St. Ceneri Church

There was little information on the church, almost none in English, so I can only speculate on it. From the design I'd guess it was originally a chapel, very old, then a nave was added, and more, sometime in the Gothic period. The painting is pretty primitive, reminding us more of the monastery chapels we saw in Cappadocia than anything else. One has to guess these paintings have been restored over the centuries. But they are credibly primitive, at least to me. So that's my analysis. The whole thing is convincingly old and, of course, altered over the centuries.

St. Ceneri parish church

In the nave, Stations of the Cross

Done by a local artist

Mary's flock; you can just barely see the blue of her cloak...

Pantokrator in His Mandorla thing

Perhaps Arcimboldo passed through sometime in the 16th century

Old barrel vaulting

Chancel, altar

North transept, as it were

A bit of sculpture...St. Ceneri (he was an Italian hermit monk
who settled here in the 9th century and worked the usual
wonders and miracles)?

More painting

Now in the south transept; maybe Vlad Dracula passed
through in the 15th century

Smallest stained glass window ever, so far

Outside now

St. Ceneri's is famous for its bees...in 898 Charles the Simple's army passed through
and  some of its soldiers performed some sacrilege at the chapel; they were revealed
by their bee stings (my translation); hmmm...the chapel doesn't look quite that old

Anyhow, there they are, still buzzing, threateningly, after all these centuries;
prone to sacrilege as I am, I kept my distance

Now back down in town, we came across the studio of the
artist who did the Stations...

I liked his stuff

St. Ceneri Le Gerei

Michelin rates St. Ceneri Le Gerei as one of France's most beautiful villages, it was only a bit off our route to Rouen, and so we stopped mid-day to have a look. It is indeed a pretty place.

Mother Nature over-running Mother Goddess`

River Sarthe

Eglise on the hill...St. Ceneri Le Gerei (next post)

Fougeres Pig Parade

Fougeres has a Pig Parade going in its beautiful city park. You've seen this before, cities buying horse or cow or pig or chicken (Bresse) or bear (Berlin) figures, and then getting local artists to paint them, and then display them as public art. I wonder whether the artists ever get paid in real money. Oh well. Recognition. Civic honor. Nonetheless, these things are often fun, and Fougeres had them all displayed in one place. PS. Why no camo-pig? Or pig-cuts pig??* Which always reminds me of the Porsche Pink Pig**

Personal favorite

In progress

Stealth pig

"Pig up"

For further information

*

**

Fougeres 2

Our walk in Fougeres continues...

So we are walking along in Medieval village

Appreciating the peach tree in someone's yard

And the pear tree

And...what's that?

It's the Kiwi House; in France no less; really Thai'd things
together (running gag)

And now we are at the bottom of the valley, at St. Sulpice's
chapel

13th and quite weathered stone

Thus

Don't tread on me (by the door)

The major relic here is Our Lady of the Marshes,
a sculpture found in the swamp as they were enlarging
the church; it's always a wonder the way these things
are found; one wonders also how such things found
their way into the swamp

Thus

Don't tread on me, episode #2

Altar and some of the beautiful wood in this old church

Sainte Viviane

So apparently if your church was deficient in the relic
department, you could order up one from the Vatican; the
Pope or his agent would send someone out into the Catacombs
to fetch some martyr/saint or other; for a price, of course;
I wonder whether they had a catalog; if you could buy parts or
had to get the whole thing...

Another interesting old church