Amiens

We left Paris in the afternoon and arrived in Amiens that evening. Basically we had 15 minutes to locate the cathedral and get inside before it closed. A seemingly impossible task, but we went for it, and miraculously, we made it! We only had a few minutes to see the interior, but it was well worth the sprint to get there--it is quite the sight, that is for dang sure. The Notre Dame Cathedral here in Amiens is the tallest cathedral in France.

The vaults of the nave itself is 42.30 m high, the tallest nave vaults of any French cathedral--my neck was killing me even in the five minutes we were there, it was so far up there!

This is possibly the coolest sculpture, because notice who is holding the baby Jesus:

Yeah, it's not His mother Mary, as you would expect--it's Joseph. Interesting, right? I've never seen such a depiction, pretty cool.

The Weeping Angel

Okay, remember what it looked like during the day?

Well, during some deep cleaning back in the 90's, they discovered that the facade was orginially painted, and quite colorfully too. After serious scientific efforts they were able to discover the exact make up of this paint job from the 13th century, so when night falls upon the city, the cathedral is illuminated in by far the most spectacular light show in the world--Lights, music, eerie cool breeze, the works.

Can you imagine coming to church in a building like this??? AMAZING!

So beautiful! I cried like a baby--it was breath-taking, inspiring, and just the most beautiful thing I have ever seen--simply stunning! There were so many wonderful things I have experienced the past few months abroad, but I daresay that this is definitely one of the best.