We took the back road, crossing the fields to the west of the fortified church of St Roch, where you get a wonderful sense of surprise and the brick silhouette rises above the fields of the Polish steppe. Built in 1351 and restored in 1551-61, the Church of St Roch stands on the banks of the Bzura, at a point where raiding Tatars would have forded the river. This was where Chopin was baptised and where his parents, Mikołaj Chopin and Tekla Justyna Krzyżanowska, were married. The Chopins’ manor house, Żelazowa Wola, is a ten minute drive away.