Out Rambling Around . . .

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This afternoon I was given orders by my daughter that her immediate happiness depended on being driven quite some distance to a friend's house, so despite the rising gasoline prices of late, I obliged her, as it also gave me a good reason to get out and get some fresh, if somewhat freezing, air visiting some places that I hadn't seen before. Like the church in the village of Versigny.
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Where there was an odd sort of gargoyle with a jester's cap and a pointed nose . . .
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Stepping up close to the base of the tower gave another perspective, and a view of the dark underbelly of another gargoyle.
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The Chateau of Versigny was built back in the 1600's.
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A plaque at the entrance announced the role that it had played in World War One. I wasn't particularly looking for more WWI history sites today, but they were looking for me I guess.
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For the past few weeks I've been remiss, I'm guilty, I've missed a few episodes of Weekend Reflections over at James' place, so am diving back in with a little splash with this scene from the moat around the entrance to a lovely property at Droizelles, just up the road from Versigny.
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Looking the other way along the same stretch of water, another reflection. Weekend Reflections rocks !
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Though I searched the web I could not find any mention of what transpired at or near Droizelles on 9 September, 1914, at the start of the war, though one site had a list of the names 49 men of the 317th Infantery Regiment who died at Droizelles that day very early in the war. Ten of those men and their Captain are buried in the graveyard around the church.
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The broken plaque on Captain Paradis' tomb spoke in eloquent silence of how paradise was lost and "France" was cut in two. He was awarded the Legion of Honor.
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The church in Droizelles has one of the loveliest crucifixion sculptures I've ever come across.
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The textures of aging stone and lichens multiplied the character of the original carving toward the realm of the infinite. Rarely has a religiously oriented work of art moved me like this did.
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Passing through an out of the way and obscure village which we had no good reason to visit, other than that it was visible on the map, we were rewarded by a dream house just waiting for a lover of dream houses to drive by and notice her. What is not to love about this place ? The window pane on the left side of the door was missing, the gauze curtain was blowing in the wind.
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On the way home the sky caught fire . . .
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