Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Ancient Stones . . .

Sometimes wandering around in France one finds paving stones in odd places, like these, next to a 15th century church, that you can imagine were not set in the ground yesterday. I can't imagine riding over such stones in a carriage with iron bands around the hardwood wheels. . . a back-breaking business, no doubt. . . but today, in a quiet alley where no one drives any more, they sit quietly, waiting once more for the sparks from iron shod horses hooves to set their patina aglow . . . yes, today, they wait patiently in the rain. . . for someone to notice them, for someone to see their inner beauty . . .
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And the church in question had a sign on it stating it was a registered historic monument, which seemed, well, a bit obvious to me. . . or perhaps it was the sign itself which was the registered monument ?
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13 comments:

Jess said...

Hi Owen,
I don't know whether you're english too, but we call them 'cobbles' here. Not a very good desciptive name because they are so pretty with their colours! Impossible to push a buggy over mind you (I talk from experience!)

The Sagittarian said...

Great photo, Owen! I am super impressed with the wonderful hisotrical themes you lucky sods have other there, our country isn't nearly as old in terms of settlement which means we don't have as many old things to take photos of! (I've been away with work this week and off again in the morning, will try and catch up!!)

Anonymous said...

What a lovely image.

"Sitting quietly waiting to be noticed",

GG

jeff said...

Salut M ister Owen !
J'aime beaucoup ta photographie et les couleurs des pavés !
Quant au M onument historique... no co MM ent !
Au fait, la roue arrière droite du camion citerne a éclatée sur l'A9 et donc... impossible de te livrer à temps ! Baahhh ! Il doit bien te rester un bon W hisky pure M alt !
Ciao amigo... sorry... M onsieur Owen Allez, à plus !

Alex said...

Hi Owen, Again you've hit us with a great shot. Keep shooting. See ya.

jeff said...

Au fait... j'ai entendu ton appel pour Arnaud... et il faut dire que ses photos sont d'une grande qualité...! J'aime pas trop voter...mais quand c'est M onsieur Owen qui le demande... je vote !
VOTED !

Ciao Owen !

Batteson.Ind said...

That's a particularly nice looking paved lane!.. I have a theory that the world would be a better place if roads were still cobbled/paved... as for the sign, sometimes humans love to state the obvious!

Steve said...

My wild imagination is seeing the stones covered in rotting food and human ordure and people sliding over them in the most basic of shoes in times gone by. Sorry to be so scatalogical!

Margaret Pangert said...

Can you imagine the Tour de France bikers flying over cobblestones? As we see, they still exist here and there. The stonework of the cathedrale is beautiful. Each one has it own shade and hue. Lovely! And Owen, your introduction was very elegiac and pensive. Nice touch.

Owen said...

Margaret & Steve, well, I can imagine the Tour de France folks slipping, sliding, and calamitously going head over heels in a pile in all the offal that Steve so kindly splashed out all over the cobble stones here with that vivid imagination... but they pick themselves up and ride on to the yellow jersey.

Watercats, maybe if roads were still cobbled, people wouldn't drive so fast, and there might be less road kill??? Good idea... not sure the oil lobby goons will go for it though...

Jeff, j'espere qu'il y en a plein qui vont voter pour le blog d'Arnaud... entre lui et Loulou, l'Inde a deux blogs extraordinaires ! Merci ! Dommage pour le camion... en fait, je ne bois pas de whisky, only Milk... like a good cowboy...

Alex ... thanks !

Jessie, Sagit, and Not Waving... thanks to all three for dropping by and saying hi with these kind words. Today's definition of "lucky sod" is someone who gets to lay down and smell the remnants of centuries old slop and offal by placing his nose in the crack between two cobble stones while trying to get a ground level photograph and keep his tee shirt clean all the while..." Just imagine what all gets wedged and packed in between such stones over the centuries...

Amy said...

Oh what those paving stones have seen. All the variations in the color are beautiful and speak volumes of the history and stories they must know.

Delwyn said...

Ho Owen,
those cobble stones certainly appear rough and uneven but I remember being told in Jerusalem that paving was laid very roughly to stop the horses from slipping...

When walking the Nakasendo in Japan we encountered small sections of the original ishidatami paving, that too, was very hard to walk on especially when wet and mossy...

Happy Days

Happy days

cieldequimper said...

J'aime ce sentiment d'appartenance que me donnent les lieux qui ont tant vécu...