Le Tortoir, un ancien prieuré dans l'Aisne

Le Tortoir, out in the country about 15 miles north of Soissons, is a 14th century fortified Catholic priory

(a religious community — more or less a small abbey, convent, or monastery). It was a dependency of
a nearby abbey that had been founded several centuries earlier by Philippe 1er, who was king
of the Franks for 48 years (1060-1108). Only ruins of that abbey remain today.

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Le Tortoir is a small compound made up of a residential building, a chapel, and a big mysterious barn of a building.
The property is closed in by buildings on two sides and walls on the two other sides — here's an aerial view.
It's not open to the public (il ne se visite pas). Nowadays it's privately owned. CHM and I stopped there
to take photos after spending a few hours in Soissons in June 2011.

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This is a large-format composite image I created by stitching together two separate photos.
The building on the right in this image is the one you see in photos #4 and #5 below.

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Nobody knows what the large barn of a building at Le Tortoir was used for. It might have housed a leper colony,
or it might have been a refectory and dormitory for guests visiting the priory. It was probably built early in
the 14th century. It measures 28 meters (92 ft) by 10 meters (32 ft). At the time of the French Revolution,
when properties owned by the clergy were privatized, Le Tortoir was sold to a farming family who lived
there for about 100 years. In 1925, after the priory complex was bought by a Belgian company,
the big old barn was used as stables. The windows were filled in to reinforce the structure.
All this detailed but sketchy information is in the French Wikipédia article about Le Tortoir.

La Galettière, une crêperie

When CHM and I were in Soissons that June day long ago, we had lunch in a restaurant before we went to take photos in the cathedral. The restaurant we chose was a crêperie that also served the savory (i.e. not sweet) crêpes that are called galettes in Brittany and, according to the dictionary, western France. Galettes are thin buckwheat pancakes that are filled with ham, cheese, mushrooms, etc. and often have an egg on top. Buckwheat is called sarrasin in French, so they are galettes de sarrasin. The word galette has many meanings, including what we call a cookie. Essentially, it's a flat, round cake or bread in this context.

The word crêpe is related to the English word "crisp". They're very thin pancakes that are crispy and lacy around the edges. They are not leavened with baking powder the way American pancakes are. The galette above is what I had for lunch
in Soissons. It was served with mushrooms in a  thick béchamel sauce, with an egg on top and with melted cheese.
I think I can see a slice of ham inside.

The galette also came with a green salad on the side. French salad is often just leaf lettuce with a vinaigrette dressing
and some salt and pepper — unless it's a salade composée, which can beserved as a main course (plat principal).
The restaurant, La Galettière, bills itself not only as a crêperie, but also as a saladerie.

As we left the restaurant, I took this photo of our waiter, who was outside taking a cigarette break.
Here's a link to the Tripadvisor page about la Galettière, with many more photos.

Croyant ou pas croyant ?

Isn't it ironic that in France, one of the most un-religious countries in the world these days, every town and village is centered on a church, and every city has dozens of them? The city of Tours — pop. approx. 140,000, area 13½ mi²) — there are more than 50 churches and chapels. I think most of them stand empty most of the time — even on Sundays. By the way, churches in France are publicly owned (by the national government or local governments), with the exception of those built after 1905, the year France officially declared the separation of church and state. An article I just read says there are 32,000 churches, 6,000 chapels, and 87 cathedrals in France.

        
Paintings I photographed in the cathedral at Soissons in 2011

Meanwhile, the Paris newspaper Le Figaro reported last September that according to a 2021 poll, 51% of the French people they interviewed said that that they personally don't believe in God. When asked whether the Covid-19 pandemic had made them more likely to practice a religion, 91% said no. Asked in 2021 if they ever discuss religion with family members, 58% said no, compared to 38% who said no to that question when polled in 2009.

        
I think I read that this Virgin and Child I saw in Soissons cathedral dates back to the 11th or 12th century.

Soissons : vitraux

These are just a few of the photos of stained glass that I took in the cathedral at Soissons in 2011.
A stained-glass window is un vitrail [vee-TRAH-yuh] in French; the plural is vitraux [vee-TROH].

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5      6      7   

I applied a Photoshop "dry brush" effect on photo 1 and photo 7 because they were not as sharp as the others.
Here's a very detailed description of the church windows at the cathedral in Soissons.