Heading South

In Blanot we are known as Carol and Carol deux (2). Serendipity works and we found ourselves invited to spend a night with Marie-Helene in Toulon before going on to Antibes.

Saturday evening we picked up a red Fiat. Noel, our landlord, seemed surprised to see us with another car, especially one this bright and shiny!

Carol deux and I set out mid-morning on Sunday. We wanted to stay off the major highway system, the peage (toll) roads for as long as possible.

This allowed us to travel along the Rhone River. It was stunning, especially when wild poppies dotted the shoreline.

We were also fascinated by a castle or overgrown chateau overlooking a cliff...

When we reached  Lyon, suddenly we were dumped onto peage! We didn't have a clue as to how that happened, but by then we didn't mind skipping every town with its rotary so I picked up speed...managed to get up to 120 km/hour at times. That sounds fast, but it's 74.4 miles/hour and the speed limit here on big highways is 130 when the road is dry (110 if it's raining).

Miniatures

Thursday afternoon I was eating saucisson with a piece of bread. Suddenly I heard a load crack and instantly a front tooth was creating pain. I knew Elisabeth would be at the mini-farmers market that is held in Blanot each Thursday at 5 PM, so I headed down the hill for help in finding a dentist. Elisabeth contacted several people and several dentists. Then she called Marie-Annick and voila, I had an appointment in Macon for the next morning at 9:20. The end result...Friday morning the tooth got pulled and my upper denture that had cracked in half got repaired...all for 134 euros. At the pharmacy 4 bottles of antiseptic rinse, pain pills that really work, and the antibiotics cost 26 euros! Needing medical care was actually affordable. (The last I heard the euro was equal to about $1.26.)

Saturday began with a trip to the open market in Cluny. Carol tried to get cash from an ATM, but her credit card wasn't accepted. She can't call her bank until Tuesday so I get to be a banker for a few days. We came home for lunch. Around 3 PM we took off for Bonnay. I had planned a route mostly on roads I had not yet traveled. Along the way I just had to take a picture of one house that was covered with red roses!

The signs on small back roads are so good that we had no problem finding Bonnay, and then the signs for the fellow who makes wood miniatures led us to his home and showroom.

I bought a bird cage with the birds, a goat, and a chicken with her chicks...I would have loved to have bought one or two of his music boxes, but they would have been far too much for my suitcases.

See his music boxes below...

Then Carol and I found the music boxes that were not for sale...and the people and critters in those dioramas were all moving! The one above is the last of 3 Christmas scenes that light up with music one after the other.

The lady playing a harp is off to the right...I had to take this in 2 shots & only one is shown here.

A frog jumped on a trampoline while other frogs cheered him on, Santa hammered toys, children ice skated on a pond, everything in a barnyard was working, a quartet played...it was magical. The pictures I've included here are only a hint of what we experienced.

Here ladies are doing the wash at a lavoir.

I wanted to get to the fellow who makes tops so we headed in the direction of Sigy le Chatel. We crossed the Guye River and saw kids at a swimming hole...they were on the left but disappeared just before my camera was ready!

When we reached the spinning tops place it was closed...turned out that Saturday is his one day off...but we had noticed the remains of a castle or chateau at the top of a hill and decided to check it out.

After a few wrong turns we finally were climbing the right hill...and BB made it!

We couldn't get right up to the ruins; they were private property, but we were close enough to be satisfied. One section of outpost had apparently been turned into someone's home, though it didn't look as if anyone had been around recently.


On our way out of town Carol spotted a ball of mistletoe hanging from a tree. Look familiar? Now we know where the idea for a mistletoe ball came from.

 We were off to Prissy to meet Lauryne and exchange BB for a rental car. This is BB. The rental is a fire engine red Fiat. Looks sharp, but BB has so much more character...she'll be missed. Sunday we leave for the Mediterranean! It's supposed to be rainy the whole time we are there, but we're taking our bathing suits anyway! (The laptop will stay in Blanot.)    

By the time this is posted, we have returned from our trip to the south of France. It didn't rain...we had fabulous weather and a ton of adventures! Hang in while I get the next posts ready!

