I like to tell you a bit on the memorable town of Conflans Sainte Honorine. There is a wonderful history of river boating here and we remember if fondly, I am lucky to found me some pictures hidden in my cd rom vault to do this post for you and me, The town of Conflans Sainte Honorine is located in the Yvelines department 78 in the Île-de-France region of my belle France. It is 14 km from Saint-Germain-en-Laye , 30 km from Paris, 27 km from Versailles, and 485 km from my current home. Therefore, here is my take on the Church Saint Maclou of Conflans Sainte Honorine !!! Hope you enjoy it as I.
The Church Saint-Maclou; its oldest parts date back to the second and third quarters of the 12C. These are the basilica nave, the base of the central bell tower and certain elements of the first bay of the choir. These parts are in the late Romanesque style However, the piles surrounded by multiple small columns, the use of ribbed vaults for the eastern parts, and the systematic use of the pointed arch, already announce Gothic architecture.The bell tower with its stone spire flanked by four lanterns also dates from this period, the second half of the 12C.With the presbytery to the north of the church choir and its walled garden extending in front of the chevet, it forms a small urban island in itself.
The Church Saint-Maclou has a cruciform plan, which is approximately inscribed in a rectangle, in front of which the two oblique sections and the axial section of the apse . The nave, with a basilica plan, is flanked by two wide asymmetrical side aisles. These two side aisles are covered with paneled frames in the form of a barrel vault. All nine bays of the eastern parts are vaulted with ribs. There is a late Romanesque vault at the base of the bell tower, and two Gothic vaults. The other vaults are Flamboyant Gothic. The church’s plan is completed by a neo-Gothic porch in front of the western portal. As for the bell tower, it consists of a blind intermediate level and a belfry level, topped by a stone spire flanked by four pinnacles at the corners. The church is accessed through the north side portal in the fourth bay, or through the western portal of the nave, or through the exterior door of the oratory from the presbytery courtyard. Above the triumphal arch marking the entrance to the sanctuary, a small door located at the level of the roof structure once provided access to the first floor of the bell tower via a long ladder.
The nave, austere and dark, has been presented, since its restoration in the mid-1990s, in a state very close to its original state, although it would be the part which has undergone the most transformations. The choir begins with a bay from the second quarter of the 12C, lit by a triplet, or continued with a Romanesque apse. The Chapel of the Virgin, also called Notre-Dame-des-Ardents according to the name given to the first church of the priory in local tradition, opens with a pointed arch of the same profile as the doubleau between the first and second bays of the choir, and as the arcade to the south of the second bay of the choir, which also concerns the chapel. The primitive sacristy ,small low room of two bays vaulted with ribs, without window, adjoining the first bay of the north side chapel was transformed into an oratory. Daylight only enters through the panes of the exterior door, on the west side. The door to the chapel, in the first bay on the south side, provides no light. The Blessed Sacrament is kept there in a small tabernacle, next to which burns the eternal lamp. The tomb of Jean de Montmorency, or rather his funerary slab with an engraved effigy, has also been in the Church Saint-Maclou since the end of the revolutionary period, and also comes from the church of the recumbent priory of Mathieu IV de Montmorency.
A bit of history I like tell us that the first religious building to leave written traces in the archives is, in any case, a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of the Ardents, which predates the priory church. It existed during the reign of Charles III the Simple , and then, probably in 876, received the relics of Saint Honorine from Graville. In the 11C or even at the end of the 10C according to some , the Counts of Beaumont, lords of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, had a more spacious church built, and invited monks from the Abbey of Bec to settle there by a charter of 1080: this is the foundation of the buildings of the priory and its church, which can be dated around 1082. In 1086 or 87, the relics of Saint Honorine were in fact transferred to the new church. Conflans-Sainte-Honorine thus belonged to the diocese and then archdiocese of Paris, to the archdeaconry of Paris and to the deanery of Montmorency , and it was in the aftermath of the French revolution that the attachment to the new diocese of Versailles, then corresponding to the former department of Seine-et-Oise, took place.(now mostly the Yvelines), In the absence of written sources, he certainly relies on the dating of the church, whose base of the bell tower and the first bay of the choir can be dated to the second quarter of the 12C. The patron saint of the parish is Saint Maclou. Saint Honorine has been venerated in the Church Saint-Maclou since the end of the revolutionary troubles, when the priory was suppressed and the relics hidden to avoid their desecration; they were then returned to the parish at the very beginning of the 19th century.
The local Terres de Seine tourist office on Conflans Sainte Honorine : https://www.terres-de-seine.fr/decouvrir/bords-seine/conflans-capitale-de-la-batelellerie/
The City of Conflans Sainte Honorine on its history : https://www.conflans-sainte-honorine.fr/culture-sport-et-loisirs/histoire-patrimoine/histoire/
The Yvelines dept 78 tourist office on Conflans Sainte Honorine : https://www.destination-yvelines.fr/visite-conflans-sainte-honorine/
There you go folks, another quant ,nice memorable town in my former dept 78 Yvelines. Oh yes , Conflans Sainte Honorine is worth the detour, me think. Again, hope you enjoy the post on the Church Saint Maclou of Conflans Sainte Honorine !!! as I.
And remember, happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all !!!
Paris1972-Versailles2003 