New Year and a New Day Out!

Firstly I'd like to wish all readers here a very Happy and Prosperous New Year, wonder what lovely textile things it'll have in store for us? It must seem like all I am doing at the moment is going out on jollies, but for now I can't get on in the dyehouse - it's too cold to put the water on in there and although the pipes are lagged they have a distance to travel outside and I would hate to have problems.

This week we have had friends over to see us from England, planning where to go and what to see was great fun, they are more textiley than historical and wanted to see bits of local France. We decided a trip to the sea side was in order and drove down to Le Treport and Eu.

Boy was it cold!!! We went on the funicular railway and walked along the harbour, dived into a café for a quick warm up at Le Treport and then went round to Eu. What a beautiful little town it is! We had a spot of lunch and then went a wandering .......

The first place we found open was the Chapel of Notre Dame et St Laurent which is a fine example of a Medieval Chapel, even better it had a crypt!!!

The effigies in there were fabulous - Charles d'Artois  (1394 - 1472) was a prisoner of the English at the Battle of Azincourt and not released until 1438 he died in 1472 so I guess the effigy dated to around then - you can still see some colour discernible on his doublet.
The clothing on the female effigies was really clear to see,

Charles had 2 wives, the first he married in 1448 - Jeanne of Saveuse but she died a year later.  His second wife was Helene de Melun who outlived him by a year.  The head dress on Jeanne's effigy is quite intriguing - it just really looks like a coronet with a very square front. Her plaits by the side of her face and the parting in her hair is very clear to see on top of her head!

This image shows the strange shaping of the head dress from the top - was it flexible to adjust to the hair style do you think?
There is still colour showing on her gown and lots of detail can be seen. Buttons, braids, and decorations all very clear. A good example to work from.

Helene de Melun outlived her husband by a year, so she is depicted wearing "widows weeds" You can clearly see the wimple under her chin and the detailed folds in her mantle and underskirt.

These are not the only effigies in the crypt, just the ones I focused on......

For info on visiting Eu and Le Treport go here
For info on the Chapel go here
For the Funiculaire go here