Notre-Dame de Reims is the Reims Cathedral, where the kings of France used to be crowned. It replaced an older church (burned in 1211) built on the site of the basilica where Clovis was baptized by Saint Remi, bishop of Reims, in A.D. 496. The cathedral was completed by the end of the 13th century, with the exception of the west front (illustration, right). That portion was erected in the 14th century after 13th century designs— the nave having in the meantime been lengthened to afford room for the crowds that attended the coronations. The towers, 267 ft. high, were originally designed to rise 394 ft.; that on the south contains two great bells, one of which, named “Charlotte” by the Cardinal de Lorraine in 1570, weighs more than 11 tons.

In 1875 the French National Assembly voted £80,000 for repairs of the façade and balustrades. This façade is the finest portion of the building, and one of the most perfect masterpieces of the Middle Ages.

The three portals are laden with statues and statuettes. The central portal, dedicated to the Virgin, is surmounted by a rose-window framed in an arch itself decorated with statuary. The “gallery of the kings” above has the baptism of Clovis in the centre and statues of his successors.

The façades of the transepts are also decorated with sculptures—that on the north with statues of the principal bishops of Reims, a representation of the Last Judgment and a figure of Jesus (le Beau Dieu) while that on the south side has a beautiful rose-window with the prophets and apostles. In 1481 fire destroyed the roof and the spires: of the four towers which flanked the transepts nothing remains above the height of the roof. Above the choir rises an elegant bell-tower in timber and lead, 59 ft. high, reconstructed in the 15th century.

The interior of the cathedral is 455 ft. long, 98 ft. wide in the nave, and 125 ft. high in the centre, and comprises a nave with aisles, transepts with aisles, a choir with double aisles, and an apse with ambulatory and radiating chapels. It has a profusion of statues similar to those of the outside, and stained glass of the 13th century. The rose-window over the main portal and the gallery beneath are of rare magnificence.

The cathedral possesses fine tapestries. Of these the most important series is that presented by Robert de Lenoncourt, archbishop under Francois I, representing the life of the Virgin. The north transept contains a fine organ in a flamboyant Gothic case. The choir clock is ornamented with curious mechanical figures. Several paintings, by Tintoretto, Nicolas Poussin, and others, and the carved woodwork and the railings of the choir, also deserve mention. Famous Russian painter Marc Chagall’s work can also be admired in the cathedral through the stained glasses later installed at the back, and on the side of the cathedral.

The treasury contains the Sainte Ampoule, or holy flask, the successor of the ancient one that contained the oil with which French kings were anointed, which was broken at the French Revolution, a fragment of which the present Ampoule contains.

Notre-Dame de Reims Cathedral, the Former Abbey of Saint-Remi and the Palace of Tau were added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1991

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Cemeteries had been banned from Paris since the shutting down of the Cimetière des Innocents in 1786 on the fringe of Les Halles food market, on the grounds that it presented a health hazard. Several new cemeteries replaced all the Parisian ones, outside the precincts of the capital, in the early 19th century: Montmartre in the north, Le Cimetière Père Lachaise in the east, Cimetière de Passy in the west and Cimetiere de Montparnasse in the south.

Located west of the Butte, near the beginning of rue Caulaincourt in place Clichy, the cemetery in the Montmartre Quarter of Paris is built below street level in the hollow of an old quarry with its entrance on avenue Rachel under rue Caulaincourt. The cemetery epitomizes the artsy, quixotic, gentle, almost whimsical Paris that every romantic visitor secretly cherishes.

A popular tourist destination, it is the final resting place for many famous artists who lived and worked in the Montmartre area. A few of the famous buried in the Montmartre Cemetery are:

• André-Marie Ampère – (Physicist – electrical unit ampere named for him.)
• Hector Berlioz – (Composer)
• Dalida – singer/actress
• Edgar Degas – (Painter, sculptor)
• Leo Delibes – composer
• Maria Deraismes – social reformer, feminist
• Alexandre Dumas, fils – novelist, playwright
• Georges Feydeau – playwright
• Léon Foucault – scientist
• Pauline Garcia-Viardot – opera singer, composer
• Theophile Gautier – poet, novelist
• Edmond de Goncourt (Author-Publisher) Prix Goncourt
• Jean-Baptiste Greuze – painter
• Sacha Guitry – actor/director
• Heinrich Heine – poet
• Louis Jouvet – actor
• Marie Pierre Koenig, Free French Field-Marshal
• Eugène Labiche – writer
• Frédérick Lemaître – actor
• Auguste de Montferrand – architect
• Gustave Moreau – (Painter)
• Vaslav Nijinsky – (Dancer)
• Jacques Offenbach – composer
• Francisque Poulbot – painter
• Adolphe Sax – musicial instrument maker
• Stendhal – writer
• François Truffaut – (Film maker)
• Horace Vernet – painter
• Alfred de Vigny – poet, playwright, novelist
• Emile Zola – author (Moved to The Panthéon in 1908)

Once a small castle located between the royal residences of Vincennes and Fontainebleau in France, the estate of Vaux-le-Vicomte was purchased by a 26 year-old parliamentarian, Nicolas Fouquet in 1641.

Fifteen years later, construction began on what was then the finest chateau and garden in France. This achievement was brought about through the collaboration of three men of genius whom Fouquet had chosen for the task: the architect Le Vau, the painter-decorator Le Brun and the landscape gardener Le Nôtre. The château and its patron became for a short time a great center of fine feasts, literature and arts. The poet La Fontaine and the playwright Molière were among the artists close to Fouquet.

The château was lavish, refined, and dazzling to behold, but rich in hidden drama. Indeed, King Louis XIV had Fouquet arrested shortly after a famous fête that took place on August 17, 1661. The celebration had been too impressive and the man’s home too luxurious for the King to accept. Later Voltaire was to sum up the famous fête thus: “On 17 August, at six in the evening Fouquet was the King of France: at two in the morning he was nobody.”

After Nicolas Fouquet was arrested and imprisoned for life, and his wife exiled, Vaux-le-Vicomte was placed under sequestration. The King seized, confiscated, and occasionally purchased, 120 tapestries, the statues, and all the orange trees. Madame Fouquet recovered her property 10 years later and retired there with her eldest son. After her husband’s death in 1680, her son died too. In 1705 she decided to put Vaux-le-Vicomte up for sale.

The Maréchal de Villars became the new owner although he had never even set eyes on the place. In 1764 the Maréchal’s son sold the estate to the Duke of Praslin, whose descendants were to maintain the property for over a century, until, after a thirty-year period of neglect, they put it up for sale.

In 1875, Monsieur Alfred Sommier acquired Vaux-le-Vicomte at a public auction. The château was empty, some of the outbuildings had fallen into ruin, and the famous gardens were totally overgrown. The huge task of restoration and refurbishment began. When Alfred Sommier died in 1908, the château and the gardens had recovered their original appearance. His son, Edme Sommier, and his daughter-in-law completed the task. Today, his direct descendants continue to work on the preservation of Vaux-le-Vicomte.