Saint-Maclou Cathedral, Pontoise (France)
copyright 2013 Lisa B. Falour, B.S., M.B.A. all rights reserved
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Pontoise is in the Val d'Oise département of Ile-de-France (Greater Paris) and there are lots of public transportation options to and from Paris, if you'd like to visit it. A lot of the old town centre is extremely old. You figure a house or something might be perhaps a century old, then you find out it is 15th c. or something -- kind of drives me silly as an American. I'm used to things being less than a hundred years old for the most part!
A famous chapel with an enormous, Baroque-type descent from the cross scene and huge figures was open, which is rare apparently, with a man explaining it to a couple of young women, but really, it was so bizarre, so intimidating, so gargantuesque, I didn't even video it! Here I took a walk around the main part of the church in less than ten minutes, but a day would not be enough time for everything that's inside and outside it.
The clip ends with a circular stone tablet in which careful details are given about the financial arrangement in perpetuity a donor made as to the nature of prayers and ceremonies which were to be made in their memory. This type of thing was typical and carried on generally until the first French revolution in the 18th c., when religion was outlawed in what was France at that time. Demands that certain bells be sounded at certain times are included in the arrangement.
Those who were important or very rich were able to be buried right inside the building, and the places of honor were near the main door, the main altar, etc. Of course, then your covering stone would be the most worn down. Several examples can be seen here.
Saint-Louis (Louis VI) has an important chapel here. Masochist alert! His daily rigors would have him on meds at the very least these days. There's also a large chapel for Saint Anthony of Padua -- a rock star of religion, sort of, in his day.