The community of Taizé

The bells of Taizé

I am woken up every morning by the bells of Taizé, the single bell for the monks rings out at 07.45 for about 5 minutes, calling the monks to their morning prayer then the bells start in earnest at 08.15 and ring until 08.30, letting all the pilgrims at Taizé know that the service is about to start. When the bells stop I know I really must get up. The bells ring from 12.15 to 12.30, so I know lunch should be on the table and if dinner is not ready when the evening bells go at 20.15, I know I am very late. And that was what Taizé was to me when I arrived here in 2005.

After Easter in 2006 we went to Taizé to have a look around and we were amazed at the number of young people milling around. We didn’t go to a service as that seemed inappropriate, with all these kids around it seemed like a young person’s thing. I wanted to go to a service, but I didn’t know how it worked, so I didn’t dare go alone. In July some campers (Ans and Simon) arrived, she had been to Taizé for the first time that spring and wanted to camp nearby to take in a few services and tempt her husband to go too. He however wasn’t interested and she didn’t dare go alone. At last my chance to go to a service, so on a Friday evening Ans and I went up the hill to Taizé.

A service in Taizé (Photo © Arnd Waidelich)

The services are made up of singing and silence. The songs are mesmerising. With pilgrims from all over the world the songs need to be simple to enable everyone to sing. There are a mixture of languages, Latin, German and some sort of Slavonic language are the most popular with French, English and Spanish there too. Each song has two lines and these are sung over and over again. The songs are a mixture of four voices, rounds and solo singing with the congregation singing the chorus. It is not to everyone’s taste, but I absolutely love them. In every service there is silence, five minutes of it. Five minutes is a very long time and it is quite amazing that a church full of people can be so quiet for so long. The singing continues after the monks have left and on a Friday and Saturday night this can go on into the early hours of the morning I have been told.

Pottery made by the brothers

The peace that pervades in a service is tangible and I can quite understand why some people come back year after year, just to regain that and to take a little bit of serenity back home with them. It is definitely not just a young person’s thing at all. Everyone is welcome to the services. Many, many of the visitors in our gîtes or on the campsite come for Taizé, to take part in a couple of services while being on holiday and enjoying other things that this area has to offer. Something not to be missed is a look at the stunning pottery the monks make to pay for their upkeep.

Special service - 5 years ago: Frère Roger killed; 70 years ago: he arrived in Taizé (2010)

We get many questions about how to walk or cycle to Taizé from here, so we have made some maps of the various routes and posted them in a photo album. Click here for those routes.

Text Sue Nixon

For our own website click here.

A facelift

Église de la Réconciliation

Taizé has two churches: the big Église de la Réconciliation and the small Église romane Sainte-Marie-Madeleine. Both are in use by the international Christian ecumenical monastic order of Taizé. the small however is hardly ever used for services; only around New Year's Eve, when there are hardly any guests in Taizé only a few services are held by the monks.

Église romane Sainte-Marie-Madeleine

Because I am interested in Romanesque architecture I had visited the Sainte-Marie-Madeleine a few times. However, the church had two drawbacks. Even though the church is not really in use it is very often occupied by quite a few Taizé visitors, who feel the need to tun that particular church in a meditation centre. That is also the reason why in the summertime it is virtually impossible to take pictures of the interior without having people in the viewfinder.

Church before the renovation (with flash)

Further the church more resembled a burial chamber than a church. The walls were plastered in a sober dark grey (bordering on black), and the windows are very small and not very transparent. Both factors made it virtually impossible a) to photograph without using a flash, and b) to walk around in the pitch dark without breaking your neck over stools, empty or occupied, left behind by Taizé visitors. All in all, I never felt at ease inside that church.

Church after the renovation (without flash)

When recently I decided to have a look inside the church again, I found a very pleasant surprise. The interior had been completely renovated, there was new furniture and the awful grey had been replaced by a beige colour. In word: the church had been transformed from burial chamber into a church.
And what did the bible say? "And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, and it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness."
Only why did it take the Taizé Brothers so long to come up with this bright idea?

