Noyers houses (5) : L'Hôtel de Ville

The Michelin Guide says that the Hôtel de Ville, or Town Hall, in Noyers has a façade that dates back only to the 18th century. The foundations of the building date to the 12 century, and it was re-built in the 15th. Then, after a fire, it was given a new façade three centuries later. The Hôte de Ville is just across the way from the charcuterie that I posted about earlier.

You can see the plaque on the right in the larger photo above, at the Hôtel de Ville (lower right corner). It shows how high the waters of the Serein River rose in a flood on 25 September 1866.

Noyers has 78 buildings that are classified or registered as monuments historiques, most of them from the 15th century. Most have never been significantly modified over the centuries. Of course there have been floods and fires over that time, but the town has survived fairly unscathed. Nowadays, Noyers lives essentially on tourism.

Noyers Houses (4) — Kamato

The text here is not mine; it's a translation of a web page referenced at the bottom of the post.

 “This Renaissance-era house was built in the late 15th century. The rooms on the ground floor provided shelter for pilgrims who were walking the trail to Santiago de Compostela, as evidenced by a carved scallop shell just above the front door and the Greek motto « Kamato » just below. The motto means "to take the trouble" or "make the effort" — to succeed "by dint of labor".

“The Kamato mansion was also the House of Justice for the bailiwick of the lords of Noyers. A sword of justice, carved over one of the windows of the courtyard, symbolizes the building's function. The Great Hall of Justice occupies the entire second level. It is accessed via a staircase in courtyard turret. Some of its ceiling beams are elaborately carved, and royal fleurs de lys are engraved into many of the floor tiles.

“The street-side façade, built of carved stone blocks, has elaborate mullioned windows and a rectangular door with stone moldings that was decorated with an oculus window in the 17th century and flanked by scrolls. The corners of the windows are decorated with plant motifs. A stonemason's mark, the letter P, is visible on the facade... The Kamato, located on Rue de la Madeleine at the corner of the Place du Grenier à Sel, is not open to the public.”

Source: http://www.petit-patrimoine.com/fiche-petit-patrimoine.php?id_pp=89279_17

Noyers houses (3)

As I've said, traveling with a dog really restricts what you can do. You can't go into museums or very many shops. You can't go into churches, unless one person stays outside with the animal while the other goes in to look around — that's what we did in the nearby village of Montréal. And you can't just keep the poor dog locked up in the car for hours on end.

This is still Noyers-sur-Serein. That's Walt walking ahead and I'm bringing up the rear, holding Callie's leash. She's pulling me along, trying to keep up with Walt, and I'm trying and more or less succeeding to take photos despite the dog's pulling. She's not really used to be on a leash, since we don't need one for our daily walks in the vineyard.

Here's a different photo of a house that I showed a few days ago. This one also includes the late-15th-century church in Noyers (Notre-Dame). Those cellar door on the front of this old house and many others are evidence that Noyers was once an important wine village. Wine was made and stored in cellars all around the town.

Noyers houses (2)

I did something stupid yesterday and my laptop computer, where I usually compose my blog posts, has been infected by some kind of malware. It's made the browser and Blogger pretty much unusable. So I'm setting this blog post up on Saturday night, on a different computer, for publication tomorrow morning. I'll spend the morning trying to get my computer cleaned up and off. Wish me luck.

Above is another old house in Noyers-sur-Serein in Burgundy.

The shop in yesterday's post is on this little square (or triangle) near the south gate into the town. I think the people standing around were on a bus tour and probably happy to be off the bus for a few mintues. Happy Sunday to you... Happy March too.

P.S. Eight a.m. and I think I got the laptop back. It only took a couple of hours to remove the malware virus. Ouf !