It is important that this post begins by quoting in its entirety my short lament from 2013. I hope that this post is comprehensible, because for the first time I write to ask for an answer. ☀︎ ☀︎ ☀︎ ☀︎ ☀︎ The Crack-up (June 2013) “In a real dark night of the soul it is […]
The town of Quimperlé fooled us completely. We went to the market town about 20 kilometers northwest of Lorient in order to see the Romanesque rotunda church, the Église Sainte-Croix. We immediately headed up the hill to the center of town towards the dominating spire of a church, knowing with certainty that we would find […]
Legend says that Notre Dame du Lac in the small Vaucluse town of Le Thor was built at the request of the Emperor Charlemagne in the ninth century to commemorate a miracle that occurred in the town. I have found two versions of the miracle. In the first, it appears that there was a local […]
June has been a pretty important month for this Via Lucis blog. First off, we have now received over 500,000 visitors in this, our tenth year. Now I know that many blogs and sites get more than that in a day, but there are not talking about medieval art and architecture. When we first started […]
Following our post on the newly restored Notre Dame du Port in Clermont-Ferrand, PJ and I decided to feature an unrestored church in Burgundy. The 12th century Église Saint-Pierre-aux-Liens in Varenne-l’Arconce is quite beautiful but is unfortunately in poor condition and in need of restoration. The name of the church translates to “Saint Peter in […]
There are so many wonderful stories and legends associated with the churches we photograph in France, but none is more pleasing than that of Saint Menulphe and his friend, the Simpleton of Mailly-sur-Rose, a town in the Allier. Menulphe was the son of an Irish king and very devout. He traveled to England, Brittany and […]
The Department of Yonne in Burgundy is one of our favorite places in France and very fertile for our photographic explorations. It is home to the Basilique Sainte Madeleine in Vézelay, the Cathédrale Saint-Étienne in Auxerre, the Collégliale Saint Lazare in Avallon and also the Cathédrale Saint-Étienne de Sens. Today, Sens is a fairly quiet […]
The abbey church Notre Dame de Bernay is one of the earliest examples of Norman Romanesque architecture that remains to us. It is no longer a consecrated church and currently serves as a community exhibition hall and tourist attraction in the center of the town of Bernay. It was empty when we shot there in […]
Sometimes PJ and I forget some amazing places and scenes after we finish traveling. This church in Saint-Jean-de-Verges was one of those and is one of the most simple and beautiful Romanesque structures in the Ariège but it had slipped from my memory until looking through the library of our last trip. I am glad […]
Les jugements de Dieu sont des abîmes. Les abîmes de la sagesse, de la miséricorde de Dieu. This phrase “Abyssus abyssum invocat” is full of obscurity, of mysteries impenetrable to reason. The abyss calls to the abyss, the deep calls to the deep. For some, one hell calls for another. But in French, “L’abîme appelle […]
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