Church after the renovation (without flash)

For our own website click here.

The community of Taizé

The bells of Taizé

I am woken up every morning by the bells of Taizé, the single bell for the monks rings out at 07.45 for about 5 minutes, calling the monks to their morning prayer then the bells start in earnest at 08.15 and ring until 08.30, letting all the pilgrims at Taizé know that the service is about to start. When the bells stop I know I really must get up. The bells ring from 12.15 to 12.30, so I know lunch should be on the table and if dinner is not ready when the evening bells go at 20.15, I know I am very late. And that was what Taizé was to me when I arrived here in 2005.

After Easter in 2006 we went to Taizé to have a look around and we were amazed at the number of young people milling around. We didn’t go to a service as that seemed inappropriate, with all these kids around it seemed like a young person’s thing. I wanted to go to a service, but I didn’t know how it worked, so I didn’t dare go alone. In July some campers (Ans and Simon) arrived, she had been to Taizé for the first time that spring and wanted to camp nearby to take in a few services and tempt her husband to go too. He however wasn’t interested and she didn’t dare go alone. At last my chance to go to a service, so on a Friday evening Ans and I went up the hill to Taizé.

A service in Taizé (Photo © Arnd Waidelich)

The services are made up of singing and silence. The songs are mesmerising. With pilgrims from all over the world the songs need to be simple to enable everyone to sing. There are a mixture of languages, Latin, German and some sort of Slavonic language are the most popular with French, English and Spanish there too. Each song has two lines and these are sung over and over again. The songs are a mixture of four voices, rounds and solo singing with the congregation singing the chorus. It is not to everyone’s taste, but I absolutely love them. In every service there is silence, five minutes of it. Five minutes is a very long time and it is quite amazing that a church full of people can be so quiet for so long. The singing continues after the monks have left and on a Friday and Saturday night this can go on into the early hours of the morning I have been told.

Pottery made by the brothers

The peace that pervades in a service is tangible and I can quite understand why some people come back year after year, just to regain that and to take a little bit of serenity back home with them. It is definitely not just a young person’s thing at all. Everyone is welcome to the services. Many, many of the visitors in our gîtes or on the campsite come for Taizé, to take part in a couple of services while being on holiday and enjoying other things that this area has to offer. Something not to be missed is a look at the stunning pottery the monks make to pay for their upkeep.

Special service - 5 years ago: Frère Roger killed; 70 years ago: he arrived in Taizé (2010)

We get many questions about how to walk or cycle to Taizé from here, so we have made some maps of the various routes and posted them in a photo album. Click here for those routes.

Text Sue Nixon

For our own website click here.

Laïcité

I thought I had seen it all when it comes to laïcité (separation of church and state) with the arrival of the burkini, the injunction of the same bathing suit and with the cancellation of the injunction of the burkini.

Burkini arrest (picture The Mirror)

The elimination of Sarkozy as presidential candidate during the primaries seemed to confirm that. Until…
Until a small nativity scene in the hall of the town hall in Paray-le-Monial hit the front pages of the regional press. the pictures in this blog come from the local newspaper, and from the pictures one can deduce that had not Sherlock Holmes personally been involved in the search, the stable would never have been discovered.

Nativity scene - Paray-le-Monial (picture JdS&L)

Showing or wearing of religious symbols in public spaces is more or less forbidden in France, and the LDDH, a self-appointed watchdog on the subject, has brought this "case" to court, and the mayor of Paray lost this case.
What followed was predictable: Paray is a busy place for all sorts of roman-catholic pilgrimages, evry 4th building in town is a church or chapel, the mayor is a staunch roman-catholic jurist, in a word the proverbial shit started to hit the fan.

Nativity scene - Paray-le-Monial (picture L'observatoire de la Christianophobie)

According to the mayor this decision has serious consequences for the democracy in this country.
And for the Front National, which has hardly any influence in Burgundy (yet), this is grist to the mill. In a pamphlet about this case issued by FN this is the beginning of the end: a tsunami of minarets, headscarves, terrorists, etc. is heading for Burgundy. And yes, this sounds all very familiar. Maybe I can get hold of a cheap Linguaphone course Arabic somewhere….

