the little spa town luxeuil-les-bains hadn't been on our itinerary for a long time, even though it is about a 20 minutes drive away from le val-d'ajol. only because our landlady recommended it to us on a random occasion ( she goes there for health treatments every year ) it finally was put on our radar. this tiny city ( which has about 7000 residents ) truly surprised us with wonderful medieval architecture, a mesmerizing cathedral and a cemetery that was just after my taste ( yes, i love visiting graveyards, it is one of my favourite pastimes and i will always make time to visit some while on vacations ). the stroll around this town was especially great, because we made a little audio tour. it was really easy, for every significant building you passed by on the official city circuit you could find a qr code and scan it and then just simply start listening. it was a good way to get to know the city in a nutshell and i would totally recommend it to anyone wanting to explore a city on their own pace.
i overdid it with photos again, so this is another excuse for splitting the experience into two posts!
the maison du bailli or l'hôtel thiadot houses the public library. it exudes a 15th century feeling, very renaissance with gothic embellishments.
the cloister of st. pierre cathedral ( and abbey ). there was a funeral going on when we arrived here so we didn't enter the cathedral just yet. we returned much later to have a closer look, so stay tuned for the second part ;) i do love cloisters, the arcs are always so impressing.
and it's a pretty romantic sight, isn't it? there's just something about it...
a lot of the houses in luxeuil ( as i lovingly shortened it ) were built with these dark marbled stones, which of course, stone afficionado that i am, made me squeal in enjoyment quite a few times. i wish i could label stones at first sight, but i ain't too knowledgeable about that. i have always been more interested in the visual nature of stones, but i know, i should probably get more educated about this subject in order to properly educate you about them. but truth is, this earth has so many stone types in thousands of places, it is actually pretty hard to differentiate. i won't be a geologist or petrologist anytime soon, so please excuse my humble state of knowledge. after a bit of research i do believe the stones used are rose sandstones from the vosges mountains.
this arcaded sidewalk is truly magnificent. imagine a romantic 15th/16th century couple sitting on those cornices - i felt reminded of shakespearan sceneries.
beautiful overgrown little house.
there was an archeological excavation on the site of a former church. all the old stone caskets you could see there were quite a sight to behold. luxeuil-les-bains always had been known for its hot springs and dates back to gallo-roman times. therefore there is lots of potential for super old excavation finds.
better photo of the tiny overgrown house. the house was right next to the excavation site. look at the tiny garage!
la tour des echevins - the aldermen's tower. perfect example of renaissance architecture. it is probably the most lovely building in the whole city.
another beauty in the city, cardinal jouffroy's house. the balustrade is especially striking and i also loved the gargoyles on the roof.
this tiny oriel is another really cute detail of the house.
detail of the aldermen's tower - yes another oriel! love them little jutties.
dragon gargoyle!
this gargoyle is kind of horsy, right? i hope it is a horse.
the forms french houses can take are sometimes a little crazy to me. like, strange walls and tiny annexes?
more french balconies and shop fronts.
hotel du parc. this building looked pretty uninhabited and abandoned to me, but it was beautiful nonetheless. it exudes a typical 19th century spa feeling, haha.
the spa building! it was built in the 18th century.
i think i have developed a thing for arcaded sidewalks?
fat little child putto in front of the spa.
this is another hotel next to the spa and it is as art nouveau as can be, maybe even a little bit art deco in it, too? either way, i love it and it reminds me of old cinema buildings from the roaring 20ies. i mean, if la métropole isn't obvious enough, i don't even know what is, haha.
let's talk about the cemetery. oh, that cemetery. there was no single tree on that graveyard ( okay, lied about that, there were about 10 :P ), and even though i dislike graveyards without any living plants, i cannot say anything against them. the reason is simple, it makes for fantastic photos. french graves literally stick to each other, which is really strange for german eyes, because in germany the graves have room to breathe and to be well-tended ( they are basically tiny gardens for the death ).
all those stone plates are so... unpersonal to me, but then again, pretty easy to keep clean, right? no planting and no gardening involved. to be perfectly honest, i like the idea much more to groom the grave of your beloved ones, put work into it, plant lovely flowers and bushes. it feels more like you are keeping alive the memory of the deceased. but maybe this says something about the french mind, too? maybe they keep their death in their hearts and minds much better than we do?
the little vaults are my favourite thing about french graveyards.
there were also a few monumental graves on the site.
freemason slabs on the cemetery wall.i truly love finding symbols of free masonry in such sacred places as graveyards.
we then took a stroll to a nearby pond to sit down for a while and watch ducks.
and followed the little river breuchin back to the city, where we wanted to finally enter the cathedral.
interesting concrete building along the way.
stay tuned for part II!
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