Hospital St. Jean/Musee Jean Lurcat

As I said, the camping aire in Angers is within a few hundred meters of everything. After our morning and afternoon tours, I took a walk around the neighborhood, and mostly the Medieval Hospital St. Jean, which is now the Jean Lurcat museum of contemporary tapistry.

In the neighborhood, someone has made a contemporary
house from the city wall

In the St. Jean/Lurcat garden

Ditto

In the medicinal garden

Absinthe

More of the old garden

Everywhere you look, there is something
worth looking at

The great 13th century  hospital

Current temporary exhibit at the museum

More of the garden grounds

Inside the great hospital/museum; perhaps the largest
secular Medieval building I have seen

Apothecary

A block away, a shrine for the poor

And the 14th century hospital storehouse

With its contemporary but presumably Medieval-like
vaulting; now available for receptions; a wedding reception
was going on as I stuck my head in; everyone receiving
rose plants as they left...

Walking back to the aire, the chapel of the Hospital

Best Medieval House Ever, So Far

So you round the bow of the cathedral and enter a beautiful square and there before you...

Is the House of Adam, a late Medieval structure, now, at
street level, a gift shoppe

But what really catches your eye are the wonderful carvings
rising in the wood from street to the sky

Thus

And thus

And thus

And thus (my favorite)

The south side, more weathered

The west side, less

And facing the cathedral, the Pride of Angers...

Angers Cathedral of St. Maurice

Next was the cathedral of Angers, St. Maurice, another Plantagenet structure, impressive, but not quite Gothic.

Previous posts have shown some of the
exterior; here the nave and particularly
the four part vaulting; Gothic in so many
ways, except the height...

Altar, apse

Nice clerestory windows

The transept rose windows...

Are both of the Apocalypse...even in the 13th century,
the Office of Tourisme knew what was going to work in
Angers; "stick to your knitting" they were saying...

If nothing else, the organ loft in Angers is
among the greatest we have seen

Those four carved figures holding it up are about 3x normal
size...

Southeast view of the great towers, from the
former cloister of Roman origin

Angers Apocalypse Tapestry

Angers' big draw is the Chateau's Apocalypse Tapestry, done c. 1375, the Middle Ages' largest tapestry, originally 140m long, now down to just over 100m. (They left the dryer on high). The tapestry, which illustrates John's the Crazy's Book of Revelation, is beautifully displayed in a special hall of the Chateau under carefully controlled conditions. Photography is difficult, so I will post just a few of the huge panels in no particular order. Those wishing a fuller understanding of the Book of Revelations should read Elaine Pagel's Revelations.

One wing of the hall

The other

You can basically tell the Bad Guys by their having seven
heads

Thus; adoration of the Bad Guys

Good Guys have wings; or halos

Heavenly city

According to the Medieval French, who did not have
American football, it was not the Four Horseman but rather
the "myriad cavaliers"; not one for the Gipper

Angel and kingly person

God in his Mandorla thing

Death on horseback

Aerial combat

Sticking the Bad Guy(s)

Sleep of the Righteous

Angers Chateau

Next day was a busy one, the Angers chateau, the Apocalypse tapistry, the cathedral, walking about the old town, and then over by the museum of contemporary tapistry. And free wifi.

Vicki on the long staircase from the river up o the cathedral;
a right turn takes you to the chateau

Angers chateau; a giant Medieval fortress; they removed the pepper-pot domes
(the conical black things) back in the16th century, replacing them with gun
platforms; the age of artillery was upon them; it would look a lot more French
with the the pointy domes

Military architects and historians have long criticized the
French for making their castle moats too decorative; but it
does make them look French

Inside the castle, the royal residence and chapel

An original window, 13thcentury

People, like Nature, abhor empty spaces; the French solution, as here in the
otherwise empty chapel, is contemporary art; we'll see much more of this
approach, which sometimes works, further in our travels

Back on the grounds

The governor's residence

Up on the battlements; French battlements, of course, and Anjou is big-time wine
country; note slab stakes, slabs of the local blue schist which is the dominant
building color here (schist happens)

Again from the battlements, the Cathedral of St. Maurice, and its large west towers

To Angers

We proceeded on, further west, to the city of Angers, our western-most destination at this latitude on this trip. Some views on the way...

Not all that far from Brittany, our first dolmen since 2010, the
Dolmen de la Fontaine de Son

And--we'll be crossing the flooded Loire shortly--here's our
first Chateau of the Loire, Montrueil-Bellay, not all that
famous, but stunning enough

And thus we land at the municipal aire in Angers, right on
the Quay Monge on the River Maine, a few hundred meters
from everything

View from the driver's seat

The cathedral across the bridge

Artsy view

And the Angers Chateau, which we'll tour Friday; best
thing is, courtesy of the Department of Maine et Loire,
the camping aire has free wifi! We're getting spoiled!