Once again your blog reads like a travel brochure the Cathedral would, no doubt, be delighted to have out here (on the Net) to attract more attention! Visitors (and their donations) are sure to be welcome always! The pictures have that classic (50s travel brochure) feel to them (which I consulted at my grandparents house before going on my visit), which adds to the appeal of this timeless monument to man's great inventions (architecture for one). Soissons, I recall from my own experience too, is an overwhelming feat of ambition and faith. I try not to think of the lives it has cost, but revel in the life-times its exciting coming into being must have spanned.

Looking to identify those sorry but stoic heads on the wall, I consulted Wikipedia, and learned how vulnerable even such majestic and well fortified constructs are, as a whole, as a site and how devestated we may feel when any harm comes to them, as for example, when in 2017 a storm blew out the rose window and what seems to be worse blew the bits of stone and glass onto the tracker-action of the organ "causing severe damage to the instrument." It seems like the window has been fully restored to its former glory, and I guess, by now, the organ is up and running too....

l'orgue

I presume the saints in the painting are the Cathedral's patron saints, Saints Gervase and Protase, who are not to be found in the Bible (as most saints aren't, post-dating the scriptures, following them rather than inspiring them).

Still don't know who those heads on the wall might be.

Your photo feature did send me back to the simple but sweet intro to Gothic Architecture from the Khanacademy, to refresh my vocab (lierne v tierceron ribs). This architecture, they are in concord with you can be overwhelmingly complex to the new eye! Loved you too cute for words "hedgehog" comparison!