scruffy1
Veteran Member
- Time of past OR future Camino
- Holy Year from Pamplona 2010, SJPP 2011, Lisbon 2012, Le Puy 2013, Vezelay (partial watch this space!) 2014; 2015 Toulouse-Puenta la Reina (Arles)
I took some 2000 photogaphstrying to arrange a Picasa album but am only on Moissac, a long way yet to go.
Moissac is a lovely place, the Ultreia gite is the only place to consider stopping, Rom & Aideen who own and operate the gite are Irish so expect a lot of potatoes with your Miam Miam they are perfect hosts.
Saint Pierre is a beautiful church and the nuns sing divinely, Vespers in the evening around 1800 and Laude 0800 or 0830 in the morning. The church, its tympanum, and the cloisters (do take the time to see all the sculptured capitals of the cloister columns from within and from the grassy sides) all should be visited at different times in different lights to enjoy it properly; the entrance ticket is good all day making it easy to return.
The church itself is extremely interesting. The base is classic Romanesque, see the windows, the ambulatory now sunken and largely screened from view by the New Jerusalem podium piece. The church was enlarged and rebuilt in the Gothic style and a long look inside and out will reveal several amusing details. The Gothic addition does not quite fit properly atop the Romanesque base; the new high pointed arched windows do not overlap the smaller Romanesque windows but are offset and do not matchup by several meters, the buttresses block some of the older windows. Inside the church as one approaches the altar in a small shrine on the left side, one can easily perceive a door. Nothing spectacular except that it is 3-4 meters up the side of the wall with no stairs or ladder to be accessible.
Saint James is there as you enter but down by the altar on the right hand side is another shrine depicting a much more modern sculpture piece of Jesus taken from the cross including, Mary, as well as the Magdalene, and the mother of Saint James -Mary- for once easily recognized. A marvelous church-did I mention Jeremiah? He is easily overlooked since he is located on the inside panel of the right door below the tympanum.
Moissac is a lovely place, the Ultreia gite is the only place to consider stopping, Rom & Aideen who own and operate the gite are Irish so expect a lot of potatoes with your Miam Miam they are perfect hosts.
Saint Pierre is a beautiful church and the nuns sing divinely, Vespers in the evening around 1800 and Laude 0800 or 0830 in the morning. The church, its tympanum, and the cloisters (do take the time to see all the sculptured capitals of the cloister columns from within and from the grassy sides) all should be visited at different times in different lights to enjoy it properly; the entrance ticket is good all day making it easy to return.
The church itself is extremely interesting. The base is classic Romanesque, see the windows, the ambulatory now sunken and largely screened from view by the New Jerusalem podium piece. The church was enlarged and rebuilt in the Gothic style and a long look inside and out will reveal several amusing details. The Gothic addition does not quite fit properly atop the Romanesque base; the new high pointed arched windows do not overlap the smaller Romanesque windows but are offset and do not matchup by several meters, the buttresses block some of the older windows. Inside the church as one approaches the altar in a small shrine on the left side, one can easily perceive a door. Nothing spectacular except that it is 3-4 meters up the side of the wall with no stairs or ladder to be accessible.
Saint James is there as you enter but down by the altar on the right hand side is another shrine depicting a much more modern sculpture piece of Jesus taken from the cross including, Mary, as well as the Magdalene, and the mother of Saint James -Mary- for once easily recognized. A marvelous church-did I mention Jeremiah? He is easily overlooked since he is located on the inside panel of the right door below the tympanum.
