A 12th-century chapel in Noyers-sur-Cher

The chapel called Saint-Lazare is in Noyers-sur-Cher, just across the river from Saint-Aignan. It's less than two miles from our house. Lazare or Lazarus was the patron saint of lepers, and there was a leper house or colony in Noyers back in the 12th century, when the chapel in my photos was built. I think that means it was a chapel where lepers could go to pray to be cured of the disease. The old hospice it was attached to is long gone, but the chapel has survived. It's located on the main east-west road in our area and not far from the banks of the Cher river. The chapel is used nowadays as a venue for seasonal or annual art exhibits.

  

Maisons à Mennetou-sur-Cher, etc. (4)

The high temperature predicted for Saint-Aignan today is 37ºC, according to Accuweather.com. That is human body temperature, 98.6ºF. Yesterday afternoon, it was about 32ºC up in the loft. Summer waited until almost August to get here this year. It has now arrived.

The pictures here are some I took nearly 20 years ago in the medieval village of Mennetou-sur-Cher, about 20 miles east of Saint-Aignan on the banks of the Cher river.

Maisons à Mennetou-sur-Cher, etc. (3)

Today is mute Monday....

Maisons de Mennetou-sur-Cher (2)

Before I give you more photos that I've taken in Mennetou-sur-Cher, let me tell you about the interior rear-view mirror (rétroviseur in French). It's fixed! At least for the moment. The man who runs the auto body shop over on the other side of the river ordered the special glue he needed, got it, and stuck the mirror back on. Let's hope it stays stuck for the life of the car.

I know I'll have to give up on the Peugeot, a year 2000 model, someday. But I love the car, and so does Walt. We agree that it's the perfect car for driving around the area, running errands, going to the supermarkets, etc. It looks good, inside and out. I bought it used in August of 2003, when we were just getting settled in Saint-Aignan. It has about 120,000 miles on it now, but it has a diesel engine that should last a long time.

Maisons à Mennetou-sur-Cher (1)

The Cadogan Loire guidebook, 2001 edition, describes Mennetou-sur-Cher as "a meagre slice of a medieval town" with "crooked houses and cobbled streets encircled by run-down ramparts." Here are some of those crooked houses. Some are very old and some are not.

Mennetou-sur-Cher: hemmed in or opened up?

Mennetou-sur-Cher, pop. approx. 900), is located not only on the Cher river but also on the Canal de Berry. The canal no longer carries commercial traffic, but is a recreational feature.

The pictures above are some that I took in December 2004. Between the old town of Mennetou and the canal there's what used to be a main road but no longer carries a lot of heavy traffic. A new east-west autoroutewas built just a few miles north about a decade ago and carries truck traffic now.

Mennetou is also on an east-west rail line that connects cities including Nantes, Angers, Tours, Vierzon, Paris, Bourges, and Lyon. This is a photo I took the first time I went there, in October 2000. I'm afraid I haven't been back there since the covid pandemic. I need to go see how much Mennetou has changed over the years.

Mennetou-sur-Cher

About 23 miles east of Saint-Aignan and 10 miles west of Vierzon, on the ancient road that linked the cities of Bourges and Tours, there's a walled village called Mennetou-sur-Cher. The name Mennetou derives from the Latin term monastellum, meaning a small monastery. There used to be one here, but it was sacked and demolished during the Viking invasions of the 8th and 9th centuries. The old town gates at Mennetou are still standing. At the main gate, called la Porte d'en Bas, there's a plaque commemorating Joan of Arc's overnight stay in Mennetou in 1429.

I've been to Mennetou-sur-Cher a number of times over the years and taken a lot of photos. This is the first in a series of posts about the town.

More about Vierzon, and about a mirror

Vierzon is not considered to be a glamorus or picturesque town. Even the town's official website describes it mainly as a place that has three autoroutes nearby and that is known as a railway hub. Vierzon has an industrial past and suffered a lot of damage during World War II.

Still, Vierzon [vyer-zõ] has beautiful features and neighborhoods. It's known as a town where an important part of the economy is the local porcelain factories, which is second only to Limoges in this part of France. As Charles-Henry used to say: Tout est à voir en France. There's something to see everywhere you go.

So here are a few more photos of Vierzon. What else is going on here? Well, two days ago I was on my way to the supermarket when suddenly the interior rear-view mirror fell almost into my lap. It was glued to the windshield, but after nearly 24 years of bon et loyal service, the glue failed.

I went to see my mechanic yesterday and was told that they couldn't repair it. They said I might have to have a new windshield put in. They also pointed me toward a local auto body shop (une carosserie) to see if it could repaired there. It can be, I was told. But the man has to order a special kind of glue, which is expensive and classified as a controlled substance. I guess people sniff it. Anyway, I'll go back today and the man who runs the body shop will try to glue the mirror back onto windshield. I hope it works.

Vierzon, railroads and canals

Vierzon is a medium-size town about an hour's drive east of Saint-Aignan. It's on the Cher river, as is Saint-Aignan, but the Cher at Vierzon is channeled into several canals that flow through the town. Vierzon is on the southern edge of the forested Sologne region, about half way between Saint-Aignan and Sancerre. It is also an established railway hub, with trains lines from Lyon to Nantes and from Paris to Toulouse passing through. I took these photos in early February 2004, less than a year after we came to live in the region. You can see how nice the weather was. For us, Vierzon is a place to go shopping or to take the train to larger cities.