On the route de Compostela

Streets in this region of Chatellerault have recently been upgraded and this one pedestrianised.

Chatellerault is on the pilgrimage route of St. Jacques de Compostela. Construction of the Saint Jacques Church began in 1008 on the ruins of the chapel of the priory of Saint-Jacques. The Bishop of Poitiers, Isembert II consecrated the church in 1066.  In 1632, a votive offering celebrated the end of the plague in the town.  The church was restored in 1858 and has a 17th century polychromic, wooden statue of St. Jacques. It has a carillon of 50 bells - the only carillon in the Poitou-Charentes region. 
The restoration of the church was not to the liking of one of the inspectors of historic monuments who refused to give the church any government subsidy because it replicated the facade of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Poitiers.  His power of generosity did not extend to the understanding that sometimes imitation can be the sincerest form of flattery!  "Thou shalt not steal" he quoted from the Bible.  Nor did he survive to hear Steve Jobs say in 1996 that "Good artists copy, Great Artists steal!"

Wikipedia Photo of Notre Dame Cathedral, Poitiers