Times are posted at the entrance or marked in your guidebook. In summer, large cathedrals offer free concerts of sacred music on Sunday afternoons. Until his death a few years ago, the celebrated organist Cochereau was often found rehearsing or performing in Notre-Dame de Paris.
A guided tour is only as interesting as its guide. If you spot a priest or a monk explaining the details of the church, follow him! They are the best guides, because they live on the premises, take part in local excavations, and often have authored scholarly books on their church; in short, they are passionately in love with their topic. In the absence of a tour guide, a region-specific Michelin guidebook (with the green cover) offers a good balance of explanations and useful tips.
Before entering the cathedral, walk around it to appreciate its architecture and the relationship of the steeple and the towers to the rest of the building. Remember that builders always started with the choir (where the altar stands), because without a choir the church was useless. Because it often took several generations to build, a cathedral could become a stylistic hodgepodge as architects of different eras came and went. The average building time was about eighty years and life expectancy was thirty years, so a child born in Reims around 1210, when its cathedral was begun, could hardly have hoped to see it finished. This privilege was reserved for the child’s great-grandchildren. This hodgepodge effect can be seen in Chartres cathedral, although it was built remarkably fast. On the north portal of Chartres, the statues have stylized hieratic heads seemingly stuck on stiff candlelike bodies, whereas the statues of the Royal Portal are graceful and free, representative of a later style.
When looking at a Gothic cathedral, you are at a disadvantage over your medieval counterpart, who, upon entering a church, automatically knew where to find a symbolic scene and the reason for its placement. Keep in mind that all cathedrals, at least until the sixteenth century, were enormous compasses oriented from the rising to the setting sun, a custom dating from early Christian days. It was customary to enter from the western side, which is where sculptors lavished their creativity, particularly on the tympanum above the main portal. Medieval theologians and artists confused the meaning of the word occidens (the western side) with the verb