“Girls’ Day” Saturday – Part 2: Planting and Exploring

The idea of our “Girls’ Day” actually started as we were leaving a show Nathalie and Stephane’s girls were in.  We were chatting outside the hall, and Nathalie mentioned that she wanted to put in some garden plants, and I offered to help.  We consulted calendars and scheduled our day.  Nathalie sent me train schedule info, and we were good to go!

After she met me at the train station, we first went to Nathalie's favorite boulangerie to get several of “the best baguettes around.”  (Her family was properly appreciative.) Then we were off to an amazing garden store.  It is all under one roof and HUGE!!  She had decided on geraniums so we made our way through the facility, past the chicken area (with a sign suggesting buying a hen as a Mothers’ Day present – hmmm, not for me, thanks!), and finally reached an area with lots and lots of plants ready to become parts of gardens in the area.  We decided on packs of six plants rather than one huge plant.  Nathalie picked two different colored six packs, then we hefted a huge bag of potting soil onto our cart, paid for our stuff, loaded it in her car, and were on our way.

When we got to Nathalie and Stephane’s home, Nathalie, Stephane, and their daughter Fanny, and I had a nice lunch with some of those delicious baguettes.  Then we got to work.  Stephane put the bag of potting soil into a wheel barrow and brought it over to us on the patio.  And, presto, magico, we soon had two large pots of geraniums!


Here's one of them!

 Nathalie had planned some sightseeing for us, and we were off.  Our first stop with the tiny village of Saint-Chef.  It has a population of 3,700 and a lot of history.  It all started in the sixth century when Theudère started an Abbey there.  The Abbey was destroyed by barbarians but rebuilt by Benedictine monks in 890.  It soon became very prosperous, and, in the eleventh century, the church was enlarged. Then it was decorated with Romanesque frescoes at the beginning of the twelfth century.  Nathalie told me people come from all over to study the frescoes; they are definitely impressive! 


Pictures from the web of some of the frescoes

 At one time the abbey had a dozen priories and a hundred parishes under it. However, the number of monks decreased over time until, in 1536, there were only twenty-eight remaining.  In 1774, they left  to unite with the abbey of Saint-André-le-Bas in Vienna.  The church was abandoned and then damaged in the revolution.  Fortunately, a man named Prosper Mérimée came to the rescue and saw it added to the first inventory of Historic Monuments in 1840.   An amazing clean up and restoration followed; the church is now a lovely, inviting place and the frescoes survived. 

Exterior of the church

Interior (frescoes are at the far end and not visible here)

We spent some time just walking around and drinking in the history and art in this amazing church.  Interesting what one persistent person with a vision can do; we owe Prosper Mérimée a HUGE thank you! 

From Saint-Chef we drove a short distance to Morestel, another medieval village, this one is noted for its artist community and many galleries.  We visited a couple of art galleries, but by far the most impressive was Maison Ravier.  As the name would suggest, it’s located in an old house.    This house dates back to the beginning of the 18^th century and is quite impressive.  I’ve been in a lot of old houses in France, and this is the first one where I’ve felt I could happily take up residence.  The rooms are all quite big, have lots of large windows, tasteful décor, trim, and details, and most have gorgeous territorial views.  It’s really a perfect place for a gallery. 

La Maison Ravier

The painter François August Ravier lived here until his death in 1895, and many of his paintings make up the permanent collection. It was interesting to see how his painting evolved and how he, too, was interested in the effect of changes in light on his subjects.  I really wouldn’t mind having some of his work  on our walls!

The current temporary collection in Maison Ravier is works by Émile Simond, who lived from 1893 to 1977.  This man was amazing!  He was an autodidact, but you would never know it after seeing his work.  And, painting wasn’t enough for him – he also created beautiful ceramics and wrote about 700 poems!  Quite the talented man!

After we left the house, we wandered around the extensive grounds, enjoyed the view, walked back down to the main part of the village, and took in a storefront gallery filled with the works of contemporary artists.  

Two examples of passageways we walked through in Morestel

 

We also went inside the village church to take a break in the cool sanctuary after walking in the warm weather.  This church, St. Symphorien, was once a chapel for an Augustine Convent in 1425 and didn’t become Morestel’s parish church until 1791.  (Especially for this West Coast native, these dates are a bit mind-boggling!)

St. Symphorien

At this point Nathalie and I both wanted something cool to drink.  Since we didn’t see any place in the village that looked promising, we decided to go back to Nathalie and Stephane’s home for a quick glass iced tea before it was time to take me to the railroad station for my trip back to Lyon.  I had a wonderful time with Nathalie and made sure to tell her how much I appreciated the time we spent together.

My trip home was totally without incident – just a very pleasant, short train ride. 

NOTE:  This is one of the longest blog posts we’ve done.  I hope your eyes aren’t glazing over.  It could actually have been MUCH longer, but I’ve shortened it by including hyperlinks instead of going into more detail.  So now you can choose to find out more about some of the places and people I mention, if you like.