medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
From: Marjorie Greene <[log in to unmask]>
> If memory serves me correctly, Illiers is fairly near Chartres.
about 30km Southwest
http://www.cybevasion.com/gites/france/gites_departement_eure-et-loir_28.htm
>If you're a Proust fan, Tante Léonie's house, the one in the fictional
Combrai (I think that's the spelling), is/was there for the visiting. It's a
surreal experience for anyone who's read Proust or even a part of his
magnificent oeuvre.
i've been through Illiers[-Combray] but, never having read Proust, didn't seek
out his place.
if one looks *real* hard one can still see traces of the network of little
trains which connected every village in the Beauce, which i believe he
mentions in his books.
the Huguenots brought their wonderful Rape & Pillage Act to the region in the
mid-16th c. and, it is said, destroyed several *hundred* village churches, so
that part of the Beauce is pretty Slim Pickins for an art historian interested
in romanesque and gothic stuff, and there's not much to see in Illiers.
or even in Brou (a bit further Southwest), which is a particular shame because
there was a very important early monastery there through the Carolingian
period, now gone without a trace apparently.
in the absence of surviving monuments it is very hard to get an idea of what
architecture --much less sculpture, much less mural painting-- looked like in
the 11th and 12th centuries.
there are bits and pieces of things --a portal there, perhaps a bay in a
church here-- but those faint echoes are few and far between, and the job of
the archeologue peripatetique is made much more difficult these daze because
virtually all the village churches are locked up except, perhaps, for one
Sunday every month or two.
the combination of a plague of theves and an aging, dying priesthood has done
more to close off access to these monuments than anything since the
Huguenots.
when i did extensive Chruch Hopping in the halcyon summers of the late '60s, i
rarely came across a locked church and, if i did, could always "searchay le
clay" (as we used to say) at the village alimentation across the street, with
its entrancing smell of fresh (or not so fresh) vegetables.
when i tried to do the same act in the '80s i rarely came across an open
church and was usually told at the alimentation (if there still was one) that
i would have to come back on the one day a week when the Marie was open, or on
the one Sunday a month when the overworked traveling priest said mass there.
over time, this puts quite a kink in the March of Scientific Progress,
archeologically speaking.
someone comming up from the south --from, say, Bourges-- who was interested in
middlevil monuments might like to stop off at Blois (nice 12th-13th c. abbey
church of St. Lomer), Vendome (spectacular 11th-12th c. abbey of La Trinite)
and, in the Eure-et-Loir
http://www.cybevasion.com/gites/france/gites_departement_eure-et-loir_28.htm
Chateaudun (very unusual 12th c. church of La Madelaine, late m.a. chateau)
and Bonneval, which has a so-so early 13th c. parish church but the ruins of a
*very* nice and important 11th-early 12th c. abbey, with a reasonably
spectacular late gatehouse.
North East of Chartres a few clicks is the very interesting _castrum_ of
Gallardon, with the remains of a 12th c. _donjon_ and a large priory (of
Bonneval) church with a precious c. 1100 facade and nave, a very nice 13th c.
choir and an unusual painted wood vaulted ceiling dating from 1706.
http://www.deroyer.fr/sigallardon/images/GravureVilleMoyenAgeGd.gif
http://www.deroyer.fr/sigallardon/images/PhotoVueGeneraleBGd.jpg
http://www.deroyer.fr/sigallardon/gallardon/donjon.html
http://www.deroyer.fr/sigallardon/images/phEglGallNoctGd.jpg
http://www.deroyer.fr/sigallardon/images/phEglGallTrifNoctGd.jpg
http://www.deroyer.fr/sigallardon/images/PhotoEglGallChoeurGd.jpg
http://www.deroyer.fr/sigallardon/images/PhotoEglGallVouteGd.jpg
http://www.deroyer.fr/sigallardon/images/PhotoEglGallDeambulGd.jpg
http://www.christophersbookroom.com/cc/lords/introgal.html
c
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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"[Michael Schiavo] said U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who is leading a
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votes."
http://www.sptimes.com/2005/03/20/news_pf/Tampabay/Schiavo___Come_down__.shtml
Schiavo: 'Come down, President Bush'
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