Today I'm cooking duck.The weather has turned a little chilly again, so a couple of duck drumsticks and thighs slow-cooked in the mijoteuse (crockpot) with onions, carrots, and mushrooms will be comforting. Maybe I'll post about that tomorrow. We are lucky to get duck as a standard item, including duck pieces you can cook the way you want to.
Anyway, here are some photos of the church in Saint-Aignan. It's an église collégiale, which means it's not a cathedral but is an important church to which is (or was) attached a "college" of "canons" (chanoines). In English, that's a "collegiate" church. You can see it on the left in the first photo I posted yesterday — the wide shot I took of the church and château while standing on the bridge.
Wikipedia says: "In Christianity, a collegiate church is a church where the daily office of worship is maintained by a college of canons; a non-monastic or "secular" community of clergy, organised as a self-governing corporate body, which may be presided over by a dean or provost.
"In its governance and religious observance a collegiate church is similar to a cathedral, although a collegiate church is not the seat of a bishop and has no diocesan responsibilities. Collegiate churches were often supported by extensive lands held by the church, or by tithe income from appropriated benefices. They commonly provide distinct spaces for congregational worship and for the choir offices of their clerical community."
Over the years, I've posted many photos showing the church and other scenes in Saint-Aignan in different seasons and lighting conditions, including these. Tomorrow is the 13th anniversary of the first night we ever spent in the house we have lived in here, just outside Saint-Aignan, since 2003.
It's a beautiful church.
ReplyDeleteThe Cher is still very high!
These are photos I took last weekend, when the river was still very high. Now a week later the water level has gone down quite a bit.
DeleteStunned -- that's the only word to describe it. I just came in after my walk with Callie and I found that the rain gauge had nearly overflowed. The level was above the thing's graduations. By pouring some of the collected water into another cup, measuring what was left in the gauge, pouring that out and pouring the extra back in to measure it, I determined that we got 42 millimeters of rainfall -- 1.65 inches -- last night. That's nearly a record. We started measuring rainfall more than 10 years ago. Early on, we got nearly 50 mm on one very wet January day, I remember. But this new rain on top of all we got last week... And the coming week is supposed to be pretty rainy. Is there more flooding ahead?
ReplyDeleteWow. The big flood here in 1999 was a flash flood--tons of rain fell in one night on parched ground that was too hard to soak it up fast enough. Too much ran off at once. It came, destroyed and was over a few days later, leaving behind plenty of mud.
DeleteThe experts say we're in for more extremes.
I just noticed that we have some water damage in the house. One of the chimneys is leaking, and the sheetrock used to close the chimney in up in the converted attic space is stained. I think that chimney needs a cap on it.
DeleteI dont know how you remember all those dates.....we had water damage at our garage apt and it seemed like it was from the chimney area, we ended up replacing the flashing around the chimney (already had a good cap on it) but its hard to pinpoint when it involves chimney stuff. good luck ...hope the rain is over for yall
ReplyDeleteUgh ! signs of damp and damage depress me ! When we first moved into our apartment in Buenos Aires, there was suddenly a stain on our newly painted ceiling in the hall ! I was heartbroken ... everything had just been painted and made pretty and now water stains ! Apparently the pipe to the bath upstairs was leaking. So we listened to banging and repairs for a few days and the painter came back and repainted our ceiling and all was well.
ReplyDeleteUntil the next leak :)
I got leak phobic after a while.
I hope the rain stops soon. There is only so much a person can take without needing a long stay in a desert-like environment.
We had that same chimney leak problem this year and not nearly as much rain. It's always something. 13 years already- wow!
ReplyDelete