Fodor's Expert Review Basilique St-Urbain

Started in 1261 by Pope Urban IV (a native son) and eventually consecrated in 1389, St-Urbain is one of the most remarkable churches in France—a perfect culmination of the Gothic quest to replace stone walls with stained glass. Its narrow porch frames a 13th-century Last Judgment tympanum, whose highly worked elements include a frieze of the dead rising out of their coffins (witness the grimacing skeleton). Look for a carved crayfish on one of the statue's niches (a testament to the local river culture). Inside, a chapel on the south side houses the Vièrge au Raisin (Virgin with Grapes), clutching Jesus with one hand and a bunch of Champagne grapes in the other.