Jesus, a primitivist stone crucifix

This one is on a crossroads between Chaulieu and Frésne-Poret.

Higher Power.

There is no photoshopping here, it's a real place in Normandy. A giant wind turbine and a stone cross seem to be having a debate.

Les vaches de Normandie — Norman cows.

Yesterday on a country road. Cows marching for the morning milking session, around 10 o'clock. The farmer's wife is at the back, urging the cows on. He is somewhere at the head of the procession. 

Note the huge udder in th first photo. Stone crosses with crucifixes are at every crossroad in our parts.

A Weather Beaten Christ.

Some crucifixes here are very well looked after. Others are neglected and, truly, remind you of the Man of Sorrows.

Photo by ©A.Anichkin.

Our Lady Shot Through the Neck. (Mortain.)

At the entrance to the beautiful tree-lined alley leading up into Mortain there is a crucifix. The Madonna there is pock-marked with what is, probably, second world war shrapnel. One hole is right on her neck.

The town of Mortain was the site of the nazis last desperate counter-offensive in the battle for Normandy in August 1944. The heroic resistance of American soldiers on the hill above Mortain lead to the failure of the attack. After the battle of Mortain the German front in Normandy collapsed and they swiftly withdrew, narrowly avoiding a complete rout.

And the general view (the date is 1835):

A Dappled Jesus.

Saw this lovely old crucifix hiding beneath huge oaks near a forest road on the border of the Manche and the Orne. 

And unlike so many other road-side stone crosses, no cables or other modern structures above it, just the Sun.

Higher Power (Jurques)

Here is another 'HP' photo in my 'higher power' series. A well looked after roadside crucifix in Montamy, near Jurques, Calvados, has a mobile phone mast and an elelctricity line towering over it.


Photo ©A.Anichkin2011

HP Revisited And Removed

I was passing this stone cross near lake Dathée – and nearly crashed. It used to have an electrcity pylon behind it and a bundle of cables above. Now they are removed. There is still a cable there, but further behind and lower than the cross.

Has someone heard my call and started to fight back against the ubiquitous signs of Higher Power – man-made objects towering over Jesuses, crucifixes, madonnas and churches?

Here is a snapshot of the cross from a few days ago (sorry for the quality, it was a very grey day):

 

And here is the same cross I photographed in 2006 (published on Fighting Windmills blog):

Check out other photos of HP Jesus and send yours for my collection.

White Christmas in Normandy: Jesus Snowed in

A crown of snow for the King of Kings on a road-side crucifix in the Orne. Happy Christmas everyone!

A Post-Modernist Crucifix

And another pagan (or post-modernist) stone crucifix (note the omnipresent Higher Power electric cable behind):

Sent by Francesca Bostock, 

South Manche

And here is the musical accompanement. Agnetha Fältskog of ABBA fame sings Mary Magdalene's aria from 'Jesus Christ Superstar':

Weather Beaten Crucifix ('He was despised')

Here is another road-side crucifix. A weather beaten wooden cross with a figure of Jesus really nailed to the cross. You can see streaks of rust on his body which look like blood.

The crucifix stands by the side of the road near Le Grand-Celland looking sorry. Just the right image for 'He was despised and rejected'.

HP Jesus

Crucifixes are everywhere in France, some are tacky, some are gory,
some are well looked after, others are weather beaten and neglected. Many have quirky representations of Jesus which look more like a pagan idol than Our Lord.

What amazes me most is how behind most crucifixes there is an electricity post with a bundle of cables or a mobile phone mast, or a water tower as in this snapshot from Forges-les-Eaux in Seine-Maritime (Haute-Normandie) sent by Elsie Macphie.  I just ask myself what the symbol is: God blessing the power generated by humanity or humanity boasting that their power is higher than God's?
 

And here's another unforgettable use of crucifixes, Monty Python's 'Always Look on the Bright Side of Things':

Photo sent by Elsie Macphie

HP: higher power