Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1886-04-22
FRENCH TRAVELLING IN MAY.
Torrents of Rain--C Ollosal Churches Fifteenth
Century FreScO.

Art Journal
My experience of May in France, was
that it was a terrible mouth for travelling
and sketching, Almost every day it
poured, but never were the torrents of
rain more continuous than on the CAV
fixed for my excursion to Cadouin. l al
ways made it a rule however, to 90 through
with what was settled. 1T saved so much re-
arrangement of plans, and one could gen
orally find some sheltered corner in which
to cover and draw. till ones fingers were
too frozen to hold a pencil. And then, as
all troubles have their compensations, how
many recollectiOns will come back to
wayfarer in Frauce of kindness received
from peasants he has met with at such
times, of cordial invitations to warm
hearths. of clothes dried by peat fires, of
words of sympathetic cOmmiseration
Fortunately, there was covered car to
meet travellers at the railway station of
lie BuisSOn, and take them eight kilOme-
tiers over the hills to Cadouin, aud we'll
crowded it was with commercial travellers,
market women with their baskets of eggs,
children and priests. However, we all sat
on each others knees and made the best
of it, and had become great friends be-
fore we saw the little town rise up in the
valley and its great church loom through
the swirling mists, and ratified up to the
primitive little Jun of LIE Falsan, where
great wood fire was blazing in the wide
chimney Of the great house-plaie. "Our
abbey is indeed wonderful, since it has
brought monsieur here in such weather."
exclaimed the iovial landlady as she piled
on another log.
For Cadouin has emanated from its alb
hey, which still rises, huge and massive,
in the midst of the little place, and to
which, in the middle ages, the great relic
of the holy shrOud of our Savior attracted
as many pilgrims as the holy coat did to
Treves. The very contrast of these col
Ossal churches with the tiny towns in their
shadow gives them a wierd interest. The
surrounding country is most desolate, the
village is thinly inhabited, only few
children were at play between the showers
under the budding elm trees in front of
the great western facade. In this there
are two upper ranges of beautiful Roman
esque arches, but the arches at the portal
are gothic; the tomb of an abbot forms
the import of one of the windows. The
magnificent interior, commenced in 1854,
still bears the glory Of its seven centuries
in its rugged walls and pavement, which
have not vet been veneered and regulated
into ''restorations," like an old face with
the wrinkles filled up and painted over.
The triple nave ends in three apses, of
which the central is decorated with
fifteenth century frescO of the resurrection.
The transept has a cupOla. 1t was too
dark to draw amid the purple shadows of
the huge pillars and arches, but a door on
the south opened to the cloisters, where a
CLEAN of sunshine was breaking over the
central garden. Here the arcades, of the
sixteenth century, are perhaps the richest
and most beautiful in France. Gothic
architecture seems to have run riot in the
tangled miracles of their decoration, and
every projection, every niche, is occupied
by admirable statues of saints and laby-
rinthine sculpture which portray the stOr-
les of Job and Samson.
The whole is built out of that yellow
brown stone to which old age gives its
mellowest and harmonious tints. Near
one entrance the arms of Louis XII. and
Anne of Brittany are to be seen among
the decorations; another beautiful portal
is of the best period of the renaissance.
An archway adorned with cabbage leaves
has the picturesque name of of Pilgrims
porch, and a number of cookie shells in
relief ornament the wall above it, While
l sat in the clOister the parish priest invit-
ed me TO come and see his charming Iodg-
ings in the old abbatial buildings. He
had only lately come to Cadouin, and was
full of the happiness in. finding such
bright, airy rooms, possessing a view
across the deserted gardens to woods and
hills in their first spring green.