Monday’s Travel Photos – “Wet” Champagne – Half-Timbered Churches

Print pagePDF pageEmail page

Like most people, our only view of Champagne was Reims, Troyes, Epinay and vineyards but late one September, we were looking for somewhere to spend a long weekend and do some cycling before the cold weather set in. We found a gîte near Lac du Der and discovered, to our amazement, the existence of no fewer than eleven half-timber churches in the area, four of which we visited by bike and the rest by car. It was like a treasure hunt as we went from to the other and as you can see from the photos, it was an absolutely perfect day. Many of these churches used to exist in Normandy, but were bombed during the war. The ones in Champagne,mainly built in the 16th century, have been miraculously preserved.

Lentilles 1512
Lentilles 1512
Bailly le Franc 1510
Bailly le Franc 1510
Outines 1530
Outines 1530
Chatillon sur Broué early 16th century
Chatillon sur Broué early 16th century
Drosnay 14th to 18th century
Drosnay 14th to 18th century
Saint Léger sous Margerie 1492
Saint Léger sous Margerie 1492
Morembert 1530
Morembert 1530
Langlois 1483-1493
Langlois 1483-1493
Mathaux 1761
Mathaux 1761
Chapelle de Soulaine-Dhuys 1484-1504
Chapelle de Soulaine-Dhuys 1484-1504
Sainte-Marie-du-Lac-Nuisement 1479
Sainte-Marie-du-Lac-Nuisement 1479, which was dismantled when Lac du Der was built and reassembled in a regional museum

For interior views, see Monday’s Travel Photos – “Wet” Champagne – Half-Timbered Churches – Interiors 

All_About_France_blog_link_up_2This post is part of Lou Messugo’s All About France Link-Up #6. For other contributions, click here.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

11 thoughts on “Monday’s Travel Photos – “Wet” Champagne – Half-Timbered Churches”

  1. What a fantastic collection of churches! We’ve never been up in that region — suppose we should go — there’s currently a car up there that we want to look at, so maybe that will be the incentive 🙂

    Good to meet you yesterday and I hope we didn’t interfere too much with the works programme.

    1. They’re beautiful, aren’t they? Definitely worth the trip.

      Yes, we enjoyed meeting you yesterday too and you were a welcome diversion!

  2. They’re fascinating. I don’t recall ever seeing any pictures or drawings of this kind of church architecture before. Thanks for sharing those pictures!

    1. Yes, they are still in use. Next Monday, I’ll post photos of the inside, because we visited them all except the chapel because it was closed.

  3. These churches are so unusual and very beautiful but they just don’t look like churches to me. I feel like they should be barns, it’s all wrong to see the half timbered look on a church! I thought I knew Champagne quite well too and I’d never heard of these either. Such a fabulous discovery, thanks for sharing them Rosemary.

    1. They are quite extraordinary, aren’t they? Normandy would be full of them, except for WW2.

Leave a Reply to Jane's cousin Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *