Clermont-Ferrand

Clermont-Ferrand is a little bigger city, it was hard to find ones way through the curving Streets. But I finally managed to find the first church on my list, a very old Romanesque church with fantastic architecture, and nice interior, but not gothic! So I went seeking the cathedral, and finally found it also. Actually the black volcanic stone is not very impressive, it looks dirty, or is dirty, but it is another great gothic structure. It has a nave with very tall arcade columns, and the clerestory windows are equally as tall. This is particularly noticeable, and effective in the apse around the altar. The tall columns of the arcade, with their pointed arches, and stained glass windows behind them, supporting equally tall windows alight with the blazing colors of the glass. It is indeed an impressive sight. A lot of the windows are plain, or are missing the stained glass, but there are still some great windows in the chapels.
Well, again my choice was to spend all day here or get the only train going this Saturday to Toulouse, so I just spent a couple of hours praying and photographing the cathedral and got on the train before lunch. It was almost a 6 hour trip. The land is more hilly, more pretty, a lovely region, and the train stopped at every little village it went through. So it was a rather tiring trip, but I'm here, in the south of France, getting close to the Pyrenees, and the start of the next part of this pilgrimage.