Begun in 1434, it took more than 400 years to build the city’s cathedral.
Construction continued through the 1600s in the flamboyant gothic design despite it being long out of fashion by then, because it matched the earlier work.
Another intriguing titbit is that Nicolas Fouquet, the high-living Superintendent of Finances in Louis XIV’s court, was arrested in front of the cathedral by d’Artagnan in 1661. He’d remain a prisoner for the last 20 years of his life.
You have to make time for the Tomb of Francis II, the Duke of Brittany, which is held as a French renaissance masterpiece . It dates to 1507 and has haunting sculptures from white Carrara marble.