Chateau de Cormatin

Wednesday, May 23rd, we left the gite around 11:15. I wanted to be sure to get to Taize before the monks held their 12:20 service since Carol really wanted to experience this. The grounds are more like a camp with tons of parking available because many people visit, and many stay for a week or more. It's a monastery whose purpose seems to be as a retreat for people of every age. The church was a long low modern building. At the entrance a girl was standing with a large sign saying Silence. We entered.


There were bleachers along the side wall and I sat there. The altar area was loaded with candles and an organ was playing. The main part of the church was a few steps lower than the bleacher area. Carol decided to go down there and sit on one of the little individual benches...about 6 inches high. There were no chairs for the congregation, just a few of those little benches. Some of the younger folk sat directly on the floor.

Eventually monks in plain white hooded robes wandered into the center section. I counted 58 of them. The service consisted of songs that were really musical chants. I have to admit, it was beautiful to observe and to hear. On our way out I took a picture of the bells that had called people to the service.

 On our way out of Taize we stopped to watch these guys and they came over to check us out as well                                       

Our next stop was the Cormatin Chateau.

The path leads across a river with day lilies crowding its banks.

The left wing of the house is completely gone and the upper floor of the center section is also missing. The formal gardens are on the right with an aviary in the background.

To the left are the kitchen gardens. We started there...

Who can resist climbing roses on a stone wall with lupine blooming nearby?                                                                                                     The use of twigs was fascinating and beautiful and practical as well.

 I also liked the use of twigs for raised beds.

When it was time for the house tour, we were given a booklet to explain each room we would be seeing. The chateau was first built to show the wealth and social standing of the family. Husbands and wives had their own chambers so they could each entertain their own friends. It was unlikely that they would have the same friends since marriages were not based on love and for the one family that lived here there was a 20 year separation in their ages...the wife was only 15.

After this we wandered out to the formal gardens. I thoroughly enjoyed the playfulness of the shrubs that were there. The pool and columbine added to the aesthetic appeal.

The aviary is in the midst of a maze created by high hedges and surrounded by a moat.  The house is also surrounded by a moat. In the front of the house there is a drawbridge leading to an open courtyard. At one time in history the moats were filled in to show that the family was loyal to the king and therefore had no need for defense. The dirt to do this was taken from the kitchen garden. Years later the gardens got their dirt back and the moats existed once again. The picture below is taken from the top of the aviary. It was an easy climb up a circular stair in the center. The 4 parakeets had the rest of the space. (Since I can't get the writing to go next to the pictures today, I'm making the pictures larger, but maybe that's better anyway.)

Behind the chateau is a handsome huge tree and a pond...

This evening we had dinner in Sologny with Francis, Marie-Annick, and Lauryne. I had finally figured out how to turn on BB's lights so we could go out after dark, but I needed Lauryn to show me the location of the horn. I never would have found it...all it takes is pushing in the end of the stick that turns on the lights! We used it a couple of times on our way home just for the novelty.

 

                                                   

Abbaye de Cluny

Tuesday, May 22nd, was our visit to the Abby in near-by Cluny. I knew where the tour began, but Carol wanted to follow the first sign we came to. Since I knew it was a delightful park, I didn't argue and we climbed the stone steps up the hill.

In the field beside the steps was an outdoor theatre with grass terraces for seating. 

Eventually we reversed course, passed this again, and continued on our way.

During our tour of the abbey there were several simplified models illustrating what exists today as compared to what once existed.

There was only this one model (in the picture) that had a lot of detail. The central building and towers that are yellow and orange no longer exist.

Look carefully and you will see 2 gray colored towers; these still stand. The larger one houses the bells.

I took a picture of these two towers when, later on, we climbed what is known as the Tour Frommage, or cheese tower.

The Cluny Benedictine Abbey was begun in 911 and completed in 1130.

It was the largest and most influential church throughout the Middle Ages until the construction of St Peter's Basilica in Rome during the 16th century.

From what little is left, it had to be a glorious structure.

 There are a couple of towers near the edge of town that were once part of the defensive wall that was built around Cluny to protect the abbey and its cathedral.

The abbot's gardens are now the town park. Another building is the palace named for a pope who was expelled from Rome and fled to Cluny. It is now part of a school. There are two other palaces...one used as the town hall and the other as a museum.

