|  | Village Church on the road to Compestela. This massive building dominated the village and seemed to be an enormous church for such a small community. We discovered it is in fact an Abbey of historic importance, and formerly used by pilgims on one of the four Roads to Compestela.
Originally founded in the 6th. C. major building devlopments took place in the middle ages since when new aditions in new styles have been added and it is now listed as an historic monument.
We parked in the village car park at the side of the building hoping to find details of opening times and admission arrangements as it was always firmly closed when we were in the village. We could not see any notices but a man leaving the building not wearing clerical dress, told us visits were only possible by prior arrangement with - and I could not understand the rest of his words.
Our our frequent "bread runs"to the village, apart from quite early in the morning, we rarely saw anybody walking along the quiet, narrow steets of the village apart from the man refered to and on one afternoon when we saw a woman, in dressing gown and slippers, carrying a vacuum cleaner to a house a few doors away from her own.
There was something rather sad here - signs of a once vibrant community in decline - the effects of mechanised agricultural methods leading to un- employment, de-population as young people moved away and second hoem owners making a small contribution to the local economy.
Was the lady with the vacuum cleaner setting off to prepare a village house for its next temporary occupants, we wondered?
It made us wonder what had happened to the original occupants of the lovely old farmhouse in which we were staying.... |
email me
add as friend
Comments for ranger49 about Saint-Ferme