08 December 2017

Montrésor (nº 16)

Montrésor's other monument and landmark: the Renaissance-era church. It dominates the east side of the village. Built in the early 1500s, it is known especially for being the final resting place of the Bastarnay family, who owned the château back then.



L'Eglise St-Jean-Baptiste in Montrésor is (or was) a "collegiate church," which means worship services there were organized by a "college of canons" — a non-monastic community of clergymen. It was run on the model of a cathedral, but there was no bishop in residence. Saint-Aignan also has a collegiate church.



The church "looks disproportionately grand for a small village," says the author of the Cadogan guide to the Loire Valley. The college canons didn't survive the French Revolution of 1789, but the church was then and is still today the local parish church.



St-Jean-Baptiste church is basically a Gothic-style building but with important Renaissance features, including the front portal. Two Renaissance-era stained-glass windows in the church have survived to the present day.

On another subject, it seems strange to be writing this blog about life in France without mentioning the deaths of two major 20th- and 21st-century figures here: the 93-year-old author and French Academy member Jean d'Ormesson, and the 74-year-old rock-and-roll singer and master showman (bête de scène) Johnny Hallyday — "the French Elvis" as the U.S. press liked to call him. May both rest in peace.

10 comments:

  1. Montrésor is very beautiful to be losing so much population....Johnny Hallyday was someone I only knew from the amazing film L'Homme du Train. I loved that movie, though the end seemed a bit confusing to me. I'm feeling a bit melancholy now. (And Hallyday was only two years older than me.)

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    1. I've watched L'Homme du Train and I remember I liked it. I think I recorded it. I need to watch it again. Johnny was a smoker and died of lung cancer.

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    2. According to Wikipedia, nearly 40% of the houses in Montrésor are vacation homes (résidences secondaires).

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  2. For some reason, this church in Montrésor reminds me of the one in Poix that we visited in 2010.

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    1. Poix en Picardie? Je n'ai pas un souvenir très précis.

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    2. On a déjeuné en terrasse sur la place, puis on est monté voir l'église. Si mes souvenirs sont exacts, il y avait dans la façade, une statue de saint Denis tenant sa tête dans ses mains. Il me semble qu'il y avait aussi, près de l'église, un petit cimetière brittanique.

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    3. Here is what I think is the restaurant were we had lunch before going to see the church. After posting my comment, I should have done that before!, I googled the church and it confirmed that it is dedicated to saint Denis. It looks like there is a small British military cemetery next to it.

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    4. That is the restaurant, but I don't remember eating on the terrace, and I don't remember what I ate. I vaguely remember the church and I have two or three photos of it, but I better remember the British cemetery and have several photos of that too.

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    5. I don't recall going indide the church. It was probably closed as is often the case.

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  3. I had seen that Hallyday had passed away recently. He was quite the looker when he was young. I remember our French teacher playing his records in class in the late 1960s.

    The church is nice too.

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