Cathedral Cities of France (page 1/2)

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Angers

“The French yearning to make everything new” has done its work in Angers, but through Fulk, Geoffrey, René, and the rest would be at a loss to recognise their old capital in the trim modern town, enough remains to show us what has been. No city standing as Angers does on rising ground above a wide river, with a mass of castle bastions sloping up [...] —it is clean and full of life, and altogether very far removed from the “black Angers” known to our ancestors. This mediæval and grm-sounding title, reminiscent of dungeons and tyrant princes, probably either meant that the ancient town was closely and squalidly built, or else referred to the dark slate with which the country abounds, and which might well have been used for buildig purposes all over the town, as we will see it in some houses by the river. [more...] [$]

Title Page from Cathedral Cities of France

Cathedral Cities of France, by Herbert Marshall, R.W.S. and Hester Marshall With sixty illustrations in colour by Herbert Marshall, R.W.S. [more...] [$]

Front Cover

Red with gold lettering. [$]

Frontispiece: Lâon, View From the Plain

The Cathedral of Lâon, or Laon, Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Laon, was built in the 12th century. [more...] [$]

Bayeux from the Meadows

Bayeux itself is a quiet country town, built up one low hill and down another—a town of long streets and grey-shuttered houses, possessing three principle interests—the Cathedral, the Seminary Chapel and [...] Chartier, minstrel and court-poet to Charles VII., and author of that curious document, the “Curiale,” whose best praise lies in the fact that it was one of the earliest books selected for publication by Caxton. (p. 105) [more...] [$]