Pornas
Pornas is a tiny hamlet in the commune of Saxi-Bourdon, deep in rural France. It lies near the upper reaches of the Loire, midway between Lyon and Orléans in the département of Nievre.
Sometimes it is given as Pornat which is a more modern spelling (see map)
With a nicely documented history covering all the major events in French history, Saxi-Bourdon became well known in the later years of the 19th Century. The aged wooden church tower was declared unsafe, and the bells were mounted on a wooden frame in the village square.
This became a tourist attraction, largely through the efforts of a local photographer who produced and sold postcards of the scene as you see in the pictures below.
Saxi-Bourdon and Pornas today
