Doussay - Saint-Martin

I had not planned to visit Doussay, a small village in Vienne, but the lady I met in Airvault borrowed me her "Sculpture romane du Poitou" a valuable book, I do not own.

There I found out, that Saint-Martin in Dourssay could be traced back to Carolingian times and had even pre-Romanesque elements. When I read about an "elephant-carving" in Doussay, I changed my schedule - and reached the church early morning only to see, that the church was a ruin, fenced in under reconstruction, surrounded by heaps of building material and heavy machinery. "No Entry" signs everywhere!

I met one of the workers and asked him about this elephant. He shook his head, but led me to the local bar, opposite the church, where he told the audience, that this guy, holding an umbrella and a camera, was looking for an elephant in Dourssay. This caused an early morning amusement.

I tried to explain - and all of a sudden, the situation changed. "Oui!", he remembered an elephant. From stone! All together now, we walked back, entered the church and found an elephant hidden behind the scaffolding. A wonderful elephant! A second one was just around the corner of the capital. After Poitiers, Aulnay, Surgères and Vouvant, Doussay was the fifth place with elephants I found in Poitou. All of them are "dressed" in the same way.

I´ll be back in Doussay and take some better photos, after the renovations of Saint-Martin will be completed in a couple of years.

MERCI BEAUCOUP!