When we first arrived in Charnizay the secretary at the Marie gave us a pile of admin info including back copies of the council minutes. Reading through them we noticed that the establishment of a new venue to replace the current Salle de Fetes (village hall) was an important topic. For a village of some 500 inhabitants this is a major undertaking.
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| the [once fortified] farm showing last remnants of donjon tower |
In October we went to an event--an evening of French comic chansons performed by a trio from Tours. They were young, energetic and very good. We didn't catch all of the jokes --everything went at machine gun speed-- but enough to have a laugh and enjoy the performance. The place was full. Looking round it was easy to see why the Maire and council wanted to invest in a new, more modern venue. The Salle de fetes was pretty small, quite dark and dated, lacked facilities for the performers and had no performance area.
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| cover of this quarter's magazine |
Earlier this week we received our invitation to the annual New Year reception hosted by the Maire, Claude Villeret and the council. It's on Sunday. The lady who brought it also gave us a copy of the village quarterly magazine 'Le P'tit Charnizeen'. On the front cover was the architect's impression of the new Salle de Spectacles and the announcement that there will be an info evening all about this project on the 19th.
What the council have done is bought the old 'ferme' (farm)- the much altered remains of the original donjon chateau of Charnizay. This is to be converted into the new more multi purpose Salle de Spectacles. Looking at the architect's impression it seems they are going to renovate/rebuild the L shaped range of barns which lie to one side of the farmhouse proper. What is going to happen to that we don't, as yet know- apart from the fact that they have cut down the laurel hedge which screened it from the road and prevented me from taking a decent photograph until now. Perhaps we'll find out at tomorrow's reception or at the info evening on the 19th.
To be continued..
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| range of barns as they are now |
6 comments:
Until now we have done little more than travel through Charnizay on route to visit friends near Chatillion. When we are out at February half term we'll stop and have a wander. There is so much to the area that we haven't seen; our house purchase here was very much a 'spur of the moment' decision. We really liked the house and could see possibilities for our retirement so we 'went for it'. We are looking forward to exploring more and more, and your blog will no doubt give us ideas and a bit more information about the area.
Keep up the good work!
We'll do our best-- we know there so many nuggets of interesting history and culture--some smaller, some larger around here and we're looking forward to digging up what we can.
It looks like a really worthwhile project - the salle des fêtes is such an important building to any village - it certainly is in LGP. Sadly we usually miss our meeting with the Maire as it's too long after our Christmas break and we have to come home for work....one day though....
Jean--it certainly is and we intend to go to the info evening on the 19th. Especially as we are curious to see what they intend to do with the farmhouse and other buildings which form part of the complex.
The farm complex looks to be an interesting project. I look forward to reading more about it in future posts.
I think we miss most of the organised events and meetings in and around Le Petit-Pressigny. This is because I teach and we are limited to school holiday periods, (which I accept are extensive compared to most other professions!) and meetings are normally arranged to avoid these.
Attending such functions probably helps one to know what is going on and would also demonstrate to neighbours etc that we are interested in the village and it's people.
Still, as Jean writes, 'one day..........'.
Hi GaynorB,
Yes it will be interesting to see how it progresses as there was a fair bit of a kerfuffle about taking on the project in the first place.
Remember the holidays well :-). Prior to moving here and now working freelance as educational writers/teachers we taught for years at international schools.
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