St. Florentin, Bourgogne

“... spot a heathen!”

There’s a 16th century, cathedral-sized church in St. Florentin, Bourgogne, Église de St. Florentin, quite exceptional .. it was locked, but I collected the big key this afternoon, and wandered, completely alone; uncharitably, I locked the heavy, wooden door behind me to remain alone — the chapels, ambulatory, the unfinished nave, the rood screen, baptismal, sacristy, the transept, north portal, here and there, the sun cascading through the west-side, well-storied stained glass windows, although not as awesome in the Autumn afternoon sun, I recall, as Gerhard Richter’s spectacular, abstract stained glass window in the scary Cologne Cathedral (that’s another story!).

I tried three times to light a candle in this church at St. Florentin, but each time an unseen ecumenical wind took the light away. When I WhatsApp’d this phenomenon to my London-based Catholic daughter, she said: “they can spot a heathen!”

Berlin is the next stop for ‘folded eggs’, to share the @gloria__books book table with @aliceconnew, another daughter (artist book: ‘forty three’), at Friends With Books, Hamburger Bahnhof Museum .. if you’re in the ‘hood October 19-21, we’ll be there, @studiocatherine too