And now for something completely different!

Whenever I cycle down the Voie Verte from Chazelle to Cluny (formerly a railway, now a cycle track), somewhere half way I pass by a rather strange building.

The former church of Cotte (Cortambert)

Just past the former station of Massilly lies an old farm, and half of the farmhouse seems to be an old church. The church-like building appears to have been the church of Cotte, a hamlet belonging to the commune of Cortambert. The pointer on the map points to the restaurant "Au Pont de Cotte"; the church itself lies approx 200 m to the east, on the other side of the old railway.
This was the church that once was home to the baptismal font in the chapel of Collonges (see the previous blog), although I did not know that at the time.
When I told Eduard about this church, he acknowledged having heard about it, although he did not have pictures of it. We are again talking ancient history, because now one can find my pictures on this page.
A similar building can be found only a stone throw away from our house.

The former chapel of Coureau (Bray)

This farm lies approx. 800 m south of the pointer (La Tuilerie de Chazelle). The chapel is built against a farm house, the ferme de Coureau, and it is part of the village of Bray. We found out about this chapel through one of our campers who did a walk in the vicinity, and accidentally stumbled upon it.

Practical information (courtesy of Eduard van Boxtel) :
Former church (storage space) Saint-Laurent in Cotte (Lournand), 11th century, 3*
Former chapel (storage space) Saint-Jean-du-Bois in Ferme Coureau (Bray), ?th century, 0*

For our own website, click here.

The former chapel of Coureau (Bray)

Romanesque or not, that is the question

The last signpost to something Romanesque, along the road between Chazelle and Cluny, refers to “Collonges Chapelle Romane”.
This chapel is a cute little one, in the hamlet of Collonges (commune of Lournand). Inside the chapel there are some drawings or paintings made by Michel Bouillot (1929-2007), a writer and well known artist who has made pen drawings of almost each stone in every Burgundian house in our department.

The chapel in Collonges

I seem to remember that there was no reference to this chapel on le site sur l'Art Roman en Bourgogne, but I cannot reproduce the correspondance between Eduard and myself on this subject. I think that I sent him some pictures of this chapel, and that his answer was that he could not find anything Romanesque on the photographs, and hence that the chapel did not qualify for an entry on his site; it was simply not a Romanesque chapel.
However, when I sent him another photograph of an information panel I had found in the church, where it was explained that the baptismal font in the chapel originally came from the Romanesque church in Cotte (in the commune of Cortambert), he changed his mind. As of then Collonges is mentioned on his site, albeit in the category 1 or 2 stars.
Lournand appears to have more to offer then the church, chapel and castle from the previous blog!

Practical information (courtesy of Eduard van Boxtel) :
Chapel Saint-Laurent in Collonges (Lournand) 11th century, 0*

For our own website, click here.

The baptismal font from Cotte