Crumbs from the Table

The French people trace their roots back to a tribe called the Franks who, as the Roman Empire waned, lived on its northern frontier around the area of what would now be called Belgium/western Germany. From the early 400s they made incursions from the north into the Roman Gaul; the local population, under Roman rule, were a Celtic people called the Gauls. Meanwhile, the Frankish language was a Germanic language (like modern-day English and German).  The Franks did not have a single leader. Clovis, one of the Frankish leaders at the end of the 400s, married a Christian wife called Clothilde whose background was from another Germanic people, the Burgundians (based in what would now be southern France). Facing defeat in battle against the Alamans (yet another Germanic tribe) in 496, Clovis called on the Christian God. Sometime between 498 and 508 he was then baptised, and recognised as King of the Franks. Thus began the Merovingian dynasty that lasted for over 200 years. Clovis and hi...

We have just returned from a holiday in France, where we were staying in the village of Avernes, about 40 minutes from Paris. Avernes is in the département of Val d'Oise in the region of Ile-de-France (the region around Paris). At first glance, Avernes is just a quiet village - ideal for a quiet family holiday. As we went exploring, however, we discovered some fascinating things. For one thing, carved into the stonework of the ancient church were the words, "Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité". It turned out that during the period of "Dechristianisation" in 1793-4, the church was taken over to be a "Temple of Reason". Even more fascinating was a non-descript little historical notice on a wall. It turned out that from 1563 to 1685, there was a Reformed church in the village. This was destroyed literally days after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685; this was when the rights of Protestant Christians were rescinded. I have not been able to find out m...