We got into town at Chalons-sur-Marne and it was really quite nice for a small town. I remember us having a nice dinner and then in the morning we asked directions for a local church to take Dad to mass.
We got directions that there was a chruch behind this wall at the end of the street but I saw nothing but storefronts as we walked towards it. We noticed there was an entrance that people were going in and it looked like a modern storefront but as we pass through it suddenly opened up into the interior of a very medieval looking church. That in itself was mind-blowing like being teleported from modern times storefronts into and an ancient world. I am guessing that perhaps one side of the church may have been damaged in previous wars and required this sort of side support but I am not sure since the other side of the church was completely exposed like a more typical medieval cathedral.
From what I can tell this church was Saint Etienne's cathedral, including parts of the first Romanesque cathedral built in the 12th century. It was mostly a Gothic style cathedral. As I recall there were very interesting tombs placed within the church and the altar area almost looking like medieval knights with swords across their chests,etc but we really didn’t have time to investigate too much. We enjoyed a basic mass service with some of the people from town in this surrealistic surrounding. I would have liked more time to have explored and really learned the city’s history but we needed to move on.
Next: Getting to Paris
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