A good fieldtrip Now and Again!

I happen to be a HUGE David Macaulay Fan! His books are so detailed, so well thought out for the more inquiring mind, even for the not so inquiring mind. Frankly he goes through the trouble of answering questions that no one else bothers to answer. He does NOT have ALL the answers, sometimes he leaves you with more questions than you could imagine, but that is all part of the wonder, the delight that we call LEARNING.... that we desire in the process that IS Education....
As Yeats said.... Education is NOT the filling of a bucket, but rather the lighting of a fire... I am indeed paraphrasing.. the POINT is still the point, and Macaulay, is a fire starter. Seeing as we were on our way to France I packed many of my Macaulay collection leaving behind things such as ....well Ancient Egypt, we rather don't need the pyramids RIGHT now... This week I decided to really delve into the book he wrote called Cathedral. I plan on re addressing it further next week. We read it, chatted about it, and THEN, we went walking to our local Cathedral HERE in Lyon... we don't have any in America... none quite this old, built around the same century Macaulay is writing about anyway! What was fun too, was the "imaginary Cathedral" written about in this Caldott winner, is indeed located in France !!!

What I had the children do, was to locate certain things from the book, I wanted them to find for me... Reason we will do further work NEXT week? Well, I didn't make it challenging enough, and left the book at home. I went from my fallible memory, on what I THOUGHT were important... the Rosetta window, the Arched doorways, the Flying Buttresses, things like this, but David gives far more details the children told me, and we COULD make quite a game out of it IF only MOTHER would TRY a little harder... I thought I WAS trying... Thankfully they are sweet children :) really, and eager to sprinkle grace, and go after the game again next week! Wonderful!!! Above is one of the 3 doors See how large the door is compared to the people... Please note that I will not change the zoom of the people for the Rosette window.

We estimate the Rosette window is about 3 people tall, perhaps four, it is difficult to tell for certain, because of the height, because we do not know the average height of the person at the time it was built... Isn't it magnificent?

Here is my attempt to show the gargoyles.... Not grand I know, but it would seem they were water spouts, like gutter spouts, so when the rain ran, it would appear the water was shooting out of their mouths... Spewing sort of... I wonder what the Biblical reference for creating these creatures on a House of the Lord IS exactly...... David left the children wondering that ...

This was a special Clock.... we heard a rumor that there is an astronomical clock located close by, but we are uncertain as to where, and this does not appear to us to be it... we are uncertain, if anyone of my readers can tell if it IS that would be most helpful.. As my French gets better, I am sure I will discover where that clock is... If this is indeed THAT special clock, I will inform YOU... Otherwise, let us note.... there IS a clock on the church!

There is a priestly looking man atop of the church blessing it, or so it would seem... I wish my zoom was better to determine all the fancy things upon the church... My son informs me he can zoom on the computer and google what things are... well that is helpful.

The church with it's well before it... From here you can see the Tri doors... Inside would be the LARGE opening with the two more narrow openings but still airy thanks to the flying buttresses!

This is part of the original very first church of Lyon. It is a ruin that was discovered, and the year slips my memory..

The flying buttresses taken from the side of the church! How exciting to have read in David's book HOW these were constructed, How a church like this could take at LEAST 100 years to build, where as I believe this on took over 200! Amazing the perseverance of the Saints.... to hold fast to the dreams of their forefathers, to stay true to their parents and grand parents and great grandparents generations.... so Odd so foreign in our day, when each man seems to live for self.

here is a close up a a gargoyle or some such creature spitting out the water at the well. The well was four sided, each side having a creature spewing fresh cold water.

Here is the original baptismal place. It was excavated when they found the original church. I thought this was pretty neat! It is enclosed in glass protection, I was able to get my lens in the opening.

The children thought this was terrific. So wonderful to read a book like this one and then to go explore history of something like it and dissect it, hunting it down like spies or something... It was grand. I have no intention on heading to Egypt any time soon. But I do have his book on Castles... so, perhaps.... we need to do that soon too...

Is there something you could explore with your blessings, some grand adventure that awaits you? Is it time to find some living books, and build a fire in the hearts of the children in your life?

May education be like a bonfire in your life this season.... may your whole family gather about you, may the roasting of marshmellows commence before summer is over!