The Archiduchess and the Cathedral's misteries

My darlings, have you ever contemplated the Cathedral of Rouen at dawn?
The mist from the Seine rises softly and caresses that immense stone lacework. Ah, what a romantic scene! I, Gab, Archduchess with a big heart and an overactive imagination, once experienced a meeting there as unexpected as it was delightful.

I was enjoying a coffee on a terrace facing the Butter Tower—did you know, my sweet ones, that it was financed by the faithful who paid for the right to keep eating butter during Lent? Such delicious hypocrisy!—when a painter, sketching the façade in his notebook, settled near me. His tilted beret, his passionate eyes: he looked like a Monet escaped from one of his canvases.

Intrigued, I cast a glance over my Chanel sunglasses. “Did you know, sir, that Monet painted this cathedral over thirty times?” He looked up, surprised, and replied: “Then allow me to immortalize you in turn.”
Oh my darlings, imagine my joy: to become an artist’s muse, I who have always dreamed of being the heroine of a novel or a painting!

While he sketched my features, I told him the cathedral’s secrets:
– Joan of Arc heard her last mass there before the stake.
– Richard the Lionheart’s heart was laid to rest there—literally!
– And its spire, my treasures, is the tallest in France, pointing to the heavens like a desire never quite satisfied.

The bell began to ring, filling the air with a solemn vibration. My painter set down his pencil, showed me the drawing, and my cheeks flushed. There I was: elegant, wig slightly tousled by the breeze, pearl necklace sparkling… but with that mischievous glimmer in my eye that no canvas could ever tame.

I whispered to him: “You’ve captured me as Monet captured the light, sir.”
He bowed. “No, Madame. You were already the light.”

Oh my darlings, isn’t it charming to feel, for a fleeting moment, as immortal as a cathedral façade?

💡 Stéphanie’s Anecdote
The Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Rouen, a masterpiece of Gothic art, has housed the heart of Richard the Lionheart since the 12th century . Claude Monet painted it more than thirty times, at different hours of the day, fascinated by the shifting light on its façade.