so typically french - a street in the old city of vesoul.
in the département of haute-saône lies a small city called vesoul, which we visited because it's not too far away from le val-d'ajol ( about 45 minutes by car ). since we have seen quite a lot of the surrounding landscapes of le val-d'ajol and inside the département of épinal ( in which le val-d'ajol is situated in ), we decided to check out a different département and venture out of the southern vosges mountains. fortunately the region of bourgogne-franche-comté is not too far away, which opens up a whole lot of possibilities to explore. the haute-saône departement is not entirely separated from the vosges mountains, though, rather it is a soft transition from the southern tails of the mountains down into the valleys of the haute-saône, which always confuses me a little, as the change from one department to the other is not really apparent. like, shouldn't the vosges département be comprised of only the vosges mountains, instead of incorporating all kinds of other départements inside it that don't have anything to do with the vosges mountains itself? french administration policies are really strange in that way. anyway, back to vesoul. i'm going to explain a few things about it as we go along in this article. for now i will only say that this little city of about 15.000 inhabitants mainly charmed me because of its interesting architectural layout. many houses are built with beige and slightly bluish grey limestone, which was an interesting combination. i especially loved the the blue-hued limestones, even though the beige ones dominated the old city.
vesoul dates back to 899, when a castle was built upon the hill la motte ( the castle is not existing anymore ). archeologists found traces of pre-medieval inhabitation as well, from neolithic and also gallo-romanic times. the whole region seems to have been perfect for settlements in general, especially in agricultural aspects ( it is called nizza of the east because it has a very mild climate and through that is a perfect place for wine-growing ). today the biggest employer is a factory for car spare parts ( PSA group - they build citroen & peugot cars ). the département is pretty rural otherwise, with vesoul being the biggest city ( and therefore called capital of haute-saône ).
here you can see the grey-blue limestones i talked about earlier. these stones were mined in quarries close to vesoul. there are 4 hills surrounding the city that probably provided these kind of stones - the hill la motte, the cita plateau, the camp de césar & the sabot de frotey.
st. george's church sits smack-dab in the inner city and greets you with its classic facade. it was built from 1735 to 1745 by jean-pierre galezot & jean querret. it's the main church of vesoul. the door into the church was wide open, so of course i had to take a sniff and slipped in.
it was quite bright inside, typical for classical churches.
the mood was still very mystic though and i loved how the sun outside illuminated everything inside.
the pretty glass-stained windows everywhere were the main reason that the light inside the church was so warm and cozy. ( la déposition de croix - deposition from the cross, atelier champigneulle, 1901 )
the entombment of christ by an unknown artist was created in the 16th century! how masterfully crafted it is, chiseled out of limestone.
beautifully illuminated floor ✨
this was absolutely mindblowing! it's called 'groupe de assumption' ( assumption group ) and was crafted in the 18th century. the artist is unknown again. it was initially made to decorate a church in besançon, but later offered to saint-george in 1903. can you tell that this is made out of wood? i mean, this kind of artistry is just absolutely incredible and beyond my capacity to fully understand how to create something like this piece.
'l'education de la vierge' ( the education of the virgin ) - another one of those absolutely gorgeous and very detailed stained glass windows 😍 ( also made by atelier champigneulle of paris in 1901 )
a statue of st. thérèse de lisieux. she's a very well known saint in france.
back outside again, admiring the simple, but monumental looking entry gate.
next to saint-george there was this wonderful fountain that fit pretty well into the landscape of the square in front of the church, even though their abstract shapes nod towards modernism. it's called 'rencontre' ( gathering ) and shows three silhouettes of women meeting on the square that also was used for markets in historic times. the women are supposed to depict the three graces beauty, fertility & art. aline bienfait designed it in 1983.
one of the oldest houses in vesoul is the one on the right next to the house with pastel blue shutters, l'hôtel baressols. it dates back to the 15th or 16th century. there's a dark passageway when you go through the big portal that leads you through onto the other side of the block.
the path led you through really awesome 'backyards', you could practically feel the age and antiqueness.
and another backyard. man, that narrow alleyway was truly a hidden gem, i wonder if there were more of these throughout the city. unfortunately we didn't explore vesoul's medieval city core any further, since we wanted to climb on top of the la motte hill.
emerging on the other side. what attracts my intention everytime we visit a bigger french city is the fact that there is very rarely any nature incorporated into the townscape, like trees. the streets are quite bare of any plants, which is sometimes a little too bleak for my taste. i love when old structures are enhanced with all kinds of plants, and every now and then a tree brings life into the picture. as cool as the old city cores of france are, with their old rocks and gothic/renaissance elements, i do sometimes miss that splash of greenery quite badly.
but as soon as you leave that condensed citycore, nature spreads out and lets you inhale deeply again, as if something repressing falls off. let the ascent begin! crawling up the la motte hill is quite an ordeal, even i had to stop every other corner to take a breather ( the path leading up is 1 kilometer long and the altitude goes about 147 meters up! ). along the way you encounter a way of the cross, which was built for catholic believers who ascended the hill to reach the chapel on top. the hill is thus basically used as a calvary.
