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Marigny is
a long, comfortable village that
straggles along the northern
shore of lac de Chalain. Because
of this, it has more than its
fair share of holiday homes, some
of them built in the horrible
international hacienda style; but
generally it is a pretty place,
and still largely agricultural.
As the village slopes upwards, so
the fields give way to forests,
and there are some stunning walks
up towards Fontenu. St Theodule sits at
the western end of the village
above the road to Doucier. Rather unusually
for this area, it isn't
cruciform, and although the
general air is of a 19th century
church in the Romanesque style, I
felt that what I was seeing was
largely a restoration with many
surviving original features. The
little chancel appears to be a
later addition, but beneath the
skin of plastered walls inside
there seem to be the bones of a
Romanesque church.
The tower
is plastered and shingled, and if
the steeple is a little unusual
it does still have the wet-look
glazed tiles familiar from other
churches in the area.
On many
visits I have never found the
church locked, and on a hot day
you step into a coolness of stone
and dark wood. The burgundy wall
at the back of the sanctuary is a
little startling, especially with
such a stark crucifix on it, but
the altar is a simple modern one,
and you get the impression that,
like the rest of this area,
Marigny embraced Vatican II whole-heartedly.
There is a
very curious painted statue to
the north of the chancel arch. At
first sight you might think it a
crude 19th century plaster cast;
in fact, it is a wooden medieval
image of St Theodule, rescued
from the church at the time of
the French Revolution by a local
family, the Humberts, who are
buried in profusion up the hill
in Fontenu. It was returned to
the church in 1994, possibly as
part of the 50th Anniversary of
liberation celebrations. The
overpainting might be considered
unfortunate, but of course it is
merely a centuries-old tradition.
Although
Marigny is quite a big place, it
only has one bar and no shops.
This is partly because there is a
publicly-accessible supermarket
and restaurant down in the
lakeside holiday village, but
also because Doucier is just around the
lake. Curiously, a signpost in
the village square tells you that
Doucier is 5 km away, but when
you reach the bottom road 100m
further on the distance is given
as 3km. The second sign is the
correct one; perhaps the first
sign was a cunning attempt by
Marigny's buisinessmen to ensure
that custom didn't go elsewhere;
if so, I am afraid that it has
failed.
St Theodule,
Marigny, is at the western end of
the village which is on the D27
between Doucier and Crotenay.
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