Sunday, July 30, 2006

St. Pierre and Cunault

St. Pierre is the church on the square in Saumur where we had lunch during our recent heat wave. Stopping inside churches to cool down is essential.

The downside of the fact that it's cool inside these massive stone structures is that during the times of the year when it's not summer, it's downright cold in the church. Many of the churches I've visited have installed one or another variation of the heat lamp to help warm worshipers during services. Sometimes the lamps are installed on the columns inside the nave, other times they are hanging from large chandeliers as they are at St. Pierre (above). It's interesting that you never see a fireplace inside a church or cathedral. Maybe the flames would remind the faithful of a bad, bad (albeit warm) place...

Candles in the chapel of St. Antoine de Padoue in the church of St. Pierre.

This is the amazing pipe organ at Cunault. It includes these horizontal pipes that project out into the nave. I was on my back looking up to take this picture.

This variation on the musician's sheet music stand must hold bibles or some other printed stuff during a mass. Or maybe it's just a musician's stand?

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