A day out in the Beaujolais

Mother Teresa

It was a glorious day and so we set off into the Beaujolais on yet another Romanesque church hunt. While Cees photographs every Romanesque, pseudo-Romanesque, neo-Romanesque and non-Romanesque feature that a church has to offer, I get to sit around and look at bits and pieces. The saints in French churches particularly fascinate me. When I first arrived, I could hardly name any of them, but over the years I have come to recognise all the common ones, St Joan of Arc, St Anthony, St Joseph, St Curé, St Teresa and I can now tell the difference between St Michael and St George - pretty tricky as they are both normally killing dragons.

I have taken loads of photos of them over the years, partly as a record of some of the nicer examples, but partly to log who I have actually seen. It is not often these day that I get to see a statue of a saint that I have never seen before, but this trip was one of those occasions. I was completely amazed at this statue, I recognised her from the other end of the church, one of the most “modern” or should I say “new” saints there is. There she was, next door to her namesake, Mother Teresa herself complete with her iconic poor sisters of Calcutta style sari. It has got me wondering when I will see my first St John Paul II.

Clochmerle pressoir

After that bit of saint hunting, we headed off into the Beaujolais hills looking for a picnic spot. We saw a sign to Vaux-en-Beaujolais and decided to visit the town. This town is famous for being the real-life version of the fictional town Clochemerle. Having said that, why any town would want to associate itself with a pissoire (urinal) is beyond me. Anyway, when we got there, we headed for the church to see the (in)famous pissoire. We searched all round the building, there were talking flower pots (I kid you not) and a pressoire (wine press) covered in flowers but not a pissoire in sight. I was beginning to wonder if I had misinterpreted the story, maybe it was an argument over the village pressoire and not pissoire that the book was about, but I was sure I was right.

Clochmerle Pissoire

I was beginning to feel a little let down by the town’s hype when we stumbled upon the pissoire itself, conventiently located next to some picnic tables where we duly had our lunch, with a beautiful view of the pissoire on one side and a more beautiful view over the Beaujolais hills and vineyards on the other. The only thing missing was a bottle of wine to wash down our mousse de vollaile, rosette and brie de Meaux, maybe next time…

 
For information on our holiday accommodation, not far from the Beaujolais click here.