Photos

Cathedrale Saint-Etienne de Bourges.

Definitely my favourite gothic cathedral. Even if its not the biggest one nor the most famous, it can really take your breath away while you stand on the big yard and look at its greatness (this picture was taken right there).

You can of course be ready for extreme impressions when you go inside, as its nave is 37 meters high (thats about 5 meters higher than Notre-Dame de Paris) with 20 metres high arcades carrying enormous ceiling.
On summer time, you can also visit the Great Tower. About 300 steps will lead you to an open balcony with breathtaking view of whole city and its surroundings. Also - while climbing the steps you can look through little windows from time to time, which will show you several different levels and points of view, for example good view of the flying buttresses. The trip upstairs isn't expensive at all and you never have to wait in long lines usual in great Cathedrals like Paris or Strasbourg. Remember to go down before 6pm, otherwise you can get locked by the crew - as it once happened to me :)
The Cathedral has five grand portals, of which every statue misses its head - as far as I know, it was very common to cut off kings' statues' heads during the Revolution.

Other thing about this Cathedral that surprised me was thousands and thousands of names written on the columns, walls and staircase of the tower. Normally I would think of this as of an act of vandalism, but the crew of the monument does nothing about it, you cannot see even one tiny card ordering you not to do it. If you look closer at the names, you can see they are usually in pairs and signed with a date (even really old ones!)so I thought maybe these are names of people who got married there? Unfortunately I never asked anyone about it, I promise to check it out next time.

This Cathedral is beautifully situated what is a real pleasure to all photo amateurs - you can catch its greatness from many perspectives and angles, from grand open spaces as well as from narrow streets of Old Bourges.