PAGES FROM LOST NOTEBOOKS: The Abbey of Saint Philbert

Friday 19 December 2008

I was half way through reading Ken Follett's "The Pillars of the Earth" when I was prompted to take the train from Macon to Tournus. The train runs every hour and takes only thirty minutes. It is just a short walk from the station to the Place de l'Abbaye where the Romanesque Abbey of Saint Philbert can be found. It was built between the 11th and 12th Centuries AD.

From the Place de l'Abbaye the main tower looms above us.

A smaller tower is at the front of the church.

Around the other side the original cloisters, chapter house and refectory from the old monastery are still intact.

Inside the church massive Romanesque columns lead upwards to huge round arches that were common before the pointed arches of the Gothic style.

A narrow spiral staircase winds up to a large room above the church. And more steps and ladders lead even higher.

In the streets that wind through the old town we can still imagine horses and waggons.

Being only a few days before Christmas we are reminded of the season in almost every shop window.

Iron railings and fences are overgrown with bushes and vines. Brilliant berries add colour to the dark winter hues.

Visiting Tournus was quite appropriate as I continued to read "The Pillars of the Earth" and follow the story of the building of a cathedral during the late middle ages.

Long Stories

Long Stories and Novels

Most of the longer stories were based upon real experiences. Yet they have a certain poetic licence applied to them.

Dear Rebecca is an account of a journey made to Europe during the northern winter of 1998-1999. It is accurate in that it describes the places and events, and that there are many Rebeccas, but the letters were never sent.

Dear Rebecca by Douglas Wilkie |

The Memory of Dreams is an account of another journey made to Europe in the European Winter of 2000-2001. The places described were visited, most of the people described were met, but did not necessarily all of the things described happened in quite the way the story tells it.

Family Histories

Family Histories

The Cossticks is the story of the Cosstick family from origins in Sussex, England during the 1600s through to the emmigration of one family to the Victorian goldfields during the 1850s and the subsequent growth of that family in Victoria.

The Hamiltons is the story of a branch of the ancestors connected to the Cossticks. It traces the Hamiltons from their origins in Kent, England during the 1700s; the illustrious life of Sir John Hamilton at Dover, Kent; and the emmigration of one branch of the family to South Australia in 1837 where the Hamilton's Ewell Winery was established by one branch of the family while the other journeyed to the goldfields of Victoria and met the Cosstick family.

The Wilkies is the story of the Wilkie family from Scotland during the 1700s; through the generations who worked in Glasgow of the Industrial Revolution; through the involvement of the family in the Great War of 1914-1918; to the emmigration of one of the branches of the family to Australia.