Something's missing

Are you tired of market pictures, yet? I took this one from the southeastern corner of the market square, looking north toward the collégiale church and the château. I kept looking at it, thinking that it didn't quite look right. Something was different.

The newly renovated market square is missing a familiar sight: the high-pitched roofs of the old présidial.

Then I think I figured out what it was. The large roof of the old présidial is missing (see what it looked like here). It should be visible just to the left of the smaller church tower, blocking the view of the château's roof line. It's been torn down. That's not surprising, given that the roof had huge gashes in it and looked like it might collapse any time.

Within the past year, a large scaffolding was erected around the giant roof, and I thought that repairs were under way. But it seems that demolition was the goal. I have no information about whether the demolition is temporary or permanent. Did they remove the old broken roof and build something more modest to save the building? Are there plans to rebuild the roof as it once was? Who knows?

I'll have to talk to my friends who live in town and see what they know. We live outside the town limits in another jurisdiction, so we don't get any newsletters or other official information about what goes on in Saint-Aignan proper. It would be a shame to permanently lose that old roof; it was a distinctive part of the town's skyline. On the other hand, renovations cost money and saving the building and making it usable (not to mention safer) might be more realistic in this case than preserving the skyline.

I know, being a city planner, that you can't save everything. Sometimes photographs and memories have to suffice. And, actually, the view is much better this way.