Church on Sunday...Azay-le-Ferron

If you visit the small village of Azay-le-Ferron in will probably be to take a look around the chateau that dominates the village square,rather than the Sainte-Nazaire Church opposite but it is worth taking the time out to have a look.

 The church has been a listed 'Historical Monument' since 1927 but its date of origin is more difficult to find -the nave is said to be from the 13th century but other than that I could find little information.

It has a number of interesting wall paintings...

 ...and ancient statues.

This is Saint Barbara with her tower, who? with what? I hear you ask - its all explained  here.

Don't know who this is!

The capitals in the church are said to be reminiscent of those of the cathedral of Angers.

Where's Joan?

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So that's what you were up to?

Our neighbour David sent us some pics. from our St. Blaise celebration here in Barrou showing Jim in one of his more shy retiring moods. Not sure if our maire and  our président de la communauté de communes were listening intently or just hoping that it would end but he seemed to go down quite well - three times!!

A quail of a time...

Last Saturday Pauline made a lovely meal which included a starter of 'scotch eggs' made with  quail's eggs - a dish she had last year in a restaurant in Epsom and wanted to try making. They were delicious... but sadly I was rather ill,actually very ill, after the meal. We tried to think what the cause could have been but as Pauline and our French neighbour had the same food with no effects ...it was a bit of a mystery.

That was until last night when we used the last of the eggs in a salad and I had the same reaction - Pauline was unaffected. It seems I have an allergy to quail's eggs, rare but true or at least that's the answer we came up with. I am not prepared to try any more to prove the theory. I read about a girl who had the same problem, ate quail's eggs then within a couple of hours she was violently ill - they made her take them four times before accepting that they were the problem!

It's a real shame as I really liked them and they are apparently very good for you.

Tours en Chocolat

We haven't visited this in past but have done Loches and Chatellerault but there are worse ways to kill an hour or so.

 "TOURS IN CHOCOLATE", at the Vinci Centre (opposite railway station) on:

Saturday, March 16, 2013 from 14h to 19h
Sunday, March 17, 2013 from 10h to 19h

What a difference a week makes....

 Top pics from yesterday, snow pics from last Monday

A picture is worth...

Two entrance tickets plus two lunches at Chateau-du-Rivau 

This photograph won the prize here

PS: Quite a few other people who, like me, are not quite used to workings of Facebook 'liked' it on my 'fanpage' rather than Chateau du Rivau's so actually had a few more 'likes' than are shown. Is it only me who doesn't like the way Facebook is set up?

Church on Sunday.. St.Peter's Abbey

Here in Southern  Touraine we are lucky to be surrounded with many interesting and picturesque villages. One of our favourites being Preuilly-sur-Claise which we have walked around and enjoyed many times over the years.It has a number of attractive features, not least the river Claise which flows through it,the chateau and it wonderful abbey church of Saint Peter's..

The original church dates from 1009 with modifications in the 15th century followed by extensive reworking, including the new tower,during the 19th century.

To appreciate its Romanesque-Byzantine style architecture we suggest you take a walk around the streets of the the village to get the different views of the church before stepping inside.

Your first impression might be that it appears somewhat stark but when you search out the detail it throws up much to observe. (Niall and Antoinette from 'Chez Charnizay' did a very good post back in 2011 on some of this plus some history)

Such as its pillars and its capitals, apparently there is one for every day of the year!...

 ...its side aisles and alters...

...and much much more.

Where's Joan? ...she's here.

To celebrate its millennium the local community asked architects 'Citéos' to design a lighting scheme for the interior highlighting the church’s capitals, pillars, statues and altars. In addition, atmospheric lighting was provided in the galleries, chapels and the porch. You can see their effect below with photographs from the lighting company's (Neolight) website.

As we said earlier a walk around the exterior is well worth it. 

If you walk under the flying buttresses to the right of the main entrance you will eventually come acrosss what's left of part of the original abbey cloisters which are showing many centuries of decay,

Its flying buttresses to me seem like an after thought...but then what do I know?

As you walk around the rear of the church you can appreciate the exterior detail of its apse and ornately tiled tower roof, apparently unique in Touraine.

The house to the right of the rear of the church shows some detail that obviously links it to the old abbey complex.

 I consider this one of the gems of Touraine and indeed the Loire Valley but feel that it is not promoted enough as a tourist attraction.

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The 'vitale' part of the jigsaw...

A couple of  weeks ago we received, after almost 3 years of trying, our 'Carte Vitale'. It is the last thing we were waiting for to complete our transfer into the French system. We have our French driving licenses, which were rather easy to obtain but getting our 'Carte Vitale' has proven to be a difficult process. A big part of the problem was in dealing with our 'Regime', as French taxpayers we had to aligned to a particular one (RSI)  and  it was this that contributed to much of the procrastination.

2013 calender...March

March

February

January