The community of Taizé

The bells of Taizé

I am woken up every morning by the bells of Taizé, the single bell for the monks rings out at 07.45 for about 5 minutes, calling the monks to their morning prayer then the bells start in earnest at 08.15 and ring until 08.30, letting all the pilgrims at Taizé know that the service is about to start. When the bells stop I know I really must get up. The bells ring from 12.15 to 12.30, so I know lunch should be on the table and if dinner is not ready when the evening bells go at 20.15, I know I am very late. And that was what Taizé was to me when I arrived here in 2005.

After Easter in 2006 we went to Taizé to have a look around and we were amazed at the number of young people milling around. We didn’t go to a service as that seemed inappropriate, with all these kids around it seemed like a young person’s thing. I wanted to go to a service, but I didn’t know how it worked, so I didn’t dare go alone. In July some campers (Ans and Simon) arrived, she had been to Taizé for the first time that spring and wanted to camp nearby to take in a few services and tempt her husband to go too. He however wasn’t interested and she didn’t dare go alone. At last my chance to go to a service, so on a Friday evening Ans and I went up the hill to Taizé.

A service in Taizé (Photo © Arnd Waidelich)

The services are made up of singing and silence. The songs are mesmerising. With pilgrims from all over the world the songs need to be simple to enable everyone to sing. There are a mixture of languages, Latin, German and some sort of Slavonic language are the most popular with French, English and Spanish there too. Each song has two lines and these are sung over and over again. The songs are a mixture of four voices, rounds and solo singing with the congregation singing the chorus. It is not to everyone’s taste, but I absolutely love them. In every service there is silence, five minutes of it. Five minutes is a very long time and it is quite amazing that a church full of people can be so quiet for so long. The singing continues after the monks have left and on a Friday and Saturday night this can go on into the early hours of the morning I have been told.

Pottery made by the brothers

The peace that pervades in a service is tangible and I can quite understand why some people come back year after year, just to regain that and to take a little bit of serenity back home with them. It is definitely not just a young person’s thing at all. Everyone is welcome to the services. Many, many of the visitors in our gîtes or on the campsite come for Taizé, to take part in a couple of services while being on holiday and enjoying other things that this area has to offer. Something not to be missed is a look at the stunning pottery the monks make to pay for their upkeep.

Special service - 5 years ago: Frère Roger killed; 70 years ago: he arrived in Taizé (2010)

We get many questions about how to walk or cycle to Taizé from here, so we have made some maps of the various routes and posted them in a photo album. Click here for those routes.

Text Sue Nixon

For our own website click here.

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.

Tai chi and I

Tai chi and I never really got on well together.

Tai chi demonstation

Even though I have always (and still do!) watched groups or individuals doing the tai chi form in the open with pleasure and admiration, and having tried to master the form myself at several occasions, I have never succeeded in completing a tai chi course. I started my first course in Singapore with a Chinese master, just before I had to leave Singapore for good. My second attempt was in the Netherlands, with a colleague from work who taught on Saturday mornings in Leiden. I had to give that course up in an unpleasant way. During the lessons the teacher often demonstrated how tai chi could be used in proper combat. One morning I was asked to play the “victim”, I consented, and only seconds later I found myself completely unexpectedly flying through the air, landing with my head against a bench that stood on the side of the classroom.

Qigong demonstration

I think that the teacher was even more surprised and shocked than I was; he had expected some sort of resistance, and instead he encountered a burst balloon. That was the end of my Leiden carreer. We have tried another group in Cluny/Lournand for a short while, but that turned out te be 50% chatting, 40% qigong and 10% tai chi. Needless to say that I did not learn much there either.
Sue is a bit more fanatic then I am when it comes to searching. She found a different group in Cluny, and although she did not really like the way they were teaching there either, she only started looking for yet another group when this group left Cluny for a different location direction Joncy. And now she found what she has been looking for for a long time. After she had started her 2nd year, whereby she got hooked on a form of tai chi using a fighting stick, she convinced me that this group might just be the thing for me.

