Day 28 - Tonnerre and Noyers-sur-Serein

No prize for guessing the name of the church I attended this morning in Tonnerre....

Notre-Dame

Though there is another church, St. Peter's, overlooking the city, but I wasn't sure of the times of service:

After church, I walked the 5 or 10 minute route round to one of Tonnerre's main sights, the 'Fosse Dionne'.

This a natural source of water that through the ages has been variously attributed magical powers, celtic mythology, and religious significance. It sits right in the heart of Tonnerre, off a back street, and while obviously of significance to the locals, hasn't really been cared for.

It's the same with the city itself..... there are some lovely parts, but it seems to have been neglected, houses are a little grubby, needing sprucing up. And a lot of young people just hanging about, stray cats..... one of the few places where I've been very aware of keeping my bag close, watching where I walk, etc. Don't get me wrong, it's not dangerous, but after the delight of many of the places I've visited, Tonnerre is an example of what happens when one of these pretty places is forgotten about.

It was lunchtime, so while I wanted to visit the Hôtel Dieu, it wouldn't be open again till 2, so I drove the 20km or so to one of the Chablis villages, Noyers-sur Serein, one of the 'most beautiful villages in France'.

I had read about a museum of naïve art in the village, but I really wasn't prepared for what I found.

It was a collection so diverse, so surprising...... from wax body parts, renaissance paintings, several Christ on the Cross in a bottle, Greek sculptures, a room with cases of tiny grotesque figurines all around the walls and in the centre about 12 bathroom cabinet sized and similarly functioning wooden boxes. Some had their doors open, some not, but within each were paintings or sculptures of the back view of standing women with voluptuous bottoms, naked. On the top floor, one was greeted by masks and head dresses created from real bird feathers..... (there were feathers on every bannister of every staircase in the building)..... then there were human forms with bird heads guarding various sculptures, then lots of very colourful 'pretty' pictures of scenes from the 2nd world war. Photos were prohibited and I'm frustrated I cannot convey the surreal nature of this place..... It was truly bizarre, but strangely hypnotic, addictive even....... I wanted to see what I would be exposed to next - tapestries of religious scenes, or the intricate pencil drawings of an enormous glass dome with signs of the zodiac designed for a building in Auxerre..... And when I had seen all it had to offer, I was disappointed there wasn't more..... It truly did provoke a response, which is what they say 'art' should do.
http://www.noyers-et-tourisme.com/museenoyers.html

I took a brief walk along the ramparts beside the river, pondering the sights, before heading back to Tonnerre.

Back to Tonnerre and the Hôtel Dieu, which was erected by Marguerite Bourgogne at the very end of the 13th century.

This great hall was filled with the sick who Marguerite, though the countess of the area and sister to the King nursed herself. It remained a hospital for centuries, but now houses Marguerite's tomb and various other pieces of religious art.

This hall hosts an annual wine celbration every Easter as well.




However, I was intrigued to discover it also had its own Meridian line carved into the floor:

In the upper rooms, some further artefacts from the building's life in the late 13th and early 14th centuries, as well as a hospital ward from the last century:

There was more to this building than I had anticipated, and I came away wondering what had happened to Tonnerre that it had obviously dropped from favour, as it has such potential... nothing a little TLC wouldn't fix!

Tomorrow the Loire Valley....