the chapel 'notre dame de la motte' on top of the hill was built in 1855 ( construction ended in 1857 ), after a big cholera plague that swept the department fatally, but wondrously passed by vesoul. in order to thank maria for saving the city the public decided to erect a monument on the butte de la motte. finding the position of the chapel was easy, it was built where once a wooden cross had stood that was prone to get struck by lightnings. the cave directly underneath the chapel was carved before the chapel was officially opened, serving as an interim solution as a religious site. inside you can find plenty of thanking plates. in front of the cave a sculpture of archangel michael guards both the chapel and the cave.
the design of the oratory is gothic, though of course i would name it neo-gothic, judging from the year it was built. inside, the holy mother maria looks down to vesoul with hands outstretched and wide, as if to grant vesoul all her clemency and benevolence.
saint michel ( or archangel michael ). it was dedicated to the public in 1916, in the midst of the first world war.
inside the cave. french people seem to be quite religious ( especially in remote parts ) and in such a way that feels very unfamiliar to me. coming from a family that has no deep ties to religion it is something that fascinates me a lot. i like learning about the way people worship their gods and saints so very differently, individually and also on a bigger scale, changing from country to country, or even from region to region!
reconaissance & merci. these thanking plates are quite rare in germany, in fact i have never seen it anywhere in any of the places i've been. maybe it is different in more catholic regions of germany, but i haven't been to a lot of places there. even in hungary or in other countries i've been to i have rarely encountered these badges, and if i did they all were made by official institutions.
the beautiful maria statue inside the oratory. she looks so very peaceful and friendly. at her feet there is a snake, symbolizing the the triumph of the virgin over the evil.
a pure white crocus found its way to the atmosphere very close nearby. after waiting for a little shower of rain to end, we made our way back to the city.
we passed by some fruit orchards that fell into utter disrepair.
a lot of mistles were in the trees, probably responsible for the demise of the orchard.
we tried to find some spring elements, as it was still very grey everywhere.
these blossoms belong to viburnum bodnantense, or winter snowball. they smelled heavenly!
good colour combo: ochre & azure!
one of the buildings of the prefecture ( 1859 ) was built with quite a few of them grey-blue stones!
one of france's most famous slogans ;) liberty, equality & brotherliness. found up on the gable of a school.
collège gérôme was formerly a jesuit college when it was built in 1610. later on it was also introduced to other purposes ( arms factory, storage facility, a central school, a high school and finally a secondary school ). when we visited the school was about to get closed ( it closed its doors finally in july that year ). now there are plans to revive the structure as residential building with little perks like seminary rooms, offices, maybe hotels or restaurants. the city of vesoul even considers opening up a museum inside.
passing by the collège and re-entering the citycore.
houses on rue roger salengro. there are a few really great landmarked hôtels on this street and even more grey-blue rocks hidden in the facades.
this gate was so dreamy 😍 i think it belonged to l'hôtel thomassin, a 15th century building in the street. apparently it leads to the backyard of that building, but i didn't sneak in. here's more info on the house, which i apparently missed out on capturing.
next we walked a little while until we ended up in front of the city hall.
they had installed a japanese garden inside the forecourt, which was absolutely popping! really loved this! it was done for the annual asian film festival FICA. the building was erected in 1619 to serve as the city's main hospital, but after being vacant in the 1930ies it was decided that it would be repurposed as the new city hall. they moved in in 1938. it has a chapel attached on the riverside of the building, but somehow... it again evaded my lense. sometimes i really don't know why some things don't catch my eye, haha.
apparently the festival is quite a big thing in vesoul and they do their utmost to do it all justice in creative ways.
i peeked through one of the city hall's windows and was delighted to find this utterly beautiful glass window! i think it must've been created in the 1930ies because the dress the woman is wearing fits more into that era.
you know what baffles me sometimes about the architecture in france? that you can rarely see what kind of true gems they are from the outside ( often looking either dilapidated or the usual kind of classical boring ), but when you step inside, they reveal all kinds of magical surprises! this wonderful piece is a work of albert decaris, who also painted some frescos inside the city hall which he is more famous for, i think. oh, and he indeed created it in 1937.
the durgeon river is one of 4 rivers running through the city borders.
i liked this door / balcony situation as we walked on. these are so absolutely distinctively french, there's no denying it!
we ended up at the main station of vesoul, it's quite a lovely station, built in 1858. we got a coffee to go inside to warm us up, before heading back to our car and to le val-d'ajol.
i'm sure there's more to discover than we did on our visit, like plenty of really beautiful nature sights, and even more interesting architecture in the core of the city, but maybe we can save that for another time, next time we visit france. since the day was quite windy, rainy and frankly quite cold, we didn't have it in us to explore more. sometimes it's just like that ^^; all in all, even though the weather was making us a bit miserable, i, for my part, enjoyed exploring vesoul and i learned a few things or two about local architecture, religion & art ( which is my favourite thing, to find artists from all over the world and broaden my perspectives ).
the next installation will have more le val-d'ajol related pictures, so stay tuned ;)
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