Louviers

Louviers is on the River Eure and was a powerful textile city, specializing in the production of fine linen cloth.

"In 996 Duke Richard I placed the church of Louviers under the patronage of of the abbey of S-Taurin of Evreux. In the 12th century the town was under the authority of the archbishop of Rouen. The prosperity of Louviers resulted from activities in textile production. 

The first mention of the church of Notre-Dame dates from 1210, but its transept and chevet belong to the late 12th century: the nave was probably begun in the 1190s. 

Having suffered badly in the hostilities of the Hundred Years War, Louviers recovered rapidly after 1450.
In 1460 the clergy of Notre-Dame of Louviers, intending to enlarge the church, acquired a quarry: Master Jehan Gillat then began work on an additional nave aisle on the north side, continuing then on the south where a magnificent porch provided access toward the city center". 

The porch - one of the most remarkable examples of flamboyant gothic architecture in France.

Saint Simon

The Virgin and child by Raoul Verlet was designed to be above the altar, but was moved to free the view of the stained glass window below

Renovated between 1920 and 1930 by the Barillet workshops in Paris.  Originally in the the 15th century it was one large window.

A cute little town with the Eure River running through it.

A little lunch before heading out.  Good sandwiches

Chateau de Gaillon - It is a medieval fortress, owned from 1263 by the archdiocese of Rouen, previously stood on the site, built around a quadrilateral courtyard. It was ruined during the Hundred Years War but was substantially repaired by Cardinal Guillaume d’Estouteville.  

Closed for the season, so we could not go in

One of the grocery stores we went to is in the village of St. Pierre. We had driven this road a number of times in the last two days.  Off in the trees we could see two hugely tall columns and a sign on the road said Abbey de Fontaine Guerard.  We decided to investigate.

This is the Abbey.  Fairly unimpressive.  No columns poking through the trees.

Gate was  closed, so we couldn't get in. 

There was another road leading away from the Abbey that had a big sign in French that had something to do with cars, bikes, pedestrians and horses.  We thought perhaps it meant no autos allowed,  Then we saw one car go down the road and one car come up the road.  Ok, I think we can go down the road and try to find what we saw from the main road and Voila!  There it was.  This huge old ruin in the middle of the river.  Looks lik a cathedral or a church of some sort.  It must have been a magnificent building.   There was a sort of more modern looking metal construction, that appeared to be some sort of dam at one end.  Anyway we finally decided it had to be a church at one time, but why build it in  the middle of the river?  A mystery for sure.  We decided our Manager Mark would know what this structure had been so we would ask him about it.

When Terry asked at the reception desk what it was that we had seen, he said "Oh I didn't mention it in my talk because you aren't supposed to go down there".   However, he said it was an old textile mill.  A wealthy man had it built thinking it should be in keeping with the times and why not make it a magnificent structure in an area known for its textiles.  The dam was likely the remains of the hydraulic power that ran the mill.  Well who would have thought.

We came back and had a little wine and cheese on our patio 

and then cooked dinner in.  It was a beautiful day