2nd year group - taichi with stick

And despite the fact that I stepped in half way through the first year, I finally have the impression that this time I will manage to do the whole form. Not that my memory became better over the years (one of my problems in the past), but the way my Miss conducts her lessons, combined with the fact that I have been practicing also outside class under supervision of the Mistress, helped tremendously. Now I know the whole form more or less by heart, albeit when I do it I still need time to think, ask questions, stop and resume, but at least I get through the form without pulling out my last hairs.
Next year the emphasis will be more on the finesses of the individual movements, because that is a weak point (and not only with me!). But at least, the foundation has been laid!

Tai chi group with fan

La Tuilerie de Chazelle offers space enough to practice the whole form outside.

Donkeys work

When I saw the shop in Taizé for the very first time, with all its displayed earthenware, I saw in my rather unrealistic fantasy rows of monks sitting behind potter’s wheels, vehemently kicking the wheel in order to deliver yet another cup, saucer or plate to the anxious shop attendants.

The shop in Taizé

This image was rudely disrupted after we had read in the local paper that the potters in Taizé were opening up their workshops for an open day. And since we are always in for an outing, we went uphill, where the workshops would open up around 11h00.
This image I had of hundreds of old monks, bent backs from years sitting at the wheel turned out to be incorrect. We were welcomed by a young brother, who first showed us the clay mixers and the presses. They were located in a small space, but to call this handiwork is a bit farfetched. The mixer was big, and the press for clay tablets of approx. 40 x 20 x 3 inch³ and the press that produces a continuous clay sausage with a diameter of approx. 8 inch hardly classify as hobby tools anymore.

Press for clay tablets - Taizé

Also the pots, cans, mugs, cups, etc. in the next workshop were more or less mechanically produced. The brothers working here were all wearing aprons, and only the fact that most of them were wearing sandals might have been an indication that these were indeed brothers. I assume, that workers in an industrial earthenware factory would wear safety shoes, or at least closed shoes.
During this visit we saw the whole production line, from forming earthenware with presses, moulding in moulds, enamelling and glazing, making enamel, baking in the kilns with a content of 1 m³ each up to the hand painting of various types of earthenware, such as trays, plates, cups, etc.

Clay sausage press - Taizé

The painting however is only done to order. The main difference with an industrial earthenware factory is that the brothers are working when it suits them. Hence the production line is very flexible, most likely reason why production is not always keeping up with demand.
And even though my vivid imagination of how Taizé pottery is made does not really correspond with real life, it was certainly an interesting and educational outing.

Workshop with moulds in Taizé

Guests of La Tuilerie de Chazelle cannot just hop into the workshops whenever they wish, however, the Taizé shop is certainly also worth a visit and is open every day.

The Priest of Ars

De Priest of Ars

As a non-Catholic it always surprised me to see, apart from the usual Christ, Mary and Joseph statues, the statue of a small guy with a rather pointed nose dressed in "modern", i.e. non-biblical clothing in Catholic churches around here. Asking an American Anglican Reverend (!) whether he knew who this could be, he came up with the name of Jean-Baptiste Marie Vianney, in England also known as Saint-John Vianney, the patron Saint of all (Catholic) parish priests.
On a lovely day we drove off to Ars-sur-Formans, a village in Ain (01), for us on the other side of the Saône. Very soon we stumbled upon road signs pointing to "Village du Saint-Curé" (village of the Saint-Priest) - the real name of the village was hardly ever displayed on those signs - and it did not take long to find the place. From the Michelin travel guide I had learned that Ars is an important place of pilgrimage, and not only for priests. Each year Ars is visited by half a million worshippers.

