Tours Cathedral

We took a midday TGV (fast train) to Tours, ca. 200 km southeast of Paris on the Loire (perhaps best known for its chateaus).  We visited the cathedral (cathédrale Saint-Gatien) in the afternoon--nearly freezing in the process--outside it couldn't have been above 5°C (high 30s F) and it seemed colder inside.  The sun here is deceptive. But it's at a lovely angle (at 2 pm), casting ideal shadows. The towers date from the first half of the 16th century; they're flamboyant Gothic in style--more dramatic than anything else I've seen. The interior has superb stained glass, as early as the mid-13th century, rivaling Notre Dame in Paris or Chartres.

We're staying on the Rue Colbert, in the Hotel Colbert (Americans will chuckle) in the middle of the bourgeois part of the old city.  More tomorrow..