Pont aux roses bridge

For 1,000 years, the town of Melle has been a setting for artistic creation: Romanesque churches, metal architecture, Art Nouveau. Now, Melle has once again tapped into this artistic tradition by hosting a biennial contemporary art festival since 2003. As you wander along, admire the pont aux roses bridge (by Françoise Quardon), a symbol of the transition to this millennium, and sit on one of the 50 public benches where Jakob Gautel said “I love you” in 50 languages. Look up to discover the world’s first and only Museum of Clouds (Musée des nuages). In 2010, the designer Mathieu Lehanneur created the liturgical space in the Saint-Hilaire church by choosing alabaster and Namibian marble. The soil library, a piece of work by Kôichi Kurita, is an ode to our planet. Located on one of the walls of the multimedia library, the soil samples illustrate the wide variety of textures and colours in our subsoil. Since 2012, the Saint-Savinien church has been home to stained-glass windows signed by Rémy Hysbergue.