So we’re holidaying in the south of France and decided to break the journey by spending a couple of nights in Troyes. I knew it was a medieval town with a cathedral, that was the main reason for picking it, but beyond that I didn’t know very much. I hadn’t even troubled wikipedia before we arrived.
The central, pedestrian part of it is ridiculously pretty. It’s full of timbered, 16th Century houses. Every corner you turn there are more. I’m not sure I’ve been to a town like it; it puts the Shambles in York to shame.
Not only does it seem impossible that there could be so many of them still preserved, but a number of them sit slightly askew. There are so many of them, looking so stereotypical it felt a little like we’d wandered into a Disney theme park.
We started off in the Cathedral of St Pierre and St Paul. As I started to try to explain to the kids what was going on I realised quite how woeful my knowledge of medieval architecture is. Needless to say it was a beautiful building, with high-vaulted ceilings, large windows and lots of light. The kids actually enjoyed it more than they’d admit and took a large number of photos, some of which might make it into this post at a later date when I get them off the camera.
Then we slightly cheekily snuck in a visit to the modern art museum next door. It focused largely on the French impressionists – as far as I could make out as we tried to keep the kids energy up. The highlight was a temporary Matisse exhibition. One room consisted of four in his Polynesia series. Big blue and white blocks of colour with paper cut-outs. Two were paper and two tapestry.
All in all, I can certainly imagine ending up in Troyes again.
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