The portico projects in front of the three principal West doors, and is the work of Master Jean Gaussel. It was constructed in 1435, and is a mass of very beautiful carving. Some of the corbels are examples of the grotesque imagery of the period. The interior was decorated with frescoes some years ago, but they are in a parlous, peeling, condition. Two of the statues are old, S. Francis of Assisi, and S. Mary of Egypt holding the three little loaves which nourished her in the desert. The central doorway is of the 13th century, the two side ones are of the 15th. The whole is decorated with statues of various Saints--amongst others S. Germain, S. Vincent, and S. Geneviève holding her candle, which a hideous little demon is trying to extinguish. Round the tympanum, the subject of which is the Last Judgment, are the Wise and Foolish Virgins, the Apostles and the Martyrs. Abraham sits on one side holding a napkin on which are three little souls; while upon the other is a cauldron from the lower regions containing three lost souls (one mitred), and two horrible demons--one tormenting a soul with a whip, the other throwing a poor creature into the flames, having already torn his flesh into shreds. The gargoyles are peculiarly grotesque: a grinning savage is being ejected from the jaws of a hippopotamus; a man carries a hooded ape on his shoulders; and a showman is making a monkey dance. A corbel shows us a quantity of rats persecuted by a cat--the rats being the wicked who encumber the earth; the cat, the demon who awaits their souls. [Illustration: INTERIOR OF SAINT-GERMAIN L'AUXERROIS.] The plan of the church is cruciform; the entire length is 240 ft., and the width at the transepts 120 ft. The interior is very plain, that is to say, what remains of the old church after the embellishments of the renovating architects of 1745. These gentlemen fluted the pillars of the choir, and converted the mouldings of the capitals into garlands and flowery festoons, giving the whole a grandly Classic appearance. Happily they left the arches pointed, instead of filling them in with round-headed ones as at S. Séverin; and, likewise, we may be thankful that the nave was not "improved," and that the bosses and the ornament of the Lady Chapel were allowed to remain in their primitive beauty. Among the subjects of the bosses may be cited a S. Christopher crossing a torrent with the infant Christ on his shoulder; and a S. Germain in episcopal vestments, painted and gilt, may be seen upon an openwork ground in the Lady Chapel. In 1744 the choir was enclosed by a magnificent screen, the combined work of Pierre Lescot and Jean Goujon;[81] but the _curé_ and churchwardens, upon the suppression of the chapter, lost no time in destroying this work of art, in order to open up the east end of the church to the congregation--not the only case of its kind.