The body of the priest

The whole village breathes Saint-Curé. His house is converted into a museum, the old village church has been replaced by and partially incorporated into a new basilica (1862), which houses the remains of the priest (a rather tasteless grotesque building by architect Pierre Bossan who also built the Notre-Dame-de-Fouvière in Lyon), there is a museum with wax effigies of the priest during the various stages of his life, in short, the former parish priest still "lives" in this village. Inside the Basilica one can see the priest's body, and for the heart of the man a separate chapel has been built.

The heart of the priest

There are, in the bell tower of the "old" church, still six old Romanesque columns and capitals, originating from the cloister of a partially demolished priory church, that of Salles-en-Beaujolais.
More pictures of basilica and chapel can be found in this album.

Ars-sur-Formans is only a day trip away from La Tuilerie de Chazelle.

Bhutan in the Morvan

The Kagyuling temple in La Boulaye

For years now the Morvan, and hence Burgundy can boast hosting one of the biggest Buddhist temples in Europe.
This temple can be found in La Boulaye and attracts apart from practising Buddhists also a fair share of tourists. The temple was founded by a community of monks who are practising a form of Himalayan Buddhism. The building stands out in the Burgundian landscape, although it is certainly not out of tune with it.
One of the yearly attractions is the period when a number of monks is creating a mandala over a number of days, a sort of square mosaic of approx. 0.5 m x 0.5 m made of coloured sand.
In this blog one can read in more detail about these mandalas.

The making of a mandala

In the near future La Boulaye can boast having still another Himalayan attraction. In the year 2000 the Conseil Général (General Council) of Saône-et-Loire bought the Bhutan pavilion of the Expo 2000 in Hannover for the sum of € 280 000. Since the purchase the pavilion has been stored in boxes and crates in a warehouse near Mâcon, waiting for a building permit. The association "Himalaya en Bourgogne" wants to use the pavilion as a cultural centre about the Himalayas. This centre will have nothing to do with the temple of 1000 Buddhas Kagyuling, however. The building permit has been given, and most likely assembling the building, which was erected without using one screw or nail, will start before the end of 2012.
The only thing "Himalaya en Bourgogne" still has to do is find somewhere 1.2 million euros in order to finalise the project.
Well, maybe while they are at it, would it be possible to incorporate a small Asian supermarket in the same building?
Because that is certainly something we are in need of!

The former Expo 2000 pavilion of Bhutan

For our own website click here.

Repeated offenders

My better half has already published a Blog dedicated to guests who not only are regularly coming back to La Tuilerie, but who also (on a voluntary basis!) help out in making the vegetable plot ready for the summer and by splitting big logs which are to big to fit in the wood burner.
Fortunately they are not the only ones who seem to like it so much here. We have a number of guests, campers as well as gîte lodgers, whom we can welcome on a regular basis over a number of years. And what is better than discussing the state of affairs in Cormatin as well as in their home country over a nice glass of whine in a sunny patch in our garden?
People come here for a number of reasons. Part of our clientèle are very much attracted by the vicinity of Taizé, where they can follow the services whenever they wish, but where they are not submerged in the hubbub of 6000 youngsters; others come here with bicycles, skeelers or good walking shoes in order to do reconnaissance of the many possibilities the Voie Verte has to offer; some people come to indulge in the over abundance of romanesque (norman) architecture; and of course there are those who like to chill out for a week after having been in the rat race for a year.
Recently we had a couple here for the third year, who came here the first time after in depth investigations. Their son in law, an acquaintance of ours, popped in one day in 2008 on his way to a different holiday destination in the South of France, seemingly for a cup of coffee. however, he was told by his in laws to take pictures, inspect the place thoroughly and find an answer to the question of questions “Is everything clean there?”.
Obvioulsly his reconnaissance satisfied his in laws, because that same autumn Hermann and Carla became our guests. We got on very well, and when they left they booked straight away for 2009. That year they ordered a meal, a service we render, if convenient for both parties, on their arrival day. Our guests share our table, and we as well as they find it a pleasant way to getting to know each other a bit better. Sue always tries to come up with something local, and her boeuf Bourgignon can compete with the same dish pepared at La Terrasse in Cormatin (which we find the best within a radius of 50 miles). And although Hermann and Carla could not give us a definite date for 2010, it was quite obvious that they would come back again.
And lo and behold, by the end of 2009 they made another reservation for two weeks, under the “condition” that we would feed them again a boeuf Bourgignon. But that was not all. A couple of days before they arrived, another e-mail came in with the question whether we would appreciate it if Carla brought an Indonesian meal over for the second evening.
There are few things in this part of the world that I miss every so often, and one of them is a genuine Indonsian meal, in the Netherlands, and certainly around the Hague, readily available everywhere. So the second night the tables were turned, as a matter of speech, and we sat at their table and enjoyed a wonderful meal with nassi putih (white rice), sajur lodeh (vegetables in coconut milk), babi ketjap (pork in sweet soy sauce), rendang (spicy beef) and ajam semoor (well simmered chicken).
And that is, irrespective of the quality of French cooking, one of the few things I miss every so often; a simple, good Indonesian meal.

