Notre-Dame-la-Grande of Poitiers: the mysterious west-front figures

The wind carried me back from Al-Andalus through Poitou and Aquitaine. I had read and been told many things about the church of Notre Dame la Grande in Poitiers but I had to see it with my own eyes to appreciate poitevin Romanesque art at its best. Standing outside the west front, I was struck by the richness of its decoration. The building did not look…