Dancing with the Gargoyles and Saints

We got to see some Roman aqueducts today, but not just see…we were given a tour by the archaeologist who is trying to preserve the aqueducts and transform the area into a tourism spot.  So we actually got to get up close and personal, like climbing down several ladders with the temperature dropping at least 15 degrees. It was amazing, sorta like being in a cave, but it was the water system for the Romans!!! Really neat.  I feel so privileged to be able to visit all of these places, and especially since Dr. Hill connected with all of these different archaeologist before the trip, we have been able to meet 2 so far, and listen/see them discuss and show us their work.  

This trip has truly been amazing.  These aqueducts were so magical.  Their source was an underground spring, and they think that the Romans had a shrine set up next to it, perhaps a temple, because of its magic-like properties.  Perhaps even Bronze Age people inhabited the area/possibly had a shrine as well, because of the magical properties this source of water has.  The area has been continuously inhabited.  The aqueduct (this one with the shrine) would have gone all the way into Saintes which is 17 km away.  

Another part of this aqueduct that we saw was a little bit further away, and it intersected with another aqueduct-very rare and, I think, the only example (or at least the best example) of this in all of France.  With us were a group of archaeologists and politician people because the tour the head archaeologist gave us was also a tour for these bigshots.  Hopefully these bigshots will approve (which I think they will) of the sights becoming tourists sights and pay for more excavations.  They were the sweetest people though.  

I originally said some bad things about the French, but that seems to just be waiters.  They took us out to eat afterwards to this funky little restaurant that had a buffet for the entree and then a set menu for the main course and dessert.  Afterwards we parted ways to go see the Museum filled with Roman sculpture and remnants of its architecture.  I've never seen so many Roman remains.  Ever.  It was amazing.  The Romans were really gifted engineers and artists.  

We walked around some more and went into two different churches and the Roman baths.  One of the churches was such an amazing example of a Gothic church.  You could clearly understand where the nave and apses and transepts were supposed to be, even from the outside.  It was the Cathedral of St. Eutropa.  Underneath the church was the crypt, a beautiful and haunting place that Pope Urban the 2nd consecrated! Inside was the tomb of St. Eutropa.  This place was just so eerie, yet beautiful at the same time.  People would come here and pray, even in the darkest and creepiest of places, but that would have been an even holier place than the main building.  Right next to the saint's grave, underneath the structure, it was as if the Saint was holding up the church.  I wonder how many saints and prominent figures of the church nowadays are holding up Europe's churches? Shifting from the focus and center of the town to now buildings that can be transformed into other structures, how many saints in their crypts or flying buttresses and the sculptures that adorn the sides of the walls, are holding up the crumbling church? We go to churches in Europe as tourists, wanting to see everything, and the churches are just other stops along the journey.  Even when you pray and give thanks inside them, it still feels a bit odd, like something is missing.  Or maybe it's just us not being able to appreciate the church for what it is.  Back home it seems like all the talk has been about breaking down the walls and becoming the church and bringing the church everywhere to everyone.  Here, though, it feels like we should help hold up the church, help out the gargoyles and saints who have been holding up the church for too long. Help bring people back to the church.  Maybe it's just that we need to focus on the church as a tool more. A tool, but not a permanent structure, to help share the love.  There are many stories, even tv shows, about the gargoyles that come alive at night and go on adventures in the night.  Even with them gone, the church still stands (yes, I know that gargoyles do not play a key role in the structure of the building, just help with the rain water).  So maybe we should take a lesson from a gargoyle or a saint, who represents a mission, whether through their good works or through their death that displayed how they were following Jesus, not Christ, but Jesus.  That dare-devil of a guy who had bigger balls than all of us.  Learn to both support the church when it is crumbling, either by transforming it into something new (after all, those sculptors were creating a few pairs of gargoyles in that old church) or just holding it up when in need, and learn to go out into the world on adventures in the night, daring to dance off those heights.