For our own website click here.

Virtual reality

One of the highlights of a visit to the abbey of Cluny is the 3D film shown as part of the visit. But (I think as part of the Cluny 2010 celebrations) the Cluny abbey is introducing more things to show what the abbey looked like before the French revolution. One of the latest things introduced recently are screens which display “virtual reality”.
The screens are a sort of LCD screens, approx. 50 cm wide and 1 m tall, standing on a pole. The screens can be turned by the spectators. What one sees on the screen is what one would haven seen in the days the abbey was still there. The view changes when the screen is turned. in French these screens are called “bornes”, which meens something like milestones. The first one was installed in the remaining part of the transept. This one can be turned 360 degrees, and shows the views inside the church from the transept.
In the past the abbey was protected by walls, gates and towers. one of these towers is the Tour des Fromages, whis is located on Cluny’s main street. recently a second borne has been installed in the attic of this tower. It follows the same concept. the moment the screen is turned slightly, the view changes. The interesting feature is, that when one comes close enough to the screen to see the week market at the foot of the tower, the same market, and the people walking around it, are shown on the screen. Only the background of the market has changed to the abbey in pre-revolutionary days.
To me this is a stunning piece of modern virtual reality technique, and it certainly adds something to a visit of the abbey and of the tower (which requires a separate ticket). Apart from this Virtual Reality screen is the tower worth a visit in its own right. The access to the tower is inside the Office the Tourisme, and the wooden stairs are extremely steep. Once having climbed the stairs, one finds an attic with big holes in the walls (no windows) which allow stunning views of Cluny and surroundings. And one can take pictures of the lovely panoramas without being hindered by the glare of glass.

The website of La Tuilerie de Chazelle

Cluny 2010 - Ouvrez les portes!

My better half has written a very interesting Blog about Cluny and its history, in view of the festivities around 1100 years Cluny Abbey. In stead of copying it in, it seems more logical to give the link to the Blog.
Click here to read Sue’s blog.
The Blog gives a very good written impression of how big and influential the monastic order of Cluny has been. Unfortunately there is not much left of the third church built there, but when visiting the remains of the church one can admire a 3D film, produced by the ENSAM, which shows what the Cluny church must have looked like in its high-days.
In the eighties I have seen a similar project from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT - Cambridge MA); however, if I remember correctly, that was not a 3D film, but an ordinary 2D film. Although it also showed what Cluny must have been like, the emphasis in that film was much more on what the MIT could do, than on what the monks around 1000 AD could do.
The film from the ENSAM is short (10 minutes) and in French, but is far superior compared to the 30 minute film from MIT.
Apart from this film there are a great number of models of the abbey around; the abbey museum hosts a very nice collection of various models, showing the exterior as well as the interior of the church.
The only part of the church that is still in tact is part of the transept; on the picture it is the right hand side part with the small tower with the blue roof and the slightly bigger tower next to it.
Click here for a photo album of “Ouvrez les Portes!”

The website of La Tuilerie de Chazelle