The Road Goes Ever On

Friday, May 10, 2013

Poitiers: Baptistry Of St. John And Church of St. Hilaire-Le-Grande

Our walk about old Poitiers continues...

The Baptistry of St. John, a 4th century Christian building, reputedly the oldest
such in France; indeed, pretty old; unfortunately, closed for lunch, 12:30-3, so
we missed the innards

Big square and Hotel De Ville, obviously re-done pretty recently

Church of St. Hilaire-Le-Grande; 11th century, with many modifications; this
is a seriously interesting Romanesque church; and very old

Nave view; what's interesting is the forest of columns, resulting in 2, maybe 3
side aisles; some accounts say the original wood roof burned--they always do--
and it was decided to go with a stone vault; but the distance to vault was too great,
so additional columns and interior buttresses were added for the effort; the result
is pretty interesting and unique

Thus; much experimentation was going on in these days,
developing Romanesque, hitting on ideas that would
become known as Gothic...

And thus: ever seen an interior flying buttress?

Apse

Much old frescoe here

Arched barrel vaulting in the transept, with interesting crack

Vaulting in the nave and crossing

Windows with cobwebs

More frescoe

West facade; this church has been through a lot in the past going-on-10 centuries...
100 Years War, Wars of Religion, Revolution; but to me there's not a hint of a
sculptural program here, certainly not what one would expect of a Gothic...

A few monsters high up on the east side

And Chip and Dale

Poitiers: Notre-Dame-La-Grande and Cathedrale St. Pierre

By Thursday morning we had figured out that Thursday, too, was a national holiday, seriously, the feast of the assumption or the ascension or somesuch. Another day of closed boulangeries and day-old bread. But we figured the parking situation nearest old town Poitiers might be relatively clear, and so we drove there and indeed found a nice big empty parking lot at the foot of the hill, by the gare, not a kilometer from our major sights for the day.

On the square of Notre-Dame-La-Grande

Notre-Dame-La-Grande is a 12th century Romanesque job,
reputed to have the weirdest and most idiosyncratic facade
in France; we didn't think so; but then our standard for
weird has gotten much higher recently

The interior looked interesting, arched barrel
vaults and paint, but, Vicki noted, they were
having lunch, and it wouldn't do for us to go
in to gawk and take pix and laugh

So instead we took in the antiques and collectibles market
next door

The oboe I have always dreamed of finding at such a
market; but not at the price I had dreamed of...

Joan of Arc is very big here; I will not post pix of the many
statues and other likenesses of her we encountered

Our next stop was the Cathedral of St. Pierre; many
Medieval church buildings are asymmetrical, so to speak,
but this one's west facade is particularly wanting; even
had the left tower been built, it would have been of a
different size and scale than the right one

Nice Judgment tympanum

Inside, it has the feel of a Gothic, if not the height; the
vaulting is of the Plantagenet pre-Gothic style; many of
the arches are pointed; many are not

It has some nice blue windows

And the giant Clicquot organ (runs on champagne)

But the big draw is the 12th century
lancet window at the head of the apse,
a Crucifixion, given by Eleanor of Aquitaine,
with her and her husband, Henry II of
England, and their four sons (including
famous Richard and infamous John),
pictured at the bottom

Thus; we last saw them as Peter O'Toole and Kathryn
Hepburn in The Lion in Winter

It is most unusual to see a woman--other than Eve, Mary, or
the Sybils--depicted in one of these churches; nonetheless,
here is one, working, possibly sewing, along with other
depictions of bakers, butchers, hunters, etc., in the choir

Grilling a martyr

Nieuil L'Espoir

Our plan was to continue on to Poitiers and to see the sights there. But those sights were simply more churches, and we figured we had seen enough churches for one day. In Poitiers we might also have visited the famous battlefield where, in 1356, the forces of the Black Prince actually captured the French King Jean II (and there was no policy of catch-and-release in those days). But no one knows where the battlefield was. Sic transit, Gloria. Anyway, at length, we found a free camping aire in the little town of Nieuil L'Espoir, perhaps 15 miles from Poitiers, and spent the night there.

To our great surprise and delight, the Mairie at Nieuil L'Espoir provides free wifi for campers. (Well, you have to play a 30 second advert to connect; and reconnect every hour). Still, fairly incredible and wonderful. Rain was forecast the next day, so our plan was to just sit in Nieuil L'Espoir for the evening and morning, enjoying the free wifi, and take the bus into Poitiers in the afternoon, rain or shine. This plan did not pan out, however, although we did continue enjoying use of the free wifi.

Wednesday morning we noticed that things were rather quiet in the village. (We had also noticed a surprising number of French campers and tourists everywhere the past week, but attributed this to the May 1st holiday and the French knack for turning any holiday into a three-day weekend or a week's vacance). Walking around, noticing the tri-color flag everywhere, especially war monuments, a large gathering of citizens at the community hall next to the Mairie, and looking at my watch, I finally deduced that it was May 8th, another French national holiday. VE Day. No bus service to Poitiers, either.

For a while we hoped to be invited to the festivities, maybe some free champagne for the honored Liberators, but had to settle for the free wifi. In between rain showers, I took several long walks in the pretty village and around the large park in which the aire is located. Nice place. And free wifi.

Tree-line avenue leading into Nieuil L'Espoir

The camping aire

Town center and church

8 Mai 1945

Community hall

The Mairie, with its free wifi

Very large chain-saw sculpture in the aire; by one Antoine
Thomas; indeed the largest such sculpture I have ever seen,
and the only one not of a grizzly bear

One of three large ponds in the park; which was honey-combed with biking and
jogging trails; this is the fishing pond

Educational displays all around (mostly natural, environmental)

Every tree and bush labeled

Thus

And, of course, a big playground; nice place, Nieuil L'Espoir

Chauvigny Church Capitals

As I was saying, not large, Romanesque, painted, barrel vaulting in the nave, nothing terribly exceptional for the 12th century...

Until you get to the apse and look up from the altar to the
column capitals...

Then all Hell breaks loose..right over the altar

Literally...

Taking the old Doric, Ionian, Corinthian thing to new
heights, or depths, if you prefer...

I didn't collect the whole set

Only the most lurid

And amusing

And imaginative

Of course

It went on, though,

And I was worried the serious and reverential French tourists were going to
call the gendarmes

About the crazy Americaines rolling in the aisles at St. Pierre's

But it all had a happy ending, and we left peaceably; and the Parish Church of
St. Mary and St. David in Kilpeck, near Hereford--http://roadeveron.blogspot.fr/2009/
10/parish-church-of-st-mary-and-st-david.html--now has a serious rival for the title
of "most hilarious church"

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Chauvigny

We proceeded further into Poitou, stopping for the town of Chauvigny. Its principal sights are on its hilltop, some castle ruins and its St. Pierre church.