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.
For interior views, see Monday’s Travel Photos – “Wet” Champagne – Half-Timbered Churches – Interiors
This post is part of Lou Messugo’s All About France Link-Up #6. For other contributions, click here.
Wow, they are really beautiful.
And so little known. We had been going to Champagne for years without even hearing about them.
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.
They’re beautiful, aren’t they? Definitely worth the trip.
Yes, we enjoyed meeting you yesterday too and you were a welcome diversion!
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!
I wonder what the interiors are like and if they are still in use
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.
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.
They are quite extraordinary, aren’t they? Normandy would be full of them, except for WW2.