Making "Sens" of Things

We had company on July 2 at our "wild" mooring (a quay, but no bollards or rings, so Lon had to drive mooring stakes for our lines) in Montereau-fault-Yonne. The lovely folks on the barge Csavargo, also members of the barge association we belong to, are, like us, headed to the rally in Auxerre. We first met them (briefly) last year in Compiegne, then re-introduced ourselves when they ended up in the Arsenal in Paris for a couple of days. We met again several days later at the mooring in Moret-sur-Loing. Over docktails on July 2 we realized that our cruising schedules would align on July 3 and 4, so we cruised in tandem on those days.

Our July 3 cruise to Pont-sur-Yonne included a rainy morning.
It's been a while since I've needed the heavy-duty rain gear.
Here we are sharing a lock with Csavargo.

The first three locks on the Yonne were a challenge, as all the lock walls were sloping sides and there were no floating pontoons to make tying to the bollards, and the ride up in the lock, any easier. Fortunately, the vnf staff were prepared to grab our lines to assist us in getting tied to the bollards at the top of the lock wall; it was then up to us to figure out how to ride the rising water in the locks without scraping our hull too much on the lock walls. Fortunately, all of the subsequent Yonne locks either had at least one straight side or had floating pontoons to moor to. When a floating pontoon was the option, there was usually only one, so in those cases Csavargo would tie up to the pontoon and we would tie up to the side of Csavargo. Never a dull moment!

Our stop for that day was the small town of Pont-sur-Yonne (literally, "bridge on the Yonne"). The town had two nice mooring pontoons across the street from a boules (a game similar to bocce) court. A quick stroll through this medieval town revealed the requisite collection of historic monuments (one of the oldest gothic churches in France, remnants of the old town fortifications, timbered houses), but not a whole lot was going on except for a few boules games. Janos and Rachel and Lon and I played a quick game of boules, retired to the back of CARIB for docktails, then called it an evening.

View up the Yonne from Pont-sur-Yonne. The photo was taken from the "new" bridge; the 
structure about center photo contains the remnant arches of the old 17th C stone bridge, which had to be replaced because the small arches were a hazard to river traffic.

The July 4 cruise to the city of Sens was relatively short, but not without its moments of excitement.

We didn't encounter much commercial traffic on the Yonne, so it
was truly "Murphy's Law" that we would encounter this big boy
on the narrowest part of the waterway, a diversion canal that
had taken us off the Yonne for a few kilometers. We were stopped
against the side of the canal to allow the barge to pass us.

Sens is another city whose roots go back to Roman times, and was a prestigious religious center in the Middle Ages. St. Stephen's Cathedral (in French, Saint-Etienne) in Sens was the first of the great Gothic cathedrals, dating from around 1135, and was built on the foundations of an earlier church. It was the model for other famous Gothic cathedrals, such as those at Chartres, Amiens, and Canterbury (in England). The importance of Sens diminished after Paris was elevated to an archdiocese in 1622. 

The exterior of the cathedral. With only one tower, it seemed
a little "lopsided" to me, but the north tower was removed
during renovations in the mid-1800's and not replaced.

The interior of the cathedral. Not as soaring as some cathedrals,
but as it was the first cathedral of its kind, it was left to the
builders of future cathedrals to reach for higher heights.

As in the church in Meaux, the resident stone saints surrounding
the exterior door have "lost their heads".

The Cathedral was the location where Louis IX (later St. Louis) was married to Marguerite de Provence in 1234. It's also the burial site of the Dauphin, son of Louis XV and father of Louis XVI. He died before his father, and thus never became king. He was one of the few French royals not to be buried in the Basilica of Saint-Denis near Paris, although his heart is buried there.

The monument for the Dauphin and his wife.

The former Archbishop's Palace, the age of its various
wings ranging from the 13th C to the 18th C.

The central town retains much of its medieval character, with narrow streets and timbered houses throughout.

The central square of Sens, the late 19th century covered market at the center of the photo.
An Italian restaurant on the square (the building near center photo with red coloring) made
for a lovely location for dinner with other boaters on the evening of July 4. No fireworks, though,
for American Independence Day.

The Grande Rue of Sens.

St. Maurice Church on the banks of the Yonne opposite
the city center. It was built during the latter part of the 
12th C, reworked in the 16th and 17th centuries, 
and served those who worked as fishermen and bargemen.

The fabulously ornate Town Hall (Hotel de Ville) from 1904.

These 13th C walls and tower incorporate at their base the
only remaining bits of the 3rd century Roman walls that
used to encircle the town.

Abraham's House was built in the 16th C for a tanner.
Its corner post bears the intricately carved "Jesse's Tree", 
representing the Virgin and eight kings of Israel.

We're not always museum afficionados--most times we enjoy just doing walking tours around a town--but we were really impressed with the Sens Museum. Spread over four levels in the former Archbishop's Palace, it lays out the culture and heritage of Sens from: Prehistoric and Celtic artifacts; the Roman period of the first through third centuries; paintings and sculpture from the past 500 years; and last--but definitely not least--items from the Cathedral treasury. The latter is one of the richest treasury collections displayed in France.

The oldest of the archeological finds from the region.

Pat in the lower level, with some of the Roman displays. 
Several Roman mosaics were reconstructed on the floor.
 To the right is a reconstructed facade of the Roman public baths,
 with original pieces placed in the appropriate locations within
 the new plaster "wall".

Lon and one of the beautiful Roman mosaics.

The interior architecture of the museum was nearly as
interesting as the displays. Lon is taking a brief break in
the lower level among its Roman artifacts.

A large part of the Roman displays was dedicated to
a collection of Roman family tomb monuments.

The Jardin de l'Orangerie was once the archbishop's
private garden. This is the view from a window in
one of the upper floor galleries of the Palace/Museum.

18th C sculptures in the former ceremonial gallery of the
archbishops.

Lon in one of the rooms with the displays from the Cathedral's
treasury. 

A few of the treasures from the treasury: (top) a carved ivory
reliquary casket from the 12th C; (lower left) The Coronation
of the Virgin, a 15th C tapestry; (lower right) the vestments
that belonged to the 12th C Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas
Becket. Becket's disagreements with King Henry II led to his
self-exile to Sens from 1164 to 1170. When he was restored to
the position of Archbishop and returned to England, he was
murdered in Canterbury Cathedral by four knights of Henry II.
Whether the murder was ordered by Henry
 remains an open question.

Next year we will be traveling back through this area and will definitely be stopping again at Sens. One day, and a partial, was not nearly enough time to see everything we wanted to see.

Our mooring in Sens. We're just to the left of the center and behind us are the barges
of others headed to Auxerre.