Touring Poitiers Baptistery: Visiting a 4th Century Historical Site in France with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

  

Touring Poitiers Baptistery:  Visiting a 4^th Century Historical Site in France with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

After we visited the Saint-Pierre Cathedral, we went to the Saint John the Baptist Baptistery that was built in the 4^th century in Poitiers.

I thought that there was nothing older than Jouarre Abbaye outside Paris in France with its Mérovingian art, especially its wall of stratified geometric shapes.

The Baptistery at Poitiers packs a lot of history into a small space.

Steps led down into the baptismal pool that has an octagonal shape.  When you are baptized, you become a child of God where men, women, children, and slaves are equally loved.  (“Slaves” is the wording used in the Bible of all Christian sects.)

Several times the Baptistery was faced with destruction, including during the French Revolution when the Baptistery was taken over by the government as a national good.

The town’s librarian Mazet saved it as storage space probably.  Storage space is always in short supply in France in all periods even with garde manger on châteaux grounds to store food.

The interior column capitals still had acanthus leaves, dolphin sculptures, beads, and olives carved on them.  The Baptistery paintings included those of the hand of God, the lamb of God, and the twelve apostles.

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Touring Poitiers: Visiting a Medieval French Town in the Aquitaine with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Touring Poitiers:  Visiting a Medieval French Town in the Aquitaine with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

  

Poitiers is a medieval French town in the Aquitaine region that was founded in 1432.  About 100,000 inhabitants call Poitiers home.

The trees without leaves and cold breeze coming off the Claia and Birre Rivers reminded me that it was winter.  The cold seem to penetrate my thick jacket due to the humidity from the water.  I put extra blankets on Florence as we set out to explore town.

Our first stop was to the tourist office where I picked up a map and tourism guide.  Citizens of Poitiers have roots that go back to Gaul and ancient Rome.

Three significant events happened in Poitiers that are important for French history:

-Christianity became France’s religion when Clovis, King of the Franks, defeated Aleric II, King of the Visigoths, in 507 AD.

-In 732, Charles Martel repelled Muslims from modern-day Spain here to keep the French kingdom sovereign and Christian

-In 1429, a committee of doctors recognized that Joan of Arc was carrying out a mission from God in Poitiers

The biting cold stung our faces and legs, so we went as fast as we could to visit the Saint-Pierre Cathedral built mostly in the 12^th century.

The contorted Romanesque statues around the church portray the urgency of listening to the word of God.  Poitiers is surrounded by the Marais Poitevin or “Poitou Swamp.”

People were fearful of death in Poitou, because the harvest is precarious there.  It is hard to grow crops in swampy land due to the ease with which mold can grow on plants due to dampness. 

If agricultural practices are not maintained to keep the crops dry, rot might set in.  If harvests were small, the aristocrats took it all.

The church visually helped keep order in the agricultural year with their medallions of astrological signs and “travaux” or work associated with that sign.   Sculptures of the astrological sign and the “travaux” that goes with them are usually carved under them on the tympana (half-moons) over church entryway doors.

Weekly markets were held in front of many churches in France where people could view the outside of the church, even if they do not go in.  Illiterate peasants could understand the agricultural work associated with seasonal time by looking at the tympana while aristocrats might look at books like Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Barry (Preserved in the Château de Chantilly Library.)

This church also has a maze or labyrinth painted on the wall as well.  Pilgrimages were encouraged in the Middle Ages to Santiago de Compostella, Rome, and Jerusalem. 

Not everyone could afford to go on a pilgrimage or was physically able to do so.  These labyrinths in churches allowed everyone to visit the Holy Land and visit Christ’s birthplace.

I read that there was a 4^th century baptistery close by as well, which we left the church to visit.

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating of Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Visiting Poitiers (France) - the Birthplace of Eleanor of Aquitaine with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Visiting Poitiers – the Birthplace of Eleanor of Aquitaine – and Bordeaux (France) with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget – Ruth Pennington Paget

We were up bright and early the second day of our trip to Bordeaux to catch the train for Poitiers, where Eleanor of Aquitaine was born.

Poitiers is also the city where Charles Martel stopped the advance of the Moors into France in 732 – 733.  We visited the church Nôtre Dame la Grande that was built in the 11^th ad 12^th centuries.

Since the French did not have the same colorful marble that Italians did, the French painted their churches in the Charente to make them look elegant and festive with bright colors.

We also visited the Poitiers Cathedral and the Saint-Jean Baptistery from the 4^th century, which is one of the three oldest in the world.

The next day, we ate a late breakfast at the Café du Levant.  The vineyard workers, who ate here, cracked me up; they were drinking beer with an English breakfast of sunny side up eggs, thick-cut bacon, sausage, and toast.  The largest customers of Bordeaux wines are the British, so the Bordeaux wine workers eat like the customers.

The next day we did a walking tour on foot through Bordeaux with a Michelin touring guide after eating breakfast.

On the way home in the car, I noted the things I liked about Bordeaux in my journal:

I like the town houses on the quai (port) des Chartrons, which still houses many wine brokerage houses.  There were steps leading up to these homes to deal with heavy rain. 

There were also iron rings at the base of the steps that were used to tie up horses in the past.  Today, these rings are used to hold flowerpots of geraniums.

People in Bordeaux dressed fashionably, but I suspected that as in Paris many people wore their money on their backs.

We went to the supermarket and bought some not-so-expensive bottles of Graves and Entre-Deux-Mers to go with gambas al ajillo (Spanish garlic shrimp). 

I loved gambas al ajillo (Spanish garlic shrimp) and could make it with no problem very quickly, using fresh or frozen shrimp.

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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