La Belle Dame

Here you are on the forecourt, equipped with a kaleidoscope with color filters, to scrutinize the cathedral’s facade as perceived by Claude Monet. With his variations in light and his work on the motif, the painter made the monument famous the world over.
“This experiential tour invites you to approach the cathedral through the senses and intelligences”, enthuses Benjamin Blanchard, tour guide.
How about some chalk and a thirteen-knot rope to discover the Gothic style of which the cathedral is an emblem? Here they are, to help you draw the building’s lines of force on the floor and understand the principle of pointed arches. Then, equipped with a mirror, it’s the sumptuous cross-arches that you then observe in minute detail, and feel the vertigo of their dimensions.

Generous in volume, the cathedral has a unique and striking resonance. Headphones on, you stroll through it, immersed in its different sound atmospheres. A musical dictation closes this singular visit, letting you express on a sheet of paper the sensations perceived while listening to sacred chants.