Country roads ...

Le Puy, France, 22 September 2024

No, not John Denver ...

The realist in me understands the need for toll roads, but the idealist objects to them. It's in part an ill-conceived economic objection, but it is in the greater part a pragmatic objection - when travelling in a hire car in a foreign country, when one has to seriously concentrate on driving on the "wrong" side of the road in a car with which one is not familiar and in which one's spatial awareness causes one to periodically drive off the road shoulder or hit the kerb, the last thing one also needs is to try to work out when a toll payment will be due and how to pay it.

So my excellent travelling assistant Google Maps readily comes to the fore by allowing me to check the "avoid tolls" box when planning routes. The very small downside to this choice is that the journey is always longer - the major roads are inevitably avoided and we find ourselves puttering along small(er) country roads, occasionally not much more than a car-width wide. But the upside far outweighs the longer travelling times. Instead of whizzing along the motorways looking at nothing but the trucks and travellers hurrying to their next destination, we find ourselves meandering along country lanes past herds of Charolais resting contentedly in their fields, or through tiny villages where time appears to have stood still for centuries, or past farmer Jacques harvesting his crop of carrots from his rich brown soil.

Given the option, who wouldn't choose the slow lane. Which we did, all the way from outside Mont Saint Michel on Thursday morning to Le Puy en-Velay tonight (Monday); a total distance on the odometer of around 1,150 klms driving, and a train trip (more of that later). A map overview shows us that we have essentially driven all across the middle of France from West to East, and I commenced drafting this in Lyon which lies just a short distance from the Swiss border. We had a few planned stops along the way, but otherwise we simply allowed our AI mate GM to take us from place to place. Our quick tour along country roads has given us a wonderful precis into this part of southern France, and our thinking at this early stage is that we might come back one day and explore a bit further, perhaps even more slowly. I'll add some highlight photos and commentary shortly.

But first a health report, and a thank you to those of you who sent through various messages of concern and support. My bug, mild as it was, has pretty well fully disappeared back to whence it came from. Helen has avoided the bug altogether, and Trish, who along with Helen has been stuck in the sick room/apartment/car with the two of us for the last week, has stoically and valiantly kept it at bay. Janet is now into day 4½ of her antibiotics and suite of other medications, and is clearly on the mend. (And for context I now report, which I intentionally hadn't declared previously, that she had been diagnosed with bronchopneumonia, which by any stretch is not a good position when one is about to embark on a 300+ klm walk; but I think we can now confidently assume that she'll make it to the starting blocks on Wednesday, and beyond).

We have had an eclectic range of accommodation, descriptions of which might sit somewhere in a matrix with scales such as warm and friendly and impersonal, and comfortable and delightful and modern and old and a bit odd and downright weird. Perhaps some of the pictures a bit later will explain.

First stop after Mont Saint Michel was Vannes. What a beautiful town. We had previously seen the building style when visiting the nearby town of Josselin with the Boormans the previous year. I find it fascinating. Vannes is an old walled city, although most of the walls don't appear to have survived the passage of time. The ancient Chateau d l'Hermine in the middle of town, constructed in the 1380s, is magnificent. The coat of arms, featuring the unusual beast the ermine, features predominantly.

Some shots around Vannes:

Next destination was to be Tours. Indeed, that is where we ended up for the night, but not after our friend GM had accidentally taken us to Saumur in the heart of the Loire Valley. Well, what a bonus stopover that was. We ended up there because I think I’d taken a wrong turn somewhere (despite having an AI assisted guide, if one gets off on the wrong ramp, or misses the correct exit on a roundabout, one’s route is reset, and well, as they say, voila!!). So we crossed a bridge over the Loire River that I’ll never be to sure we were meant to be on, and there looked to be a most interesting bridge a few hundred metres up river, so we decided to explore. Saumur would have to be one of the prettiest places on Earth. The main street is a wide boulevard down the middle of which runs a commuter tram. Just up the river is a chateau (well, castle grande to be more precise). We spent a delightful hour there just wandering, measuring how tall we were, and eating icecream 😊:

Above: in and around Saumur in the Loire Valley

Tours is also a lovely city, but our entry was not without challenges. Unknowingly I had booked us rooms at a fully automated establishment; that is, the whole transaction is without human interaction.  Just getting into the room was an experience, as the accommodation computer would not recognise my credit card (three times), meaning that I had to pay using an never-before seen payment system (three times). Then to get into the establishment, and the rooms, one had to download an app of sorts, and then load booking details whilst doing an advanced sun-salute combined with a reverse downward dog of sorts. Or so it felt. Anyway, we managed to master that system, only to then attempt to master the town parking system. An hour later, nerves somewhat taut, Trish and I managed to find a park 80 metres from the accommodation (having circumnavigated the town several times and incurred the wrath of the locals). These are the joys of travel, and well, here I am some days later able to tell the tale.

