On the north side of Notre Dame, there is an admirably
designed outside pulpit with a great stone canopy overhead full of
elaborate tracery. It overhangs the pavement, and is a noticeable object as
you go towards the Place de la Prefecture. On this wide and open terrace, a
band plays on Sunday evenings. There are seats under the trees by the stone
balustrade from which one may look across the roofs of the lower town
filling the space beneath. The great gravelly Place des Beaux-Regards that
runs from the western side of the church, is terminated at the very edge of
the rocky platform, and looking over the stone parapet you see the Vire
flowing a hundred feet below. This view must have been very much finer
before warehouses and factory-like buildings came to spoil the river-side
scenery, but even now it has qualities which are unique. Facing the west
end of the church, the most striking gabled front of the Maison Dieu forms
part of one side of the open space. This building may at first appear
almost too richly carved and ornate to be anything but a modern
reproduction of a mediaeval house, but it has been so carefully preserved
that the whole of the details of the front belong to the original time of
the construction of the house.
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