All this and more still stands, but the cathedral was destroyed after the French Revolution... I suspect that the people of that time recognized how the church had used fear to control the population, allowing some families to become super wealthy while most were barely able to survive...

That use of fear is employed by some politicians and governments for the same ends today.

Off of what migh have been a chapel is a small room with a fireplace and this window.


We walked by this archway to reach the tourist office which is housed at the base of the Tour Frommage. 

There were 140 steps to reach the top of the cheese tower.

There's a reality screen that swivels so you can compare it to what you are actually seeing. The cathedral as it once was is on the reality screen. It isn't actually in front of you, but the screen allows you to truly picture what is missing!

The netting isn't to prevent people from jumping...

 The netting is to keep the pigeons and any other birds from turning the tower into a bird bathroom. We walk along the street pictured below to reach the square where the outdoor market is held each Saturday.

Sometimes the nicest things happen to what is left of ruins. There is one section of the remains of broken cathedral walls. Growing all over those remnants are nature's gardens of tiny blue- purple flowers.

Walking the Streets of Geneva

Saturday morning we were ready to investigate the old town section of Geneva, but outside was a soaking rain so we settled down in the hostel lobby to read. It wasn't long before the skies cleared and by 10 AM we were on our way.

The old town is built on a hill. We knew St. Peter's Cathedral would be near the top and so we began to climb past a monument and on up a cobblestone street.

Looking back we could see this clock tower.

As we neared the top we couldn't tell which narrow street to follow, but a waiter pointed us in the right direction. 

We turned a corner and suddenly a tower was visible...

then a large square, and finally the front of this weird cathedral.
 

Though the current cathedral was built between 1150 and 1230, it has been added to since then.

This has been the location of a number of churches since 350 A.D. 

An archaeological excavation was begun in 1976 and completed only recently. We decided to visit this area first and so headed down the stairs that led beneath the cathedral.

The excavated space is greater than just under the cathedral; it also extends under the streets in the surrounding area.

Here Carol is reading a plaque that explains what she is seeing in this corner. The colored sticks denote different time periods.

Among other things, they have found the remains of several older churches, of wells, the tomb of some chieftain, mosaics...

and baptisteries...

The older ones of these was large enough for full immersion while the newer ones gradually become smaller and smaller as the ceremony eventually changed to just a sprinkling of water.

It was interesting to see that every time someone wanted to build a bigger church, they wouldn't dig up the older floor to replace it, but would simply cover it with a thick layer of dirt and then start over. We saw the tunnels that allowed them to heat the monks cells (their 2 story private space in which they lived), where the cathedral bell was poured, the mosaic floor of a reception room...it went on and on. 

Having gained an appreciation for the history of this location, we headed back upstairs to actually see the cathedral. I was far more impressed with the changes that had taken place over time than I was with the current structure.

Carol decided to climb the tower. I decided to sit out that particular climb and watched a video of the history instead.

Geneva played an important role in the movement to reform the Catholic Church and the development of Protestant religions.

Next we wanted to see the Reformation Wall and asked for directions at the Reformation Museum. 

It was about 2 PM and we were getting hungry so we hoped to find lunch on our way. There were some wonderful places to eat, but it was past lunch time and the cafes were serving drinks...not meals. We continued walking until we were far more interested in food than in the Reformation. 

Eventually we found ourselves walking along the edge above a park. I saw the face of a carved figure, leaned over the edge and declared that we were probably on top of the Reformation Wall.

We still had a long walk to the park entrance...and then we realized we had also found another item on our list of things to see. There were the outdoor checkers and chess games!

Reformation Wall was impressive. It's huge!

There was a restaurant in the park and our hopes for lunch surged to the fore...but they were only serving drinks. They did tell us about a cafe that served food all day, just a 5 minute walk. 

We headed out of the park and tried to figure out the directions we'd been given. What does straight ahead mean when there are at least 3 streets straight ahead? We did a lot of wandering in the general direction of what we had been told and finally found a place that had food...but not the cafe we had been looking for. By this time Carol's stomach was upset so all she wanted was a bathroom and some tea. I ordered a sandwich and an apple tart.

We finally recovered enough to begin walking again and suddenly realized we were seeing the same clock and statue that had been our starting point for exploring the “old town” that morning. 

Certainly couldn't forget all those gift boxes in the window!

