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Roland Routier

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    Poitiers

    12. elokuuta 2018, Ranska ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    +The facade of the Romanesque XI C Eglise Notre-Dame-la-Grande has recently been cleaned but not repainted as only traces of the original colour remain.
    +Amazingly the interior does retain its paintwork and certainly impresses the eye. Apparently most churches used to be decorated similarly in the Middle Ages and I can't help wondering of the effect had some of the big ones - like Reims - been similarly decorated.
    +As I strolled amongst the lanes were the butchers hung out, ( Noble butchers = beef, pork, veal, mutton, common butchers had a separate lane,) I came across an American tourist in the aptly named Place de la Liberte. This used to be the home of Madame, La Guillotine who entertained the rebellious General Jean Baptiste Breton in 1822 here, by command of Louise XVII. He died yelling "Liberte" and the square has been known thus ever since.
    +The Black Prince would certainly recognise the "sale des Pas Perdus" in what remains of the Palais des Compte de Poitiers. This magnificent hall with its XIIth C roof intact has seen many things: Richard the Lionheart was proclaimed Duke of Anjou here and later the delusional Jean d'Arc appeared before the university doctors. Really though, people were drawn to the room because it contains the 3 largest fireplaces in France.    Lue lisää

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    Dolmades?

    12. elokuuta 2018, Ranska ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C

    As I passed Saumur I stopped at a cafe for what I thought would be stuffed vine leaves. Imagine my surprise at finding an old cemetery in the garden.
    This dolmen is over 5000 years old and one of the largest around. It used to contain the bones of ancient tribes. Until a hundred years ago it was buried and pretty much ignored. Now it earns 4 Euros a head for the cafe owners.Lue lisää

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    Mont Tombe

    15. elokuuta 2018, Ranska ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    + This 80 m high islet has drawn visitors in celestial numbers for the last 1400 years, starting so it is rumoured by the Archangel Michael himself; which no doubt explains why Bishop Aubert from nearby Avranches established the first sanctuary in 708. Not to be outclassed, in 966 Richard 1st Duke of Normandy endowed a Benedictine monestery on the site which lasted until the revolution and then again quite recently.

    + Always a bastion for the Dukes, the fortress monestary is famous for never having fallen in conquest, especially during the 100 Years War. Until now, when it has fallen to the onslaught of tourism. Over 2 million of them each year contribute their 10 Euros to climb the steps up and round the old Abbey buildings. As I walked along the 2 km causeway a 60 standing shuttle bus full of trippers passed every 5 minutes or so, from about 07:30 to 23.30 hrs so I was not too taken aback by the throng in the rue la Cour de l'Avancee, the only street on the island that spirals up to the heights linking mainly XVIth - XVIIIth C houses. This view from the ramparts is of the Porte Bavole.

    +It comes as no surprise that the post-Revolution the place was used as a prison. Supplies were hauled up this ramp on a roller sled by a giant hamster in an enormous wheel built after the fashion of medieval building cranes. The facility has since been upgraded by the one closer.    Lue lisää

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    Stitched up

    17. elokuuta 2018, Ranska ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    70m of post-invasion propaganda rebutting Harold's claim to the throne all in fine needlepoint. Most of the tapestry affirms that King Steven nominated William as successor to the English throne and that Harold had sworn an oath of fealty to William. It was displayed afterwards in the cathedral and elsewhere Both as a history lesson for the illiterate peasantry, and as a moral lesson about the consequences of breaking your oath to your master.Lue lisää

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    Down in the Bayeux

    18. elokuuta 2018, Ranska ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    + Bishop- Odo of Conteville's house consecrated in 1077 and a fine example of perpendicular gothic. He was the Duke of Normandy's brother and this was the reward for putting in a word to his boss about supporting the invasion of Britain in 1066. (Apparently, unlike Odo and his fellow bishops, the English archbishops had been anointed by the alternative pope rather than the Roman one, so the Norman clergy figured they would get a bit of the action if they supported William's claim. They were right; they did.) This is invasion land: everywhere one goes its 1066 or 1944.

