Tuesday, January 26, 2010

La Tour Saint-Martin In Vendôme

Only the bell tower survives in the square where the Church of Saint-Martin once stood. The church was built in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, but was weakened by modifications after the Revolution. Its roof collapsed in 1854 and the church was demolished.

The bell tower of the former église St.-Martin.

Since then, the space occupied by the church has been transformed into a public square.

8 comments:

  1. I like the photo!

    Okay, now, back to Loir and Loire and Val and Vallée, if I may!:

    This is what I understand:
    1. la Valée de la Loire = the valley along the fleuve known as the Loire

    2. le val de Loire = a larger area around the fleuve known as the Loire, but also encompassing areas around the smaller rivers, Cher, Indre, Somme, etc. (?)

    3. le Val du Loir= is this the same thing as la Vallée du Loir? And does this then mean the valley along the rivière known as le Loir? I see these two links:

    Vallée du Loir
    and
    Office du tourisme du val du Loir

    and I'm never clear on why we use DU Loir but simply DE Loire after the term Val (Val de Loire, but Val du Loir)... why not Val de la Loire?

    Whew!
    Judy

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  2. Oh yeah, tell me that this isn't (yet one more) an amazing picture.

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  3. Nice pic

    btw: it's the prep for the c procedure that's p.i.t.a. Otherwise, it's not bad at all ( especially if you are sedated)

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  4. Good luck answering Judy's question! (Monsieur Charles Henri,
    apres vous!)

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  5. What a stunning blog...so happy I found it..and I am JEALOUS...what a beautiful place to live :)

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  6. I love the architecture of old churches.

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  7. To talk someday about the cheese that stays there!

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  8. judy, good questions, all. I know that vallée is used for the geographic feature and val is used for a region. Maybe that's the difference. The valley of THE Loire river, versus the valley of Loire (region), where LA Loire is the physical river and just Loire (without its article) stands for the concept of the region. Just a guess... but val du Loir confuses that. Unless people are just use the terms, depending on what sounds better or cooler. You know, marketing and all.

    alewis, aw shucks!

    beaver, thanks. Ken just went through the c thing last year so I know what the prep involves. Not worried. ;)

    mama stress, thanks! I appreciate the comments!

    starman, yes, they can be fascinating.

    michael, check out chez lulu. She does a lot about cheese.

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Tell me what you think!