In the right place at the right time

Some time ago I received an email from a lady of the Office de Tourisme of Buxy with the question if she could use some of my pictures of the Romanesque churche in Saint-Martin-du-Tartre for a tourist guide of this typer of churches in the ccScc (a body uniting a number of communities in the South-Chalonnais).

ccScc

She had been browsing the internet in search of pictures, and she had stumbled, through the site “Bourgogne Romane”, on one of my picture albums. The guide was an initiative of the ccScc, not published before, and it would make an inventory of the 19 Romanesque churches in the area. The lady coordinated the project, a group (Pastourisme), specialised in the churches of the diocese of Autun would write the texts, and the Chalon branch of a French club of amateur photographers would provide the pictures. In a word, why in heaven’s name did they need my pictures of that church? I am certainly not an outstanding photographer!

2012 Saint-Martin-de-Tartre

The answer was a logical as it was simple. I visited this church for the first time on a foggy day in October 2012. The church was open (which is not always the case in churches around here), so I could shoot as many pictures of the interior as my heart desired. I visit rather a lot of churches in the course of time, hence I do not always remember whether a church was open or closed during a previous visit. When we were near that church again, this time on a sunny day in May 2013, I decided to make some pictures of the outside with a nice blue sky. The door was open, and just to make sure I had not missed it I walked in to take some pictures of the interior. This time however there was scaffolding up, making crossing and choir inaccessible, and it hid the interesting parts of this church from view.

2013/14 Saint-Martin-de-Tartre

At the beginning of 2014, when the photo club was on its way to photograph the 19 churches, they found the interior of this church still under renovation; hence they could not take any pictures of the crossing and choir of the church. And that is where I came in the picture, like a ministering angel. The lady asked for, and obtained permission to use my pictures, and in March I was invited to the opening of a picture exhibition of the 19 churches at the Office de Tourisme in Buxy, during which the guide would be presented to the public.

Speeches, speeches, speeches, speeches....

The opening of an exhibition in this part of France consist most of the time of a number of interminable speeches, where each speaker extensively thanks all collaborators, their wives, their children, their servants, their neighbours and their pets. Just grin and bear it. After half an hour, in which my attention was waning, each one present received a free copy of the guide, at which it was aloso time for the obligatory glass of Crémant de Bourgogne and some snacks.

Guide touristique

The guide is now for sale in the town halls and the Offices de Tourisme in the area for the very reasonable price of € 5. And since I do not receive any royalties of this extravagant amount of money, I can, without moral dilemma, warmly recommend this tasteful booklet of 48 pages. It indeed contains a wealth of information on the subject, which is otherwise not at all or hardly available for those interested.
The above mentioned 29 churches are only a short distance away from La Tuilerie de Chazelle.

Never give up the first time

North-west of Saint-Gengoux-le-National one can find some villages with interesting churches, such as Saint-Martin-du-Tartre, Genouilly and Germagny. The hamlet Maizeray, near Saint-Martin-du-Tartre, hosts a former church according to Le site sur l'Art Roman en Bourgogne. After we had seen the church in Saint-Martin-du-Tartre, and before we carried on with our sightseeing tour it seemed logical to drive through Maizeray in search of that church.

Was this priory the church I was looking for?

Not all hamlets around here are tiny. Some, like this one, are even bigger than the commune they fall under. After a trip along all the roads entering and leaving the village we still had not spotted anything slightly resembling a church. But luck and chance sometimes lend a helping hand. Just when we were about to give up we saw a young man doing some work outside his house. And that is sheer luck, because most of these places are deserted when you want someone. We asked him for a church or the remains there of, and at first instant he referred to the church of saint-Martin-du-Tartre. We told him that we had just seen that one, so he went inside to check with his girl friend.

The oratoire in Maizeray

When he came back he told us that there had been a priory in Maizeray once, and that the remains of that building were owned by the neighbour on the other side of the road. That neighbour was not in, but this guy knew how to enter the premises without breaking and entering through a non-locked gate, and in we went. And that is how we found the remains of an old priory. After I had taken some pictures there, we went off to visit the church of Genouilly, which turned out to be a very interesting one.
When we came home I contacted the webmaster of "Le site sur l'Art Roman en Bourgogne", who replied promptly. He did not know what the church looked like, or in what state it was, but he was quite adamant that the church was near the oratoire in the village. He even sent me a photo of this oratoire, which to me looked like a cross between a war memorial and one of those road chapel one sees a lot in Germany. In any case, the priory was not what he was looking for, and that is why I put Maizeray for the time being on hold.

The remains of a church wall?

Not long after this we made another trip along a number of interesting churches in that part of the world, amongst them the ruin of Le Puley, and again we passed through Maizeray. This time we knew what the oratoire looked like, and it turned out to be not difficult to find. Eduard had more or less suggested that a wall which was now part of the oratoire might well have belonged to the church we were looking for. In those instants the boy scout (which I never was!) surfaces, and looking around there the following matters were brought to light.

Cadole or chapel?

1. Behind the semicircular wall there were several traces of rubble, which might well be the remains of a wall.

2. In front of the oratoire there was a cadole (a semicircular agricultural shed, often built in dry stone) as you can find by the dozen in the fields around here. Someone with an overabundance of fantasy could see the remains of a chapel in this thing.

3. Finally we found, near the oratoire some sort of milestone with strange inscriptions. With my ever present fantasy I could recognise the papal keys in the coat of arms of Cluny.

Mile stone? Papal keys?

There was not much more to see there, and after having duly photographed every stone that might have any relevance, we got into the car, left the parking area near the oratoire, and turned into the road leading home. And that is where it happened; from the corner of my eye I spotted a church window in the facade of a house standing at the bottom of the knoll the oratoire was on. I shouted stop, the driver made an emergency stop, and we were able to photograph this Romanesque gem, in able to preserve it for posterity.
The moral of this story : don't give up too easily, at the end of the day it is dogged that does it!

Practical information (courtesy of Eduard van Boxtel) : Church Saint-Pierre in Genouilly, 11th century, 3*
Church Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption in Germagny, 12th century, 3*
Former abbey (Maison Chaumont) in Germagny, 12th century, ?*
Former church (ruin) Saint-Christophe in Le Puley, 12th century, 4*
Former church (habitat) Saint-? in Maizeray (Saint-Martin-du-Tartre), ?th century, 0*
Church Saint-Martin in Saint-Martin-du-Tartre, 11th century, 3*

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Found, the former church of Maizeay!