{"id":5577,"date":"2014-05-03T21:11:25","date_gmt":"2014-05-04T01:11:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=5577"},"modified":"2018-08-24T15:50:15","modified_gmt":"2018-08-24T19:50:15","slug":"saturday-may-3-2014-some-architecture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=5577","title":{"rendered":"Saturday, May 3, 2014 \u2014 Some Architecture"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"14-05-03<\/a>

The Blavet on a qui\u00adet bend. I walked the path for a km and met nobody.<\/p><\/div>\n

For such a short vis\u00adit, I was able to see a good deal of the coun\u00adtry\u00adside of Mor\u00adbi\u00adhan. Didi\u00ader drove me to a num\u00adber of won\u00adder\u00adful places, and I also cov\u00adered a con\u00adsid\u00ader\u00adable amount on my own, on foot, and did some hitch-hik\u00ading as well.<\/span><\/p>\n

But rather than attempt to recon\u00adstruct where I vis\u00adit\u00aded chrono\u00adlog\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly, or trip by trip, I think I\u2019ll just present a gallery of images, with a few comments.<\/span><\/p>\n

An aston\u00adish\u00ading num\u00adber of struc\u00adtures built before 1800 sur\u00advive in Brit\u00adtany, and there\u2019s a very large num\u00adber of medieval build\u00adings among them. Not just spec\u00adtac\u00adu\u00adlar things like cas\u00adtles and chateaus, but ordi\u00adnary, small scale things like parish church\u00ades, chapels, mills, farm build\u00adings and hous\u00ades. The land\u00adscape is full of them. The chapels are par\u00adtic\u00adu\u00adlar\u00adly well-pre\u00adserved, and Brit\u00adtany is famous for them. Most have remained in con\u00adtin\u00adu\u00adous use, and they have suf\u00adfered lit\u00adtle from either neglect or overzeal\u00adous restora\u00adtion. Many of the great cathe\u00addrals of France have been annoy\u00ading\u00adly mod\u00adi\u00adfied \u2014- it\u2019s said of the archi\u00adtect-bureau\u00adcrats Eug\u00e8ne Vio\u00adl\u00adlet-le-Duc and his suc\u00adces\u00adsor Paul Abadie, that they did more dam\u00adage than a bar\u00adbar\u00adian inva\u00adsion, as they tore down any devi\u00ada\u00adtion from their text-book notion of medieval archi\u00adtec\u00adture. But nobody thought these sim\u00adple struc\u00adtures in remote Brit\u00adtany were impor\u00adtant, so they left them alone, and the fer\u00advour of anti-cleri\u00adcism dur\u00ading the Rev\u00ado\u00adlu\u00adtion did not reach there. I am not at all reli\u00adgious, but I love small church\u00ades, mosques, syn\u00ada\u00adgogues and tem\u00adples, espe\u00adcial\u00adly in vil\u00adlage or coun\u00adtry set\u00adtings. They usu\u00adal\u00adly embody the desire of local peo\u00adple to have some\u00adthing fine and inspir\u00ading for them\u00adselves. Great cathe\u00addrals rep\u00adre\u00adsent pow\u00ader, mon\u00adey and author\u00adi\u00adty. But lit\u00adtle chapels and parish church\u00ades are built from gen\u00aduine faith, and it shows in the qual\u00adi\u00adty of their archi\u00adtec\u00adture, con\u00adstruc\u00adtion and decor. What could be more aes\u00adthet\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly pleas\u00ading than, say, a per\u00adfect white-paint\u00aded New Eng\u00adland vil\u00adlage church, the sim\u00adple log church\u00ades erect\u00aded in the Cana\u00addi\u00adan north, the tiny lit\u00adtle fan\u00adta\u00adsy-like church\u00ades in Ruthe\u00adnia and Sile\u00adsia, or the lit\u00adtle Bud\u00addhist monas\u00adter\u00adies over\u00adlook\u00ading precipices in Bhutan? Each embod\u00adies more human than theo\u00adcrat\u00adic val\u00adues, and usu\u00adal\u00adly sits com\u00adfort\u00adably with the nature around it. This taste\u00adful\u00adness is obvi\u00adous\u00adly a pow\u00ader\u00adful, long-term influ\u00adence, because even the pow\u00ader\u00adhous\u00ades built by elec\u00adtric com\u00adpa\u00adnies along the Blavet in the 1920\u2019s have a charm that makes them pleas\u00ading to the eye, and mod\u00adern, new\u00adly-built hous\u00ades tend to fit in well with the old.<\/span><\/p>\n

Didi\u00ader took me to see one pre\u00adserved and recon\u00adstruct\u00aded his\u00adtor\u00adi\u00adcal vil\u00adlage. It was not \u201copen for busi\u00adness\u201d, but the grounds were not restrict\u00aded. But for the most part, the build\u00adings we saw togeth\u00ader, and the ones I found on foot by myself, remain part of dai\u00adly life. They are work\u00ading chapels and church\u00ades, or farm and vil\u00adlage hous\u00ades that are still lived in. Along the road\u00adsides, there are numer\u00adous cal\u00advaires<\/em>, lit\u00adtle shrines erect\u00aded by local fam\u00adi\u00adlies. The most intense con\u00adcen\u00adtra\u00adtion of old build\u00adings that I saw was at Bieuzy (Bieuzhi-an-Dour<\/em> in Bre\u00adton). I kept expect\u00ading a mus\u00adke\u00adteer to step out from one of the doors.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here is a gallery of build\u00adings I saw. There were many oth\u00aders for which I could not find pic\u00adtures. I inad\u00adver\u00adtent\u00adly left my cam\u00adera behind while hasti\u00adly pack\u00ading in Toronto.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"14-05-03<\/a>\"14-05-03<\/a>\"14-05-03<\/a><\/p>\n

\"14-05-03<\/a>\"14-05-03<\/a> \"14-05-03<\/a>\"14-05-03<\/a>\"14-05-03<\/a>\"14-05-03<\/a> \"14-05-03<\/a>\"14-05-03<\/a>\"14-05-03<\/a>\"14-05-03<\/a>\"14-05-03<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For such a short vis\u00adit, I was able to see a good deal of the coun\u00adtry\u00adside of Mor\u00adbi\u00adhan. Didi\u00ader drove me to a num\u00adber of won\u00adder\u00adful places, and I also cov\u00adered a con\u00adsid\u00ader\u00adable amount on my own, on foot, and \u2026<\/p>\n

Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,940],"tags":[1448,1443,1445,1116,1446,1442,1447],"class_list":["post-5577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-blog","category-am-blog-2014","tag-bieuzy","tag-blavet","tag-brittany","tag-didier-durassier","tag-eugene-viollet-le-duc","tag-morbihan","tag-paul-abadie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5577"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5577\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5621,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5577\/revisions\/5621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}