Attending the Marian Procession at Rochefort-en-Terre (Brittany, France) with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget and Savvy Mom Ruth Paget
The next town on our Deep Brittany itinerary was Rochefort-en-Terre. This town had carefully preserved its sixteenth and seventeenth century buildings – no television antennas, dishes, or electrical wires mar the town.
The American painter Klots lived here and created the “Villes Fleuries” (Most Flower-filled Town) competition in 1911. I wished a French painter would come to the United States and start a similar competition. I was surprised that American master gardeners had not come up with a similar idea.
The Church Nรดtre-Dame-de-la-Tonchaye in Rochefort had an interesting story that is similar to many others throughout Europe. The story relates that a peasant girl found a statue of the Virgin in a tree. The statue was hidden from the Normans during their invasions of Brittany during the ninth and tenth centuries.
The statue that is found in the church today is the same one that was found by the peasant girl so many centuries ago. I did not see the statue of the Virgin and thought nothing of it as we went out to the main street for a rest.
We were ambling along the rue Principale when we heard singing. Earlier we had heard singing from a park and had assumed that there was an open-air mass. We did not realize that the singing was part of the procession for the famous Virgin from the church.
A crown surged down the street singing hymns in Latin led by the bishop, who was dressed in purple. People planned vacations around processions like these, and we just happened to be in the right place at the right time. I like good luck.
By Ruth Paget, Author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Click here for: Ruth Paget's Amazon Books
The next town on our Deep Brittany itinerary was Rochefort-en-Terre. This town had carefully preserved its sixteenth and seventeenth century buildings – no television antennas, dishes, or electrical wires mar the town.
The American painter Klots lived here and created the “Villes Fleuries” (Most Flower-filled Town) competition in 1911. I wished a French painter would come to the United States and start a similar competition. I was surprised that American master gardeners had not come up with a similar idea.
The Church Nรดtre-Dame-de-la-Tonchaye in Rochefort had an interesting story that is similar to many others throughout Europe. The story relates that a peasant girl found a statue of the Virgin in a tree. The statue was hidden from the Normans during their invasions of Brittany during the ninth and tenth centuries.
The statue that is found in the church today is the same one that was found by the peasant girl so many centuries ago. I did not see the statue of the Virgin and thought nothing of it as we went out to the main street for a rest.
We were ambling along the rue Principale when we heard singing. Earlier we had heard singing from a park and had assumed that there was an open-air mass. We did not realize that the singing was part of the procession for the famous Virgin from the church.
A crown surged down the street singing hymns in Latin led by the bishop, who was dressed in purple. People planned vacations around processions like these, and we just happened to be in the right place at the right time. I like good luck.
By Ruth Paget, Author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Click here for: Ruth Paget's Amazon Books
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