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aircraft
Wright brothers
Notre-Dame de Cahuzac
Planselve
Via Tolosana
GR653
Bleriot
Midi-Pyrénées
Kitty Hawk
Gers
Gimont
France
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propeller
Jorge Chavez


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Gimont - Notre-Dame de Cahuzac

Gimont - Notre-Dame de Cahuzac
I walked to the former Cisterian Abbey of Planselve, now a large, "Do-Not-Enter"-farm - and not worth the detour.

Just outside Gimont I found the Gothic chapel "Notre-Dame de Cahuzac", a place of pilgrimage. I could not find much about it. It may have been, that the Virgin appeared a shepherd around 1500 (a bit uncommon, as mostly she appears young girls like in Lourdes and La Salette). Or - a miraculous statue of the Virgin was found here around that time. It may as well be, that these are two version of the same story.
Anyway, the chapel was erected as a center of regional pilgrimage. Today the walls of the chapel are painted with "tromp l’oeil"-patterns and covered with votive plaques.

Then I saw this wooden propeller, the first piece of an aircraft, I have ever seen inside a church or chapel. On that star in the center of the propeller is written "1913 J.C.".

Obviously the pilot J.C. survived a crash in 1913. Have in mind, that 1913 is just 10 years, after the Wright brothers´ Kitty Hawk, just 4 years, after French pioneer Louis Blériot had crossed the Cannel from Calais to Dover for the first time.

J.C. must have been one of the French aviation pioneers as well, but sofar I could not find out his name - or fate. I did find one "J.C", but Jorge Chavez, who was the first crossing the Alpes by plane in 1910, crashed during the landing and died. He could not bring a propeller to this chapel three years later.

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