Friday 29 July 2011

Curious Carvings

hard work supporting a pillar

Yesterday we popped over to Le Grand Pressigny, a large village further along the Aigronne river. On Thursdays they have a small market: a couple of fruit & veg stalls, a butcher, a poulter and a sausage seller. We sometimes buy from one of the fruit & veg stalls. The lady sells own grown produce. Earlier in the year she had excellent green asparagus. Now it is the melon season and we came away with 4 very small but sweet ones which we'll eat over the weekend with some Parma style ham.
I think he has fleas...

We'd parked round the back of the church inbetween the trees and the war memorial. The memorial has something you don't often see. In addition to the roll call of the dead, there were the names of 5 people who were deported to Germany as forced labourers during WWII.

The church doors were wide open and as we'd never been inside we decided to have a look-see before buying our fruit. We spotted a number of carvings on the nave pillars. 

bat, not in the belfry!

Neither of us have ever seen a bat before although you do see the odd dog. Luckily we had the small camera in the car so were able to take a few pictures. After buying our melons we went and had a coffee at the Pre-Histo bar and spent quite a bit of time enjoyably watching the world go by before heading home for lunch.

7 comments:

Jane and Lance Hattatt said...

Hello Niall and Antoinette:
The wall carvings are indeed beautifully done. So very detailed with a touch of wit too. They do seem to be in very good condition and look quite freshly carved.

Melons are lentiful here too at present with huge water melons on sale at every wayside. Easily able to provide dessert for a very large family for a week if whole, they are often sold in sections.

Carolyn said...

The Pre-Histo seems to be the place to go, at least for bloggers.

GaynorB said...

Hi Antoinette,

We are taking some friends who are overnighting with us, to Le Grand-Pressigny this afternoon.

We'll be sure to look out for the carvings. No doubt we'll find a little bit of time to call at the Pre-Histo to watch the world go by too!

Jean said...

The PreHisto is a great place to sit and watch....wish we were still there!

I love the little memorial square behind the church - have only been inside the church once and it is beautiful. I will look out for the carving of the bat next time we are chez nous - there are certainly plenty of bats about at dusk around the château.

Niall & Antoinette said...

@Jane & Lance - water melon is yummy; perfect for a very hot summer day.
The carvings are indeed very sharp. as they are inside it is hard to tell if they are original, restored or copies.

@Carolyn - welcome! :-) Hope you enjoy our posts.
The Pre-Histo bar is the 1st one you come to when crossing over the little square from the church, and has a very friendly landlady. That's why we drop by there :-)


@Jean - the bat is carved onto the 1st pillar on the left, just beyond the steps leading down into the church. Other carvings are on the pillar to the right.
We have the live variety swooping round the house :-)

Ida said...

the first guy looks as if he's doing something else than holding up the pillar...;-) if you know what I mean....
playing tourists again are we??

Niall & Antoinette said...

@Ida - LOL! Well we only went to buy melons.... honest! :-)