Off the beaten track abbey church of Saint Savin sur Gartempe was on my wish list to visit for quite a long time since my first visit to Poitou region 11 years ago. When our family friend asked us to choose between La Rochelle or Saint Savin for next day trip, and my young nephew wanted to see aquarium desperately, so I had to go to La Rochelle instead as the idea to see abbey with fresco was sounded too boring for him. After that day, I had no opportunity to revisit Poitou. So, when my friends and I planned to have vacation on Pyrenees by selves-drive, Saint Savin immediately came up as one of the must stops during this long journey.

After great late lunch in Bordeaux, I drove as fast as I could to reach Saint Savin before 4 PM which is one hour before its closing time. At the end we arrived Saint Savin, a very pretty village, at 4.35 PM, since it was almost closing time, the abbey staff allowed us to see the famous church with no concern of ticket. When we entered the church, my friends and I were deeply impressed by its warm earth tone interior. However instead of the famous fresco, the colorful columns along the nave and aisle first caught our attention. These columns are really pretty for its pastel colors and the way of its coloring to mimic the colorful marble almost liked sweet stick candies. To my surprised the chancel of the church are also really nice with very fine wall painting, fade but still visible. After appreciated with many parts of this beautiful church, my friend and I spent the last 10 minutes to admire the famous ceiling fresco. Thankfully that my friend decided to buy explanation pamphlet so we can understand the story of the fresco. The fresco indeed is really impressive and really one of the best Romanesque ceiling frescoes I have seen, but to say that it is comparable to the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City is maybe over exaggerated.

Even though it was a very short visit, I felt very happy that the abbey church is really impressive and made me felt relieved that the site I want to see for the past 11 years is actually really worthwhile to visit. To say that the site is off the beaten track is maybe not correct, even in the cold rainy day of March, when we approached the abbey almost its closing time, more than 30 tourists were still in the complex. Visiting Saint Savin reminded me the visit to UNESCO listed Bourges Cathedral, these two religious sites seem to be unknown but turn out to be one of the nicest religious buildings in France, and very fine World Heritage Sites.