 

There was no bus waiting for us so we wandered towards the lake. There was the flower clock we had wanted to see! 

Unfortunately, my camera had died at Reformation Wall. Pictures for the rest of this day will have to wait for Carol to get home and email them to me.

By this time it would have been about 5 PM...the evening's events included a fabulous meal, a train ride, policemen, a man in handcuffs, a long walk and reaching "home" at 10 PM...Other than that first bus in the morning, we had spent the rest of the day and evening walking from one end of Geneva to the other.

We Arrive in Geneva

 

I had packed and showered the night before and slept with the phone next to my pillow so I was ready to roll when Elisabeth called at 5:15 AM. I hadn't counted on having to wrestle with the futon...it had been my first night sleeping on it...but I managed to be rolling down the hill a few minutes after 6. Elisabeth was waiting by the fountain.

Our first mini adventure was when we stopped for gas. BB takes gasole/gasoil/diesel. This was the first time I had put gas in the car and I learned why I had a second key. In fact, I hadn't known which side of the car had the gas tank and pulled up with the pump on the driver's side as I would do in the USA in my Fit. BB is definitely not a Honda Fit. Anyway, Elisabeth was sure the hose would reach around the car and it did. Where it didn't reach was deep into the car's gas tank. Diesel fuel was suddenly rushing out of the tank instead of into it! As long as we drizzled the diesel we could fill the car, but it sure took a gentle touch on the hose handle and in France there are no settings on that handle; it has to be held the entire time. Figuring the difference between the dollar and the euro, it would be about $2.00 per liter, not per gallon. BB said she was about half empty and it took 42 euros to fill her up.

On the relatively straight highway I managed to get BB up to 110 km...and then we reached the edge of the Alps. The mountains are steep...not the rounded tops with gentle valleys found in Vermont. The engineers who created this highway built the shortest possible tunnels through the mountains, so the tunnels are not in the valleys near the bases of the mountains. Instead they seem to be halfway up the mountains. Then they built the highway in the air, high above the valleys, connecting tunnel to tunnel. They did add guard rails, but that didn't calm my fear of heights.

 

We reached the airport about 8:30 AM, found Carol and headed for our hostel.

We weren't going to be able to get into our room until 2 PM, but we were able to park the car in the hostel garage. That taken care of, we headed for the waterfront.

The path along the water's edge was lined with huge posters of political cartoons relating to freedom of speech, freedom from police and state brutality, freedom from intolerance, and freedom for women. They were fascinating, beautiful, and apropos to so many countries including ours. The jet d'eau (jet of water) was soaring 140 meters into the sky, a pair of swans were hanging out with their fluffy little signets...cute as can be...and the yellow water taxis were taking people from shore to shore. Farther along I noticed a bridge for pedestrians and bicycles that went under a busy bridge. We were busy soaking in the sights when the rain arrived. We found a restaurant and soon were being served a nice meal as the sun was once more regaining control of the skies.

The hostel gave us a transport card, good for any bus, tram, or water taxi. We quickly discovered that when the bus or tram you wanted stopped in front of you, you just got on through the nearest door and no one ever asked to see the passes. That was super. 

Elisabeth took a train home. Carol and I were once again off to the waterfront where we bought tickets for a boat ride.

We chose to sit outside on the upper deck. The lake touches the shores of 2 countries and has two names.

For the Swiss it is Rade de Geneve, whereas to the French it is Lac Leman. I was surprised to learn that the lake flows into the Rhone River which eventually flows into the Mediterranean. We passed a jut of land with a monument whose significance I missed. On that same strip of land I noticed some brightly decorated trees. We passed the yacht club with its hundreds of sailing masts. While passing along the far shore we were told that Byron stayed at a house midway up the hill while Shelley was living in one that is below and by the shore. I photographed the general area, but I never did figure out which 2 houses were the correct ones.

Back on shore we spotted an interesting monument in a raised park guarded by 2 lions and containing pools of various shapes overseen by griffins. A duck was sleeping along the edge of one pool until a little dog who was chasing a ball ran just a bit too close. The duck decided it was time for a swim.

We walked back toward the hostel and found a relatively inexpensive cafe where we split a carrot salad and pizza. Night was approaching. We called it a day.