This afternoon, we walked through our village to Mont-Saint-Victor, home of a 12th century Roman chapel and a cemetery. The walk started in village, took us past the Mayor's office (he who was required to sign so many papers for the kids to go to school), and went straight up some wooden steps to the top of a beautiful hill. Tall trees and a sunny day made the hike take on a bit of a magical feeling, and all five of us walked home agreeing it was a great walk.
I love old cemeteries. When I worked at the Philadelphia Inquirer all those years ago, one of my favorite stories I did was on old graveyards in New Jersey. Just as I did back then, I wanted to know all of the stories behind the tombstones and people buried below. One of the tombstones showed at least three (and maybe more... the etching had worn off) members of the same family who all died in 1915. Was it an illness? A fire? Really bad luck? It couldn't have been the war -- not all of them seemed the right ages for that.
And there are so many stories that could be told from this place -- and not just the ones found in the cemetery. When I wrote earlier that this village seems old, I wasn't kidding. The village is mentioned as early as 761 AD! Laura and Franck have left a bit of a history of the village (and in English) and I am just going to go and quote most of it to let you know a bit about our new (and temporary) hometown.
According to Laura and Franck's history, the village "has long served as a natural gathering point. No less than five Roman roads converge in the village and its surrounding area. In 761, the village is mentioned under the name 'VILARE' which signifies 'rural habitation'.
"The word 'FAYE' became associate with the village due to the trees in the surrounding forests, known in local parlence as 'FAGUS'. In 1200, the village was referred to in written documents as 'VILER LA FAIE", which then evolved to its modern name of 'Villers-la-Faye' by 1740.
"The Mont-Saint-Victor which dominates the village used to go by the name the 'Mont de Villers.' This hilltop has known a long and varied history, and has over the years been the home to both a Gallo-Roman village and a fortified house in the Middle Ages. In the cemetery at the top (which was our destination during our walk today), you will find a little Roman chapel from the 12th century. A statue of Saint Abdon (one of the many patron saints of Villers) from the 15th century is still to be found in the chapel's edifice.
"From the deck of La Maison des Chaimes, you can see a round stone tower which is one of the remaining vestiges of the village's chateau (that was the Rapunzel tower that Katie and Livie liked so much).
"The Knights of Villers, a very eminent family of knights in the Middle Ages, built a large castle here in the beginning of the 15th century. It consisted of three large buildings flanked by four towers (the only one remaining is the one you can see from our deck, Laura wrote -- and is the one we walked by on Sunday), a chapel, and of course, a grape press. The whole ensemble was protected by a deep moat and drawbridge. If you walk down there today via the rue du Chateau (which is where we walked on Sunday), you can walk along waht used to be the moat wall (Jack REALLY liked that idea... and just wished the moat was still here).
"Traces of Roman and other ancient inhabitants of Villers can still be found all around the village. Laura wrote that many winegrowers in the region would find old Roman coins in their vineyards but kept it quiet because nobody wanted the government to expropriate their vineyards and start a dig... after all, she wrote, "Then what would they drink?"
It's a pretty village, too. John and I drove around a bit yesterday and actually found some scenery in and around neighboring villages that WASN'T breathtaking and beautiful. We returned home feeling even luckier to be perched on the side of our hill, surrounded by vineyards and forests and old stone houses and history everywhere you look.
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