Five and a half years

When we got acquainted a bit with the Romanesque churches in this area I stumbled upon an article in the local newspaper about the church in Perrecy-les-Forges.

Perrecy-les-Forges

That is a good three quarters of an hour drive from here, hence we saved this for a later occasion. But never put off until tomorrow …
A couple of years later, we still had not seen the church, we read in the same paper that from April 2009 the church had been closed for security reasons. Hence we had been too late!
Later again we found out that one of the highlights of that particular church, the narthex with a beautiful tympanum and lovely carved capitals was open to the public.

During the restaration

In September 2013 we finally made a trip to Perrecy and found out that the narthex was indeed more than worth it. We could look inside the nave through the big doors, but we were not allowed to enter. All we could see were ladders and scaffolding.
After almost a year, around August 2014, we decided to send an email to the association involved in the restauration of the church. I had read in July 2014 on their website that the church was about to be re-opened to the public.

After the restaration

However, this sort of “news” is not always reliable, and the internet version of the local newspaper had not yet mentioned the festive opening of the church. That was enough reason to ask for a written confirmation of this news.
French in general are not terribly keen when it comes to answering emails from “strangers” (i.e. people they do not know the name of), so we were pleasantly surprised to receive an answer: indeed the church was open as of 8 July 2014!
The trip proved to be more than worth it. The church did not just boast an impressive collection of differently decorated and shaped imposts; the crossing in its own right was very impressive, if only for its dimensions. The five and a half years had been well used by those responsible for the restauration of the church!

The crossing

For an album on the subject, click here.

More Romanesque churches galore can be found in the immediate vicitiy of La Tuilerie de Chazelle.