Troyes is a commune, the préfecture (capital) of the northeastern Aube département
in France and is located on the Seine river.
It is around 150 km south-east of Paris.
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TROYES , ancient capital of Champagne,
is a gem. Its high, narrow streets of restored, half-timbered
houses protect an elegant Gothic cathedral, half-a-dozen superb
lesser churches, a fistful of Renaissance mansions and several
exceptionally good museums.
As tourist pamphlets are
at pains to point out, the ring of boulevards round the town
is shaped like a champagne cork. In fact it's just as much like
a sock - a shape that's just as suitable, since hosiery and woollens
have been Troyes' most important industry since the end of the
Middle Ages, when Louis XIII decreed that charitable houses had
to be self-supporting and the orphanage of the Hôpital
de la Trinité set their charges to knitting stockings.
Some of the old machines
and products used for creating garments can be seen in the Musée
de la Bonneterie (June-Sept daily except Tues 10am-1pm &
2-6pm; Oct-May Wed-Sun 10am-noon & 2-6pm), in the sixteenth-century
Hôtel de Vauluisant, opposite the church of St-Pantaléon
at 4 rue de Vauluisant. Beautifully restored and visually appealing,
it sets an example for all crafts museums with its respect for
traditions and lack of sentimentality. The building also houses
the Musée Historique de Troyes (same hours and ticket),
a small collection of unsophisticated religious art from the
Troyes school. Just one block east is La Maison de l'Outil ,
7 rue de la Trinité (Mon-Fri 9am-1pm & 2-6.30pm, Sat
& Sun 10am-1pm & 2-6pm), in the beautiful sixteenth-century
Hôtel de Mauroy, a surprisingly fascinating museum of tools,
with seventeenth- and eighteenth-century exhibits providing a
window into the world of the workers who used them and the people
who crafted them.
Despite being raked by
numerous fires in the Middle Ages, Troyes has retained many of
its timber-framed buildings south of the central main shopping
street, in rue Émile-Zola , around the cathedral and particularly
in the streets and alleyways of the old town off the pedestrianized
rue Champeaux. The church of St-Jean-au-Marché , between
rues Émile-Zola and Champeaux (daily: July & Aug 10am-12.30pm
& 1.30-7pm; rest of year 10am-noon & 2-4pm), is where
Henry V married Catherine of France after being recognized as
heir to the French throne in the 1420 Treaty of Troyes. Other
churches worth seeking out are the church of Ste-Madeleine ,
on the road of the same name (same hours as St-Jean), whose delicate
stonework rood screen - used to keep the priest separate from
the congregation - is one of the few left in France; the sumptuous
church of St-Pantaléon (daily 10am-12.30pm & 2-5.30pm;
July & Aug till 6pm), southwest of the church of St-Jean,
on rue Vauluisant; and the Gothic Basilique St-Urbain , place
Vernier (same hours as church of St-Jean), its exterior dramatizing
the Day of Judgement with the damned and the devils providing
a wicked variety of gargoyles.
Heading east from St-Urbain
across the covered canal, you come to La Cité quartier
, full of more museums and ancient buildings, and centred on
the Cathédrale St-Pierre-et-St-Paul (daily: July to mid-Sept
9am-1pm & 2-7pm; rest of year 9am-1pm & 2-6pm), whose
pale Gothic nave is stroked with reflections from the wonderful
stained-glass windows. Next door to the cathedral, housed in
the old bishops' palace on place St-Pierre, is the Musée
d'Art Moderne (daily
except Tues 11am-6pm), an outstanding museum displaying part
of an extraordinary private collection of art, particularly rich
in Fauvist paintings by the likes of Vlaminck and Derain - along
with other, first-class works by Degas, Courbet, Gauguin, Matisse
(a tapestry and three canvases), Bonnard, Braque, Modigliani,
Rodin, Robert Delaunay and Ernst. On the other side of the cathedral,
the Abbaye St-Loup (daily except Tues 10am-noon & 2-6pm)
houses collections of paintings, natural history and archeology,
and has a showcase window that gives onto an ornate Baroque library.
In similar vein, the Hôtel-Dieu , back down rue de la Cité,
has a richly decorated sixteenth-century pharmacy (Wed, Sat &
Sun 2-6pm; entrance on quai des Comtes de Champagne).
Quite different from the
rash of Christian churches in Troyes is the synagogue on rue
Brunneval, inaugurated in memory of the Jewish scholar Rachi
(1040-1105) in 1987. He was a member of the small Jewish community
which flourished for a time during the eleventh and twelfth centuries
under the protection of the counts of Champagne. His commentaries
on both the Old Testament and the Talmud are still important
to academics today: the Rachi University Institute opposite is
devoted to studying his work.
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