Heloise and Abelard Who was Heloise? The story of Heloise (HELL-oh-ees) and her husband Peter Abelard is one of the saddest stories of Western history. Heloise was born about 1100 [...]
Conciergerie: the king's castle in Paris (parts of it from the 1300 AD) Kids love visiting castles and cathedrals - especially if you tell them about the monument the night before. But they're not [...]
Amiens labyrinth: Northern France with Kids Day One: Bayeux Tapestry In northern France, drive first from Paris to Bayeux to see the Bayeux Tapestry. There are good audioguides for both adults and kids. [...]
Roger Bacon's diagram of a human eye When did Roger Bacon live? Roger Bacon was born in England maybe about 1210 AD. It was late in the reign of King John. (That's the one [...]
Naples, with Mount Vesuvius in the background Like Ibn Rushd and Maimonides, Thomas Aquinas was a great thinke who tried to figure out the relationship between science and religion. But unlike Ibn Rushd [...]
Medieval university Fewer universities than before With the fall of Rome, the universities of northern Europe closed too. The end of Mediterranean trade meant that nobody could afford to get an [...]
St. Germain des Pres (Paris, 1000 AD) In 542 AD, the Merovingian king Childebert (Clovis' son) was fighting the Visigoths in Spain when he heard that the people of Saragossa were praying to St. Vincent [...]
Sainte Chapelle, in Paris The Sainte Chapelle was (and is) a beautiful little church or chapel in France, on the island in the middle of the city of Paris. King Louis [...]
Notre Dame of Paris (1160s AD) A Roman temple to Jupiter In the time of the Romans, about 100 AD, the city council of Paris built a temple. They dedicated it to the [...]
Notre Dame of Paris nave Building the apse of Notre Dame After they had pretty much finished the nave of Notre Dame of Paris, the builders worked on the crossing. [...]
