French: à déambulatoireEnglish translation: with ambulatory 
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French to English translations [PRO]
Architecture / architecture | | French term or phrase: à déambulatoire | | C'est le seul monument à déambulatoire (church) |
| | | with ambulatory | Explanation:
DEF : Galerie courbe qui fait le tour du choeur.
TERMIUM |
| Selected response from:
 JCEC
Canada
| Note from asker to answerermerci.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer |
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4 mins confidence:   peer agreement (net): +2 |
| with ambulatory
Explanation:
DEF : Galerie courbe qui fait le tour du choeur.
TERMIUM
| JCEC
Canada
Native speaker of:  French
PRO pts in category: 4
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| Note from asker to answerer |
9 hrs confidence: |
19 hrs confidence: |
| The only church with an ambulatory
Explanation:
The choice has been made, but there seems to be some confusion about this term, apparently due to mistakes on various internet sites and even in the Sacred O.E.D.
"Ambulatory" dervives from the low or medieval latin "ambulatorium", which means simply "a place for walking,"; from which we also get ambulate and ambulatory.
So, literally an "ambulatory" *could* be *any* "place for walking in" (OED).
But, more "especially, a covered way; an arcade, a cloister."
So far so good, theoretically.
But, in practice, the term actually has a very specific meaning in architectural usage, and does *not* refer to the cloister of a church as such (though, I suppose, you *could* speak of the "ambulatory of the cloister", meaning the covered walkway around the cloister).
The "ambulatory of a church" --the term used by itself-- is **always** the "aisle around the apse at [usually] the east end of a church" or "a semicircular or polygonal aisle enclosing an apse or a straight-ended sanctuary; originally used for processional purposes" (http://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~hart205//Cathedrals/gloss.html ).
Alison Stones has a nice, clear picture of one, seen in plan, on her site : http://www.pitt.edu/~medart/menuglossary/ambulatory.htm)
It is an architectural feature which allows "circulation" (ambulation, if you like) around the choir of the building, frequently with "radiating chapels" opening off the "outside" of it, as in the illustration.
Here is a shot taken from within the ambulatory at Bourges cathedral (which happens to have two aisles), looking towards the choir : http://www.ariadne.org/centrechartraine/images/photos/Bour-a...
And here is a shot down the side aisle of the same cathedral, looking towards the curve of the ambulatory : http://www.ariadne.org/centrechartraine/images/photos/BOURSI...
Sometimes vaulting the curved space of the ambulatory can be rather difficult, resulting in some really spectacular solutions to the problem. Here are the vaults above the ambulatory at Bourges cathedral : http://www.ariadne.org/centrechartraine/images/photos/BOURAM...
In sum, "ambulatory," by itself, *never* means "cloister," ever.
Reference: http://www.dur.ac.uk/Law/c_tour/glossary.html
Reference: http://www.pitt.edu/~medart/menuglossary/ambulatory.htm
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