Cluny, 2009

Monday, we did some more of the Left Bank, including the Cluny Abbey/Hotel, which has long been the national museum of the middle ages. Some chain mail and a few swords, but mostly religious stuff, as one might expect.

Monday evening we had our last meal together at the apartment. Vicki fixed her Porkchops Liegesoise followed by hand-picked Swedish blueberries and real French vanilla ice cream. And we all bid our farewells. The girls and the boys left the next morning, Rachel and Will for Normandy and more time in France, Rebecca and Jeremy for England and a week in London. It was a very, very good family European vacation.

John the Baptist
  
Cigar store John the Baptist
  
Jesus on wheels...try to imagine what this might have been used for in the 13th century...parades, dramatization, 4-wheel drive demonstration?
  
The Cluny does have some nice windows on display you can look at close-up...

We have been to cathedrals that feature shards of the True Foreskin in their treasuries...but this is the first depiction of the Holy Circumcision I have yet seen
  
 And Cluny has not one but two; supply a caption for the guy on the right

Most people come to Cluny for the unicorn tapestries; sorry there are not more and better pix, but they keep the room very dark for preservation purposes and no flash

The unicorn tapestries are about the senses and, eventually, apparently, eschewing the senses for higher things (whatever...); here, the lady is demonstrating the sense of sight by showing the unicorn his image in the mirror
  
Cluny was built on top of Roman buildings, of which there are ample remains

Thus