But those challenges behind us, Tours itself was another delight. Before our departure the following day we did a old town walking our of sorts, including the “must sees” of Pl. Plumereau and the very ancient Basilica Saint-Martin de Tours.

Above: the Pl. Plumereau, Tour (Tower) Charlemagne, inner Tours, and Basilique Saint-Martin

 And then there’s Bransat, our next overnight stop after Tours. Where to start? The place we had booked is called “the labyrinth”, for reasons which weren’t immediately obvious. Our hosts, whose names I never quite caught, were just the most delightful people. They couldn’t do enough for us. But the house was like nothing we’ve ever seen. Multiple, multiple rooms full of … stuff. At least 5 motorbikes. A yacht (down in the lower garage area with the indoor pool. More recycled vinyl LPs than you could poke a stick at. I could go on. And then there was the artwork in our bedroom – I will make no comment, simply allow the photos to tell the story, but will watch your responses with interest :

Which then took us to Lyon via Cluny. I remember some months back stumbling on the fact that we would be driving in the general area of Cluny, and given its historical significance in the Western Christian world which we inhabit (whether we be of Christian faith or not), I felt it would be a worthwhile diversion. And so it was. The French Revolution has a lot to answer for in respect to Cluny, for during the Revolution the abbey and so much of the surrounding infrastructure was dismantled/demolished. I can understand why this occurred, but the wanton destruction was such a waste. The reconstruction work is quite wonderful, and some elements dating back to the 900s have been retained or unearthed. It was a diversion I'm glad we took. [As an added bonus, visiting ancient places like Cluny, even if they have been reconstructed to some degree, assist with taking me back in my mind to the place(s) which will exist in my partially drafted historical novel which is set in those times.]

Above: in and around the recreated Abbaye de Cluny, including: a 6th century sarcophagus which was re-purposed to bury the wife (?) of the original abbot; real live baroque music; the remains of the 9th century altar of the very first chapel on the site; 13thC mosaic tiles from the original monks chapter house; the 13thC oak roof of the original "flour store"

Which took us to the large city of Lyon, really the last part of the "holiday" component. It's a large city (population in the greater metropolitan area some 2.5m), and like all large cities I'm sure that it has its problems, but these largely escaped us as we did our brief exploration. Certainly one very obvious sign was the 6 heavily armed (and armoured) soldiers we saw slowly patrolling the nearby train station, almost prowling along like panthers looking for the slightest sign of unrest. That aside, the inner city where we were staying was beautiful, not unlike so many of the ancient cities of Europe.

Above, various scenes from Lyon, including: Lyon at night across the River Saône; La Basilique Saint Martin D'Ainay (9th century); 2nd century Roman ruins at the city's original known site of Lugdunum; the Basilique Notre-Dame de Fourviere, which towers over the city and just one of the remarkable mosaics inside; Lyon from on high; across the River Rhone to the other side of the city.

I'm finished this from Le Puy en-Velay, where we arrived this afternoon from Lyon. At time of writing I've not had a chance to explore; that's for tomorrow, along with final clothes washing and general last-minute preparation. The train trip from Lyon to here was, shall we say, an experience, more crowded and chaotic than any other I recall having experienced experienced, including in India. Confusion reigned supreme, and resulted in Janet getting off the first train a stop early, which in turn resulted in a couple of unplanned (110 klm) Uber trips to actually get here. But here we are ...

Lastly, the cover photo to this post is of a most remarkable mosaic inside the "lower chruch" (the crypt) inside the the Basilique Notre-Dame de Fourviere in Lyon. It tells the story of St James (Santiago) in wonderful pictures, and is rather appropriate as the beginning and end of this story. [And there are a squillion more photos I could have included in this post; photos which I think might be interesting, or which show another aspect of the past few days, but time has beaten me. Perhaps they'll end up in a zenfolio album at some stage.]

All being well, my next post will be on Wednesday at the end of Day 1 of this journey ...