Journées du Patrimoine

Last weekend was an awesome little holiday weekend in France, and in all of Europe actually. They have a holiday called Journées du Patrimoine, in which all the historical monuments and government buildings are opened for the public. I thought it was pretty awesome because most people go out and visit places they have not been inside of, and learn a little bit more about their government. This event is of course free, with the exception of a few places that have a low entrance fee. Today more than just government buildings are opened, for example in the region of Vienne (where I live) the nuclear power plant was opened for visits also. On Saturday I visited some of the places in Poitiers with some Oregon students. Here are some pictures!

To start off the picture section.. BREAD! Mmm, I can not describe how good bread is in France, and the neat thing is that you have it at every meal. I love love love it.

 We visited the Baptistère that I mentioned in an earlier post since it was free that weekend. Here is a picture of the little "pool", I don't know what it is called, but this is where the holy water was. This building, the Baptistère Saint-Jean dates back to the V century! This is the oldest Christian building in France, and according to wikipedia.fr, the central part was built in the years 360's.

One of the images on the ceilings. It was was very difficult to take pictures because you are not allowed to use flash.

After visiting the Baptistère, we headed to the museum, but unfortunately they were closing for lunch in 15 minutes when we arrived. French take a really long lunch break and everyone respects it. For example, the museum was closed from noon to 2, so during this time we visited the cathedral and grabbed lunch. This picture, above, is the door to the cathedral. 

The images imprinted/carved on the rim of the arch. 

After having a long lunch ourselves, our last stop was at the Palais de Justice. This was a palace in which many royal people lived in. I didn't pay very close attention during the tour, so I don't remember much, and it's been really hard to keep up with the names of all these kings, dukes and their timelines. Today the building is used as a court, with the rooms used as offices, and different little hearing areas.

 This is a picture of one of the wives of Jean I, duke of Berry.. She was in her teens when she married.. 

Charles VI, king of France 

Jean, Duc de Berry