When
biking in Bordeaux, France we detoured into the seaside town of Soulac for both
lunch and to visit an ancient church that had been buried for over 200 years!
Soulac
is sheltered by pine-covered sand dunes, and is rich in history. Pill-boxes
pepper the coastline, and add a dramatic and exciting element to the
breathtaking scenery. The wind was blowing so hard that if we did not keep all
our food covered, and our drinks capped, we were eating grit.
The
Notre Dame Basilica de la fin des Terres, dating to the 12th century, is a
major pilgrim destination for French people. Located in Soulac, a beach
community near the Atlantic coast was totally lost to a
sand dune by the 1741. Records show that the church was
threatened by sand since its construction in the 12th century. 12th and
13th century documents also relate and describe the advancing of
sand and how the church floor was raised by 5-6 feet. The main entrance was moved from the
south to the west side of the church. As the sand progressed, the choir and the
entire first floor had to be abandoned. By 1741 the church was totally buried.
In the middle of the 19th century, the dune blew away uncovering
the Roman- style church, which now is a designated UNESCO world heritage
site. It was discovered that this church was actually built on top of another
church, a small part of those ruins are visible from a certain spot.
As
is commonly seen in Benedictine churches, modern
restoration has taken place on the almost 50-meter long
church. The nave has three aisles. The church tower
at the north-western corner was built at a later date. What a remarkable
history.
After visiting the church we headed to the beach area and the
breath-taking views of the Atlantic Ocean. The pounding surf was music to our
ears and the water, so clear and blue, looked so inviting. Unfortunately we had
no time for swimming as we had time restraints to meet a ferry. The strong wind
was a wonderful tail wind. Once balanced on my bike, I kid you not, I didn’t
even have to pedal to move! What fun that was! It was easy peddling to move at
a pretty good clip. Had that wind been head on we would have been in for a
really tough pedal and no doubt would have missed our ferry ride.
We made the ferry terminal with a wee bit of time to spare.
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