Spelling, not the strongest point of the French

Variant 1 : Marambaud

One day we found an old marble, broken commemorative plaque, which was meant to be used in a church or a graveyard.

Variant 2 : Marembeaud

The name on the plaque was that of the man who, in the 19th century, built this house and started the brick factory. However, there was something strange with that name. The name on the plaque was "Noël Marambaud", while a number of bricks which were made here we founds the name of "Noël Marembeaud".
We drew the conclusion that the stone mason must have made a mistake, the plaque was refused by the family and ended up in two pieces somewhere on the corner of a shed.

Variant 2 : Marembeaud

One could consider the marble plaque to be a sort of printer's proof.
A roof tile made in our tuilerie also carried the name of "Noël Marembeaud"., which made the theory of the marble printer's proof quite likely.
Until we found a floor tile with a third variant: "Noël Marembaud".

Variant 3 : Marembaud

But this was not yet the end. This Mr. Marambaud, Marembaud or Marembeaud had a son who was killed in the first world war. In Chazelle's church a plaque can be found which states that a certain "René Marembeau" was killed February 26, 1916; with this we had a 4th variant on our hands.

Variant 4 : Marembeau

On the war memorial in Cormatin it says that a certain "Noël Marembaud" was killed in 1916. A far relative told us that there was only one son killed during the war, hence it is very likely that "René Marembeau" and "Noël Marembaud" are one and the same person.

Variant 3 : Marembaud

We were taught at school that Napoleon introduced the register office and registrations of births, marriages, etc. If this is true, I must admit that the Dutch made a far more thorough job of it than the French did, and still so after approx. a century!

Variant 3 : Marembaud (family grave Chazelle)

Click here for the website of La Tuilerie de Chazelle.

Checking out the competition

A lot of the people who are staying here, come especially for Taizé, reason why one might forget that there are more religions but the Christian.

Paldenshangpa La Boulaye

One of the things that has been on our list for a very long time was attending a service in the Tibetan Buddhist Temple in la Boulaye.
The temple in itself is a picture; such a colourful building is a rarity in these surroundings. It contrasts rather strongly against the rolling Burgundian hills. It is one of our favourite touristic outings during summer; the gallery overlooking the temple proper can be visited at a small fee, and that is certainly worth the effort.

The percussion section

Every day, at 9h00 and at 18h00, there are prayer services. The morning one is a bit on the early side for us (it takes 5 quarters of an hour to get there), but attending an evening service is doable.
The service started (very un-French!) at 18h00 spot-on. Although the temple was not packed, there were quite a few people present; my guess is that of all present approx. 25 % were tourists.

The altar

The others were either practising Buddhists or people taking part in Buddhist workshops that week. The main part of the service was taken up by a rather monotonous droning of mantras, half way interrupted by a period of silence, and at certain times accompanied by cymbals, a suspended drum, while a man not being part of the percussion section was blowing a shankha or conch.

Interior

It certainly was a special experience, and worth watching for those who have only seen or heard something like this in a movie. However, I think that your average Buddhist would say something identical about a Taizé service....

Prayer Book: no subtitles

Click here for the website of La Tuilerie de Chazelle.