We pass through the village of La Celle-Guenand often as we traverse Southern Touraine and have stopped on a number of occasions to view its church, Notre Dame, only to find it locked up. So it was a slight surprise to find it open on 'Bastille Day', or maybe it should not have been...anyway open it was.
You enter through the side door as the main portal on its somewhat Romanesque façade, is currently being supported / reinforced by a timber framework. the central portal is flanked by two'blind' arches.
The side entrance has been renovated back to what it may have looked like in the past.
Once inside the church has a somewhat neglected/unloved feel to it with the walls literally crying;;;or was that just rising damp?
The nave of the church 12th century is flanked by four large arches and leads to a pretty little altar squeezed in an inappropriately sized choir which was added in the 15th century.
There two side altars, one decidedly more tired than the other.
Either side of the 15th century bell tower...
...here viewed from underneath.
It has the familiar...and the unfamiliar.
This unusual baptismal font, carved into a block of hexagonal stone is decorated with human heads to outer corners and is so different to what we normally expect - but they have one of these as well which I understand came from the church at Ferrière-Larçon, don't know why they thought they needed two!
Looking back down the central nave you can see the intricate framework supporting the main portal.
Where's Joan?, you may have noticed her earlier... book-ended by a pair of delightful windows.
Here they are from the outside...
which has a number of interesting features...
...and a confusing rear end that makes you want to go back in and check just what is going on!
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