France Guide
Normandy
The Cathédrale de Notre-Dame
Opening time: Mon 2–7pm, Tues– Sat 7.45am–7pm, Sun 8am–6pm
Despite the addition of all sorts of different towers, spires and vertical extensions, the Cathédrale de Notre-Dame remains at heart the Gothic masterpiece that was built in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The west facade of the cathedral, intricately sculpted like the rest of the exterior, was Monet's subject for over thirty studies of changing light, which now hang in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. Monet might not recognize it now, however – in the last few years, it's been scrubbed a gleaming white, free from the centuries of accreted dirt he so carefully recorded.In recent summers, the town has laid on a thirty-minute light show, La Cathédrale de Monet aux Pixels (daily: July 11pm, August 10.30pm; free), whereby colours inspired by Monet's cathedral paintings are projected onto the church's facade, transforming it quite magnificently into a series of giant Monet-esque canvases. Inside the cathedral, the ambulatory and crypt – closed on Sundays and during services – hold the assorted tombs of various recumbent royalty, stretching back as far as Duke Rollo, who died "enfeebled by toil" in 933 AD, and the actual heart of Richard the Lionheart.