Thursday 25 September 2008

Le Pont Chrétien

On the way to almost everywhere, I pass through a pretty village with an interesting name: Pont Chrétien, Christian Bridge. I stopped one day last week to find out more and explore, and took the following pictures.


This is the main road crossing the river. I don't know if this could be the bridge that named the village.



A short walk into the countryside and you come across the Château de Chabenet in the neighbouring commune. It is now a holiday resort.



My efforts to approach the château were thwarted. This is not a milk cow, nor even a dairy cow. It is a Charolais bull in training.



The church doesn't appear to be closely associated with the bridge.



This is the river - the Bouzanne. It seems to flood quite readily. There is an incredibly bad translation of the French Wikipedia entry for the Bouzanne on Speedylook (whatever that is).
"The river is born with the borders from the department from the Creuse, close to Aigurande, and moves consequently towards the north-north-east, in direction of Chateauroux. It bathes Cluis and Neuvy-Saint-Sepulchre. Arrived at the accesses of the forest of Chateauroux, it starts a broad loop, towards the west initially, then towards south-west, sprinkles the locality of Velles and joined a little the Nickle silver-on-Hollow Creuse downstream from . "



Up river from the bridge is another château. This one is the Château du Broutet, the mairie - the town hall - a very splendid town hall for a small community.

The mystery of the name remains: Pont Chrétien, Christian Bridge - why? I can't find out.

9 comments:

  1. beautiful pictures; I feel like I am there!! How nice for you!

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a lovely-looking place that is! Did the young bull give you trouble? Charolais bulls are generally fairly docile. Maybe he thought you were going to feed him!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Whereabouts is this? Lovely photos once again.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Nancy, thank you! I am very lucky, in so many ways.
    Dragonstar, the young bull was not giving anything away, so I decided not to discuss the point with him :) Plus, he wasn't alone.
    Elaine, it's right in the centre of France, virtually in the middle of nowhere. Beautiful but largely, and fortunately from our point of view, disregarded by tourists.

    ReplyDelete
  5. These photographs are simply magical! Thank you for sharing. Very inspiring:)

    ReplyDelete
  6. What wonderful, petorisc and great nature view and with breath taken European architecture - thanks for sharing!

    Wishing you a great end to your week :-)

    ReplyDelete
  7. What a wonderful local "Tour de France".
    For me it is very vivid - I'm back in France again.
    Splendid post.

    btw. Sorry not to visiting not commenting your wonderful blog for a while, due to the 3x20 Event.The last post was published Friday.pls excuse

    PS. Not to forget: Thanks for the greetings to Anna on RennyBA's blog.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi There, I spent three idylic weeks in le Pont Chretien in August 2008 with my family. Simply one of the best times of our lives, right in the heart of the real France with so many hidden gems on your doorstep. We stayed with Annie and Mike at the converted mill next to the Church, thoroughly recommended (Moulin de Pont). Le Pont Chretien still has the original bridge, there is a model of the bridge on the roundabout coming into the village and the real bridge is still in existence, you just need to go past the Chateau de Chabenet and continue for half mile or so and take a right. There you will find a delightful wooden bridge which is Le Pont Chretien.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi Spencer, yes, if you look at a later post, Le Pont Couvert, there's a picture or two there. But that's the covered bridge built sometime after 1847 so can't have given the village the name. I'm really glad to hear you had a good stay. I think it's a lovely part of France.

    ReplyDelete

Forethoughts, afterthoughts, any thoughts. Tell me.

LinkWithin

Blog Widget by LinkWithin