12. Bry-sur-Marne to Lagny-sur-Marne

Bevor Louis Daguerre (1787-1851) die Daguerreotypie erfand und einer der Väter der Fotografie wurde, war er mit seinen Dioramen äußerst erfolgreich: transluzente bemalte Leinwände, die er mit hinter ihnen platzierten Lichtern animierte.  Diese im Chor platzierte Trompe-l'oeil-Leinwand verwandelt die kleine Kirche von Bry-sur-Marne in eine imaginäre Kathedrale. Daguerres andere Gemälde sind auch im Hôtel de Malestroit in Bry zu sehen, ebenso wie Beispiele von Daguerreotypen.  
Informationen: Rathaus unter 01-45-16-68-00/Museumsservice unter 01-45-16-68-33.

Zu besuchen in Bry-sur-Marne:
Hôtel de Malestroit: 2, grande rue Charles-de-Gaulle, 94360 Bry-sur-Marne.
Maison Daguerre: 4, rue du 136e de Ligne, 94360 Bry-sur-Marne.
Adrien Mentienne Museum - Espace Joron: 6 bis, grande rue Charles-de-Gaulle, 94360 Bry-sur-Marne.

The complex is located near the town hall and consists of two adjoining churches. They were built on the site of the 6th century oratory of Saint Clothilde.
In the 9th century this site was occupied by the canons and the nuns settled a little further east. The current church of St. George (11th and 12th centuries) is typical of Romanesque times with its small openings. The Sainte-Croix church, the highest of the two churches, is a 13th century Gothic style church with large bay windows.
Abandoned and partly destroyed during the Revolution, they were used as commercial premises until the middle of the 20th century. Classified as a historical monument in 1984, they were restored in 2002 to become a centre for contemporary art in the city of Chelles.

We do not know the date of its construction a first mention dates from the 12th century, this parish church is probably of older origin. The choir and chapels were built between the 13th and 15th centuries. The nave was rebuilt in the 18th century.
During the destruction of the abbey during the Revolution, the relics displayed in the abbey church were placed in the Saint-André church where the reliquaries of Saint Bathilde, her daughter Saint Radegonde, Saint Clotilde first abbess and several abbesses can be admired.
Clotaire III, son of Bathilde, was buried there.

Located on the banks of the Marne and via Columbani, the remains of the Chelles mills are surrounded by a park created in 1989 to replace an old poplar grove. There are many varieties of trees.
In the middle of the 19th century, the Chelles mill supplied "La Vermicellerie", a pasta factory. It was bought around 1877 by the industrialist Menier who wanted to use the river without constraint. Indeed, the Chelles mill, located downstream of the Noisiel mill, hinders the functioning of the latter. Transformed by the Meniers (notably the installation of a horizontal transmission), the factory was built on stone arches, still visible today and the floors are made of wood and cob. The site was abandoned in 1895 after several fires.

The Noisiel Mill was certified in the 11th century and was used to mill cereals until the 19th century.
The inhabitants very early took advantage of the presence of the Marne: a commercial port developed in the 15th century to transport wood to Paris.
The land and mill of Noisiel belonged to several generations of lords. Jean Antoine Brutus Menier first acquired the Moulin in 1825 from the last Duke of Lévis to grind pharmaceutical powders. The Duke's heir, the Count of Nicolay, then gradually ceded the land, the farms and the castle in 1879.
Menier Chocolate Factory in Noisiel
In 1825, Jean-Antoine-Brutus Menier acquired the Noisiel mill and three hectares of land. This site is at the origin of the creation of a factory for the industrial manufacture of chocolate.
The mill site has undergone several transformation phases since the arrival of the Meniers in 1825 and the presence of a mill to spray pharmaceutical substances. From the 1860s onwards, the company became a real industrial complex where the organisation of the factory space was completely rethought. The buildings are then ordered according to the manufacturing process.

The design of the mill by Jules Saulnier (1817-1881) is the successful combination of Art Nouveau architecture of the late 19th century and industrial functionality. The industrial complex was completed in 1874 by the construction of a workers' city.
Until 1924, the reconstructions and new buildings, made necessary by the increase in production, perfectly integrated the technical progress of the 19th century, as well as an exceptional architectural aesthetic.
After the Menier family left in 1960, the land in the complex was sold to several successive groups. The former Menier chocolate factory was converted into a head office by the Nestlé-France SAS group in 1996. This reconversion by architects Reichen and Robert is based on "the dialogue between contemporary and old architecture".

The Saint-Pierre de Lagny-sur-Marne monastery was founded by Saint Fursy (Fursey - Fursa - Forseus) in the 7th century.
Fursy is celebrated as one of the most important of all Irish missionary monks in the 7th century with Saint Colomban.
Born in Ireland into a noble family, this visionary travelled throughout England before coming to the continent to found the monasteries of Lagny and Peronne.
He arrived in a region where Luxembourg monasticism was expanding rapidly and the royal courts welcomed the Irish monks with great kindness, on a par with Erchinoald, mayor of the Neustrie palace, who proposed to Fursy to build a monastery in Lagny-sur-Marne.
Founded around 644 the monastery received donations from Clovis II and Bathilde, ruined by the Normans in the 9th century it was rebuilt. During his consecration King Robert the Pious offered a nail of the True Cross which was lost a few centuries later.
The monastery was sold as national property in 1797 to become a hospital and then the town hall of Lagny-sur-Marne in the middle of the 19th century. The complex was classified as a historical monument in 1886 and 1969.
Today, three buildings rebuilt over the centuries bear witness to the history of this illustrious abbey founded by Saint Furzy. The town hall with the old cloister, the Saint-Furzy church and the Notre-Dame des Ardents church. In 1430, Joan of Arc came to pray in this church where she performed the miracle of the resurrection of the dead child.
More information: Wikipedia

From the 7th century onwards, this Notre-Dame church became part of the Saint-Pierre de Lagny monastery. The proximity of the churches dedicated to the Apostle Peter and the Virgin Mary is a classic feature of the early Middle Ages, particularly in Irish foundations.
The church destroyed in the 10th century during the Norman invasions, rebuilt in the 11th century when the inhabitants suffered from the evil of the ardent. The church was consecrated under the name of Our Lady of the Ardents. Several fires partially destroy the building, which will be rebuilt after each destruction.
In 1430, Joan of Arc came to pray in this church where she performed the miracle of the resurrection of the dead child.  
After the church was closed during the Revolution, work was undertaken in the middle of the 19th century.