150 Churches in Paris and elsewhere

  It is odd that it took me a while to add Rouen cathedral to the blog, given that I walk past it almost every week on my way to work. It is mostly famous for having been painted by Monet (I mean he painted pictures of it) at different times of day with different sunlight effects. I finally went in to take photos shortly before closing time, so all the parts behind the main altar got missed out. Will have to go back to add more pictures. I also included more outside pictures than usual, but then the outside is spectacular. Some of it goes back to the 11th century. Fabulous Baroque side altar, check. Low-key style pulpit, check. Soaring Gothic arches, check. Handy sword, check. Thirteenth century stained glass, check. Also, a pretty confessional. Richard the Lion Heart is buried here (well only his heart actually), as is Rollo (the duke not the chocolate). Information in English Information in French Information in Picard

Your pious sovereign of Thuringia Just up the road from the Place de la République, this church is dedicated to Saint Elizabeth of Hungary and is a base for the Knights of Malta these days, if you ever need to contact them in a hurry. It was built in the 17th century, and has a huge collection of Flemish wooden plaques in bas-relief, illustrating a large number of biblical scenes - you would need to be pretty genned up to recognize them all. Elizabeth, as not many people know, used to be sovereign of Thuringia, which was a chunk of Germany, before Germany was Germany. Her remains are at Marburg in Germany and still attract pilgrims. She was real pious, and it is said that when she entered a church she left her crown on the floor at the foot of the cross "cos Jesus was the man". More information about the saint, in English, here One of the priests of this church, during the Nazi occupation, took risks to save the lives of Jewish families, and a plaque commemorating him was pla...