Sarcophagi in Pontlevoy

We have arrived in Pontlevoy and are enjoying the escape to a rural French village. I am amazed at the ease of slipping into Pontlevoy’s daily life. The village residents are accustomed to Americans visiting as the Abbey is home to American university student groups. Some American financiers purchased the abbey some time ago and created relationships with large universities (Univ. of Mich., for example) to send exchange students to live on the grounds and take courses. But, the town’s history with American residents goes back much further to the period following WWII. Apparently there has been a small group of Americans living off and on in Pontlevoy since the war. A result of this is that many of the French residents are to varying extents bilingual French-English and usually know a third language. I find them exceedingly considerate when I bumble around between French and Spanish as I try to drop my English. At the same time, we have had many interesting discussions as a result that may not have occurred if the town was the slightest bit more monolingual.

Our arrival in Pontlevoy has been punctuated by an archeological brouhaha to which we are given center stage access. Only a block away from our home, utility workers were digging up the street in order to replace the sewer line. Residents, including our host, saw the work and noticed some strange things buried where the backhoe had already removed dirt. The square cross-sections of tuffa sarcophagi and broken bones said it all. The workers had disturbed what appears to be at least 11 tombs so far (final count was at least 17 with more rumored under the houses lining the streets). For the remainder of Saturday and all of Sunday, residents (including ourselves) have been seen going down to the dig site to peer at what was found. The previous find of tombs was in the 1950’s and uncovered over 40 Morvignian era tombs. There is already speculation that this new find could be from the same era and a continuation of the tombs found previously. Separated by a quarter mile, it is easy to imagine what may lie between the two grave sites.

The residents are certainly mixed about the find. Those with vacation related businesses on the street are upset that the work will now be stalled for months during the busy tourist season. Many other residents, including our hosts, think it is imperative that the remains be preserved and studied. As we stood over the remains, taking a few photographs, a woman came up to us and began a lively conversation about the find. As it turned out, she was madame presidente of the historical society, Nina. Nina, as it turns out, is good friends with our hosts. It appears that we will have an intimate view of the brouhaha as it plays out over the coming weeks.