Abbey Royale de Chaalis

Dear Mother,

I remember seeing photos of abbey ruins in England in the 1960s and then actually seeing some both there and in Ireland.  But now that I am into photography, I wanted to visit some more ruins.  So on a whim, we headed for the Abbey Royale de Chaalis, which was on our way back to Paris from Senlis.

The sky was dramatic and constantly changing, sometimes pretending to offer the possibility of rain.  The former abbey grounds had just been used for an enormous musical event and were being cleaned up, and the abbey itself has of course been secularized for a very long time. 

The part that struck me most forcefully was the abbey's church, parts of which still stand, but most of which was pulled down and carted off.  Basically, as with the Coliseum in Rome, the powerful wealthy people got permission to purchase, dismantle and cart off the finished stones.  It was far cheaper to remove stones from a building than to quarry and shape them yourself.  So it was a type of recycling, one which destroyed art.  But once the purpose of the object of art is gone, why retain the work of art?  And since the church represented the combined power of the monarchy and the church, many people would prefer to see it destroyed.  After all, they were never allowed to worship in such luxury themselves. 

First, a nice gloomy shot of some of the ruins, with a peak of another building behind that was preserved, presumably because it had usefulness.

Very little of the church remains, just part of the apse (on our right) and part of the transept (center-left).  Otherwise, loose stones have been gathered and mowed grass keeps down the dust.  All of the beautiful smooth paving stones of the church floor were of course taken to be used elsewhere.

It is strange to see massive columns rising from gravel rather than smooth paving stones.  Presumably the foundation under the standing part of the edifice was left intact.  One benefit of visiting ruins is getting glimpses into the construction.

As with castle walls, masons used irregular stones and cement for 'fill' and then gave the walls a pleasing look by finishing them off with carefully cut uniform stones which were drawn from the same quarry.  I cannot tell you how many times I have been fooled into assuming that all cathedral walls were constructed entirely of chiseled stones.

Through one of the (missing) windows, you can see the restored chapel, which I also visited.  I don't know why it was preserved.  Possibly someone felt it was small enough to be a jewel in his landholdings, or to be used privately.  It was recently restored and is very nice.  I liked looking past the ruin to see something still intact.

I always enjoy looking upward in churches to study the ribbed vaulting.  Of the possibly 50 such vaults, this is the only one remaining, and swallows are now nesting in its ribs.

This was our final stop before asking Tomtom to take us back to St Maurice.  We beat the worst of rush hour traffic between the CDG airport and Paris and we made excellent time back, returning the car earlier than expected.  We then did some shopping and had supper with Neal, a great time to get caught up on the last three days.

All for now, with love from us both from a very dark and grey Paris,
Evan