Travel Award & Research Project Reports 2011

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What were some of the things you enjoyed most about working on the project? Although I have done a lot of travelling, I have rarely had the opportunity to travel alone, and having the freedom to plan and follow my own itinerary was very enjoyable. I also enjoyed the sense of discovery that accompanied each visit. Having encountered all of these cathedrals repeatedly through the course of my undergraduate and graduate studies, I had a general idea of the format and composition of each church, but little sense for the way in which they related to their context, and I found that this relationship varied greatly from one cathedral to the next. What aspects of your travel project did you find most challenging? Since I don’t speak French, everyday tasks such as purchasing train tickets and ordering meals were slightly more challenging than they might otherwise have been, but I found that most of the people I encountered were accommodating and accustomed to dealing with visitors who don’t speak the language. How has this project assisted your studies and personal development? As a student of architectural history, I feel that a first-hand experience of these monuments and their surroundings is essential to my understanding of the development of the Gothic style,

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