Church on Sunday and a door normally closed...

Church Notre Dame de La Haye, Descartes

Photo credit:www.ville-descartes.fr/

When we paid a visit to last Sunday's 'Au fil des jardin' in Descartes we were pleasantly surprised to see the doors open to the normally closed church of Notre Dame de La Haye.Descartes formally La Haye used to have two parishes, Notre Dame and Saint Georges. 

This Romanesque church dates from 1104 as was at the time part of a fortified enclosure on the banks of the river Creuse. In 1576 the church became the formal place of worship for the local Protestant population.

It was closed for worship during the French Revolution and was sold for use as a barn. This was followed by a period of deterioration.Internal renovations have brought it back to life and you can now see its barrel ceiling much as it was in its original state and...... 

 ...views of restored frescos, from the 12th to 15th centuries,in the choir. 

They are a few other examples of its previous condition.

So glad we got to see it.