Travel in France – Chaumeil & Treignac

Chaumeil is a tiny hamlet (c.160 people) under the Monédiéres Hills, but in the late 1880s it was a community of nearly 1,000.

The Church of Saint Jacques is Romanesque but has obviously been changed. There are two interesting carvings, in the porch and on the side of the building, but sadly I can’t find any information about them. I first thought one carving was a fish, a symbol of Christianity, but it is dated 1722 and has teeth!

And here is yet another small and remote village heavily affected by WWI.

It was still early in the day and so we drove up to Treignac but sadly were too tired to do the town justice, and only now do I find there is an amazing chocolate shop in the town! Clearly a return visit is necessary as even a brief visit was interesting – it even has a Facebook page and a ‘virtual tour’. The town is on a hill above the Vezére river and its first castle was built c.1,000; the town was walled and the 13C Chabirande Gate remains.

The Church of Notre Dame de la Paix, 17C, with its twisted spire.

The Church of Notre Dame des Bans is 13C octagonal building – I couldn’t capture the shape – with a beautiful modern stained glass window, part of which is in the header image of this post. The Church was originally part of the Chateau. Treignac was a stop on a Pilgrim Route to Santiago de Compostelo, the Via Lemovicensis. There is a scallop shell, the symbol of the pilgrim routes, above the doorway of the Maison Lachaud Sangnier, (1573), a pilgrim refuge.

After an excellent pistachio ice cream it was back to the gite for tea and more of Mme Gorse’s excellent Apple Cake!

You may be interested in
Postcards of Chaumeil (including the photograph from 1900)
Postcard views of the Monediere Hills at the beginning of the 19C
The changing landscape with the decline of sheepfarming
Photographs of the Myrtilles Fair in Chaumeil
Activities in the area of Chaumeil
Treignac
An interesting trip to Treignac
The Via Lemovicensis
Chocolatier Borzeix-Besse, Treignac