For this week’s Thursday Doors I’m back to the churches again. The church itself is another wonderful example dating from the 12th to 13th century but the door this time is rather different. Instead of the ancient heavy oak, the door is a fairly sober painted affair (in a beautiful and very French greeny grey) with a lovely rounded panel of simple decoration above. In total contrast, the sculpted and carved limestone which surrounds it, is wonderfully elaborate and beautifully gothic.
The day I visited was an extremely bright hot summer day and the first impression of the main church building was baking and yellow in the sun. Arriving around the far side of the church to find the door, it almost seemed to belong to a different building, protected by gentle leafy shade and offering a cool and welcoming refuge………
Thanks as always to Norm for hosting this excellent Thursday Doors challenge.
ALL PHOTOS © JANE MORLEY
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View from a French Hillside 
Wowzer! Simply stunning. 🙂
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Thankyou so much Julie! 🙂
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Wondrous, Jane. 🙂
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Thank you Sarah!
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That’s a great façade around the door. It looks like the door is not nearly as old as the building.
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I think you may well be right Timothy, it’s a bit of a mixture of styles for sure! Something very warm and friendly about it!
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very beautiful and interesting photographs in your blog.
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Many thanks indeed robert20359 for your kind comments and your interest!
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Beautiful church with a lovely door. 🙂
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Thank you Judy!
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Jane, this is such a beautiful door. Reading your posts makes me curious Asti how you ended up residing on a French hillside. I often tease my husband that I’d like to someday live in Tuscany; you seem to be living a similar dream! xx
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Long story short Grace – one of those life changing moments, need for change and escape from the rat-race. A tentative visit to view some properties, last on a disappointing list, the Hillside, love at first sight – et Voilà – Kismet! 🙂
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Oh, so envious, Jane! I know just what you mean about the need to escape the rat-race…or should I say my husband does. His 5 hour roundtrip commute to the city is wearing him down and he is counting the days until retirement (3 years). I hope that we have as much success in finding a little piece of heaven as you did!
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Gosh, 5 hours is frightful! I used to spend all my time on the M25 around London – usually in traffic jams – could not do that any more! In the end I think it’s not so much where you are as what you do with the time you have, for us it needed a move away but don’t think that’s true for everyone, sometimes the little piece of heaven is right where you are already 🙂
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Hey Jane – you’ve got my theme! It’s great, isn’t it? I love the look of this theme. Eveything just fits in nicely, doesn’t it, photos and text….. and the building pics are great too. 🙂
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Hi Debbie, I must go look! It is a good theme yes, except sometimes the portrait photos are cut off by the titles but I still like it! Glad you like the pics too!
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Hi Jane, I can see how you would feel annoyed about the pics cutting into the photos – that only happens i think when you set a feature photo – as i often do – and i can see it has cut into the one at the top of this post. But for some odd reason I have never felt annoyed about that. In a weird way – and I normally dont like things off balance – I even like it, as long as I’ve thought up a good title. Its kind of like the ( hopefully good) title intrudes into the space of the photo, making the photo kowtow to the importance of the words. something like that, anyhow!
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Good point Debbie! It irritated me a couple of times when I selected my photo only to find an important bit of was hidden by my title – still not that big a problem really for such a nice theme!
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That is simply lovely. Very good choice ☺
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Thank you Norm, pleased you like it and good to see more people joining in the challenge this week 🙂
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Another piece of architectural charm and allure. If the builders of these churches were hoping to entice worshipers to cross the threshold, they certainly knew how to create a come-hither invitation.
Lovely photos again, Jane. Lucky you to live so close!
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Cheers Shelley! They certainly knew a thing or two in those days that we seem to have forgotten with regards to architecture at least, warmth has a major part to play as I see it!
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Jane, these are comfortingly lovely photos, which would be, I think, just perfect for a church where we go for comfort. I love the detail around the door and the way it’s old and faded (in the best possible way.) I agree that the door appears to be newer, but whoever designed it, made it fit in perfectly. It will age well.
janet
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Thank you Janet, I agree completely! I confess that whether it’s 200 years or 500 years old, the simplicity of that door is perfect to me and works wonderfully with the elaborate stone carving.
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