    + They put on a "Son et lumiere" for me, lighting up the cathedral and the tree of liberty, (planted just after the revolution ended.)    Lue lisää

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    Caën

    20. elokuuta 2018, Ranska ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    Pronounced 'ken' in case you were worried about the diacritical, (though its use seems to have fallen out of favour nowadays,) was one of the first ventures by the UK into the European Union. Alas, unsuccessful thanks to those perfidious froggies as ever.
    Not many people are aware that the bastard William, he who wrested the crown from the Anglo-Saxon monarchs in 1066, had a bit of a problem with the incumbent pope. The old pontiff, ever seeking a pressure point on his Royal rivals, refused to sanction the Dukes marriage with his 8th cousin twice removed (or something like that,) on the grounds of co-sanguinity. Well, Willie tumbled the ruse and countered with an offer too good too refuse: two monasteries, one for males and the other for females, and two abbey churches to be built and endowed.
    + And here is the male one, now taken over by the council chambers buttressing the church.
    + The nave.
    + With an interesting and rather devine wooden carving - underneath a choir stall seat lest it distract the brothers from their devine office.
    + Why a boat? I have no idea.
    +The small city has a few old houses in a couple of streets but is really a modern, working place with parking meters everywhere - usually pay by phone only! Not a very inviting place and well worth by-passing.
    + The old castle, that which seeded the town, was knocked down during the revolution and has been ransacked for building materials since then. Archaeologists are having fun working out what went were, and the town tourist officers are busy trying to make it something worth stopping over for. Hence these statues. Familiar? Can't help thinking of a Snark - sure I've seen engravings of them.    Lue lisää

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    Pudding art

    22. elokuuta 2018, Ranska ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    For the afficionados of the work of Eugene Boudin, here is the original inspiration for his 1889 portrait of Caudebec-en-Crux, painted somewhat mistily after the death of his wife.
    The river Saone here is tidal and high tide occurred at about 11pm as I was tucked up half asleep on the side of the river in an Air-de-motor caravan provided by the local village. I know this because I nearly died when a mighty foghorn blasted seemingly in my ear and I turned to see an impossibly large coastal container ship passing 3 inches from my head. Well, maybe it was in the centre channel but it completely blocked out my view. Later I saw a small pilot boat flitting up and down to shadow the big boys: nice to know they had someone on board who knew the local waters intimately. If anything happened those ships would form a natural damn.Lue lisää

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    Rouen

    24. elokuuta 2018, Ranska ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    + I was going bypass Rouen but was persuaded by the blurb claiming their cathedral was one of the finest in France.
    The city comprises an old centre of half-timbered houses in narrow streets filled with tourist groups and a periphery of social housing units filled with Africans and Arabs.
    + The old place of Henri IV is now a IV star hotel
    + Hope the revolution removed Justice from the theocrats even as it left the ecclesiastical Palais de Justice.    Lue lisää

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    Rouen cathedral

    24. elokuuta 2018, Ranska ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    Puzzled? Not look familiar? That's because it is the other, Scottish Cathedral of St.Maclou named after the Hibernian chieftain who attained early sainthood defending the town from someone or other.
    The unique feature of this church, other than that it seems to have survived the Wars intact, is the flying bridge across the nave symbolising the crossing from earth to paradise.    Lue lisää

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    Cathedral in Ruin

    24. elokuuta 2018, Ranska ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    OK, so this is the one rebuilt after WWII that everybody gushes over. The Rose window is an example of exquisite stone work and graces a transept rather than the nave: a Good Thing because in this as in too many other old cathedrals the huge organ blots out whatever windows were inserted into the end wall.Lue lisää

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    More churches

    24. elokuuta 2018, Ranska ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    The 4 churches here are in a line not more than 1km from end to end.
    + The first is not a church the sign informs me: it is a Temple. The local Lutherans have usurped it.
    + The second is dedicated to Jean d'Arc, the delusional pubescent maid who hearing voices in her head roused the population against their invaders and lost. At her subsequent inquisition by Holy Mother Church, she was tested on her faith, her visions and her subjugation to clerical authority and, found wanting, handed over to the secular authorities for incineration. She was 19. Wanting in deference to Rome she may have been, but has now been elevated to sainthood by the church that abandoned her. (It's all in the stained glass, and stained is exactly how it seems to me.)Lue lisää

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    Hammering time

    30. elokuuta 2018, Ranska ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    One version of the story is that Houzou Benard and Paquet Siviere, two, (Protestant,) Huguenots one from Dieppois and the other Altifagien, outraged the faithful during the procession of their Catholic sacrament and were condemned by the Church to pay for the clock tower and to strike the time every 15 minutes. When they died, they were replaced by these automata.y There are only 18 similar clochards in France - maybe because the Huguenots were invited to emigrate.Lue lisää

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    Heart of oak

    3. syyskuuta 2018, Ranska ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    This Common Oak ((Quercus Robur) is estimated to be 1200 years old and still going strong although the limbs do need some help to remain upright.
    Recently, in 1696, the people of Allouville-Bellefoss created two miniature rooms inside the trunk, one above the other to act as chapels. I could just fit inside, as generations have done before me.Lue lisää

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    Airheads

    7. syyskuuta 2018, Ranska ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    French soccer players were so excited by winning the 2018 FIFA Word Cup they lost their heads down to their waists.
    The French participants in the 2018 International Kite Festival at Dieppe chose to honour their countrymen rather literally.Lue lisää

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