2 weeks in France-5-26 to 6/8/2022

2 Days in Bourges, France-5/29/2022 to 5/30/2022

Day 1-Bourges, Historic Center continuation-5/29/2022

This is Sunday and pretty much all the stores are close so all the streets are deserted.

The facades are decorated with gothic sculptures.

We forgot that in Europe most of the shops are all on Sundays so it was really difficult to find something open.

Beautiful half-timbered houses.

All the streets are empty which makes it even more special!

We are now headed back to the cathedral close to our apartment.

Rue Bourbonnoux is one of the main street in the center of Bourges.

It is a magnificent pedestrian street with half timbered houses and not too far from shops.

This street is really charming and very picturesque.

Escalier George Sand (Famous French Novelist) was a secret passage to the famous Rue Bourbonnoux (above).

The garden of the Archdiocese

We are now in the back of the Cathedral the Bourges.

Most people visit Bourges for its cathedral, one the great Gothic buildings in France and one of France's world heritage sites.

The garden around the Cathedral.

Perfectly manicured garden.

Le jardin de L'Archeveche (garden of the Archdiocese) and the Cathedral in the background.

The exterior of the Cathedral.

Garden is located next to the Cathedral.

The buttresses (exterior support) on the outside has an unique system of bifurcation flying buttresses.

Hoa resting on a bench in the garden.

Fountain inside the park.

  Music month so there were a band playing and old folks dancing to old French music.

In a familiar French style there are boxwood topiaries trimmed to sharp points, lime trees in the shape of globes as well as formal lawns and flowerbeds hemmed by paths. Built around 1730 and then became in 1821 the first public garden in Bourges.

It is very flowery, designed in the 17th century by a pupil of Le Nôtre, and is organized around a bowling alley located below and framed by sumptuous beds and magnificent trees. 

There are 4 monumental bronze vases representing the 4 season. Created by Louis Leon Cugnot at the end of the 19th century.  These vase were inscribed in 1990 on the inventory of historical monuments and were the subject of a meticulous restoration in 1991.

Bust of Louis Bourdaloue, a French Jesuit and preacher born in Bourges.

Bourdaloue is one of the greatest French orators and many of his sermons have been used in French school books. 

This is the side of the Cathedral.

Chestnut trees surrounding the Cathedral.

The entrance of the Cathedral.

The main portico.