Gerberoy Collegiale Of St. Pierre

The distinction between parish churches and collegiate churches is one of canon law and Roman Catholic polity; and way over my head. Or anything I care about. Nonetheless, in my construal, a collegiale is run by a group of clerics, no bishop, not a monastery or abbey, and is open to the townsfolk. Such came about by way of the great lands and wealth the Church accumulated in the middle ages. Be that as it may, the Collegiale of St. Pierre in Gerberoy stands out in my experience as the best documented little church--pound for pound, stone for stone--we've seen so far. And it has a few curiosities too. Well worth a post, for me, anyway.

West facade again

In the choir there are chairs; in the nave these interesting little cubicles...

Which at one time bore little nameplates

Choir

Nice old barrel vaulting

Nice spiral staircase to the sky box

In the sacristy, the documentation begins...everything you need to know about
religious (Christian) symbolism, church architecture, development, graffiti...

Alas it was all in French, but I could make out some of it and found it quite
informative

Back in the nave, more info

Including an extensive history

The gist of which is that the oldest bits go back to 1073 or
so, the town was besieged on numerous occasions, the
church rebuilt or renovated on numerous occasions, the
last being 1999, but the basic arrangement dating from the
14th century

And now an essay on the architecture...

And more

The list of those besieging the town in the 11th and 12th centuries is impressive
enough; Jean Sans Terre is John Lackland, aka King John of England

Fascinating little place...applause for those responsible; more than fitting for a
truly beau village

Trois Beaux Villages: Gerberoy

Our next beau village, still on the way to Calais, was Gerberoy, the prettiest of the three...

But first, in the tiny hamlet of Fleur la Foret, this old church...some stone, some
flint, some brick...

The various additions and extensions dated...here, 1599...1648 was down the wall
a bit

Finally we got to Gerberoy, passing through forests, hills, even
vineyards, all nearly within sight of the Channel

Main street Gerberoy

The market and mairie upstairs

Villa des roses indeed

City center in the market

Ancient vine

Everywhere, roses

Village lane

Upstairs to the collegiale, the parish church, 11th century origins, warrants its own
post (next)

The place is so filled with roses and gardens largely because
of the minor (=we'd never heard of him) Impressionist
painter Henri le Sidaner, who planted the place so he could
paint it

A bit of his garden, the church steeple on the right

The usual admixture of Romanesque and Gothic, side by
side

And no end to the roses

Ancient wall, pond with large goldfish, half-timbered dwelling

And more roses

And others

And when you're not smelling the roses, there's a fete and a wine tasting...in the
vineyard; and beautiful countryside

Indeed

Trois Beaux Villages: Lyon La Foret

From La Roche de Guyon we drove on to Lyon La Foret, the next Beau Village. Not without incident: our brilliant SatNav, Tom, routed us into a parking lot and then a now-pedestrianized street in Giverny, where we scattered a number of pedestrian tourists before finding our way back the proper road. Lyon La Foret is indeed a beautiful little village, surrounded by old forest. In addition to being beautiful, it has an aire de camping-cars, which was our principal interest. We spent a bit of the evening walking its main street and encountering several items of interest, the many old buildings, the beginnings of a town fete marking mid-summer eve, and another old building, where Ravel resided for the composition of a couple of his biggest hits.

Town market hall; the next morning it would hold a crafts fair

Setting up for the fete in the town square

Main street; just about everything half-timbered

Watch Cat

Ravel house

Paella? Really? In the Seine-Maritime?

With pepperoni?

Neat place; beau village