We should then approach
the town by picturesque wooden bridges over the rivers which have
brought the town its prosperity, and see some isolated examples of
carved woodwork in the suburbs; in houses surrounded by gardens, which
we should have missed by any other road.[11]
The churches at Lisieux are scarcely as interesting to us as its
domestic architecture; but we must not neglect to examine the pointed
Gothic of the 13th century in the cathedral of St. Pierre. The door of
the south transept, and one of the doors under the western towers (the
one on the right hand) is very beautiful, and is quite mauresque in the
delicacy of its design. The interior is of fine proportions, but is
disfigured with a coat of yellow paint; whilst common wooden seats (of
churchwardens' pattern) and wainscotting have been built up against its
pillars, the stone work having been cut away to accommodate the painted
wood. There are some good memorial windows; one of Henry II. being
married to Eleanor (1152); and another of Thomas-a-Becket visiting
Lisieux when exiled in 1169.
The church of St. Jacques with its fine stained-glass, the interior of
which is much plainer than St. Pierre, will not detain us long; it is
rather to such streets as the celebrated '_Rue aux Fevres_' that we are
attracted by the decoration of the houses, and their curious
construction.
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