Cathédrale Notre-Dame in Reims

You're standing in front of Notre-Dame de Reims, the cathedral where the kings of France were crowned for centuries. Start with the west front. It isn't a solid wall like older churches, but a lacework of portals, statues and windows. Above the central doorway sits a great rose window. Higher still is the Gallery of Kings, a row of huge statues with Clovis in the middle, the first Christian king of the Franks. He was baptised on this very spot around the year 496. That's why later kings came here, of all places, to be crowned.