Cathedral of Noyon, first built of Gothic cathedrals (c. 1150)--Noyon's communal charter, the first of known date, 1109--Cathedral's nave, a vessel of most perfect proportion--Exceptional among French cathedrals, its transept's rounded ends--Noyon has retained its annexes--Its chapter house, built about 1240--Noyon city destroyed, 1918--Cathedral still stands.
Cathedral of Senlis, second of the Gothic cathedrals, begun about 1153--Sculpture at Senlis' west portal (c. 1180) marks a date in imagery--Cathedral tower, the "pride of the Valois land"--Transept's façades of the best Flamboyant Gothic art--What the World War did to Senlis.
Cathedral of Sens, begun about 1160--Sens' ancient see, governed by notable men in the XII and XIII centuries--How they found out who was the architect of the cathedral--St. Thomas Becket in Sens, 1164, and again from 1166 to 1170--St. Louis married in Sens Cathedral, 1234--Glory of Sens' stained glass.
Cathedral of Laon, begun about 1160--Fallacy of the "town-hall" theory--Cathedral of springtime foliage--Oxen on Laon's towers--Origin of the square east end of Laon Cathedral--Laon's communal struggle--Famous XII-century school of Anselm de Laon--Laon city shelled by the French, but its cathedral unhurt.
Cathedral of Soissons almost a ruin--Desolation of Soissons in World War--Soissons' southern arm of transept ends in a hemicycle (c. 1180)--Is the most exquisite thing in France--The crusading bishop-builder, Nivelon de Chérisy.
Some important Primary Gothic churches: Abbatial of St. Remi at Rheims (c. 1170)--Its superb XII-century glass wrecked in the World War--Abbatial of Notre Dame at Châlons-sur-Marne (c. 1160)--Pioneer in fenestration--First to use pillars between chapels and ambulatory--Church of St. Quiriace at Provins (c. 1160)--Provins, residence of the counts of Champagne--Its international fairs frequented by mediæval Europe--Collegiate of St. Yved, at Braine (c. 1200), between Primary Gothic and the Era of Great Cathedrals--Individual plan of its choir-chapels--St. Leu d'Esserent, on the Oise, the best type of the small churches in the classic Ile-de-France--Its forechurch shows transition work (c. 1150)--Primary Gothic work to be found at Étampes, Vendôme, Fécamp, Rouen, Lisieux, Angers, Mantes, Paris.