It took a bit longer before I wrote the next blog. Sorry!
Here in France, the confinement is decreased again.
This allows us to do more in a larger area and with no attest.
Investigate what is in our environment.
Because, since we came to live here, we actually only drove the distance to the supermarket, hardware store, or garden center and of course saw the only thing about this.
We also know how to find the waste bins flawlessly, but that is not our daily goal.
So it was time to discover everything better.
According to the official notification, we live in Notre Dame de Courson.
Logical, because this village is close to us.
But it turns out that we actually live on the edge of another village: La Croupte.
I thought this was just some kind of hill, with maybe three houses.
But it is actually more. (well, around 100 people living there)
There is even a church and a place of pilgrimage!
Who would have thought. In principle, that place is even close to us, as the crow flies.
According to the data, quite a few people seem to go there every year, all for that special place.
There is a water source at the (otherwise beautiful) church.
Nobody knows how it ever came about, but has been there for many centuries.
They say that it began to sprung when the church was build.
There is a fence around the original source.
And all kind of cloth hangs from that fence: handkerchiefs, socks, pieces of cloth from an unknown destination, broken shirts, and even a baby bib.
Looks like some of them are already quite old, but there are certainly newer ones also hanging on the fence.
I remember this from Gozo, where I had once visited a similar source.
There was no fence but a century-old tree, near a cave where the source was.
This was called "the tree of tears."
Sorrowful people would then hang their handkerchief with tears in that tree in search for comfort.
The water source in La Croupte is sacred.
It is attached to Saint Martin and dates from long before the 15th century.
What is striking are the baby socks that also hang on it.
According to tradition, the source helps against eye diseases, skin diseases, rickets, and helps children to walk.
I have always found old churches or other buildings fascinating: their history and especially what that era was.
We walked around to see the church.
Unfortunately it was still closed because of the Corona measures, but the outside was certainly interesting.
The doors have a beautiful green color (love to have our own door in that same colour, and eventually shutters maybe one day in future, who knows), and the antiquity can be seen here.
The church is still in use today.
Can you imagine that since the fifteenth century!
The limestone walls also have engravings.
Graffiti which was even applied from 1777 (according to wikipedia)
I also discovered one engraving and couldn't really tell the date.
Whether it is a recent one or a very old one.
As far as I can tell, it says 19002 and then Pierre.
But the notification of date (?) is a bit weird I think.
At least I think it is a date.
Anyway: I love it!
