Tag Archives: Medieval Buildings

Lyon to Cluny and Dijon

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Day 70,  Monday November. 6, 2023

This morning when Bob is taking our stuff out to the car he meets the sniffer dog in the hallway.  He was quite excited to start his bedbug hunt!  I’m sure he gets treats when he does his job well.

Today we are driving to Dijon with a stop in Cluny.   It is cloudy and rainy today and we are surprised to see these sunflowers still in full bloom.  They were finished and harvested over a month ago elsewhere.

In just an hour we arrive in Cluny, find a parking lot and paid .15€, which is about 24 cents,  for all day parking!  What a bargain, although I wondered why they even bothered to charge anything.  It is quite a walk to the Cluny Museum and it is raining and cold.

These medallions set in the road and sidewalks help us find our way…kind of like our walk in Vincent’s footsteps in Arles.  They were really helpful, and before too long we arrive at the museum.  We find out that the museum closes in half an hour so we barely have time to see everything.  Good thing it is a small museum.

The museum is all about the Cluny Abbey,  the oldest Abbey in France.  It was founded in 910.  This is a model of the Abbey in 1250 when it was at its peak.

The lady who works at the museum suggested we visit the library before it closes.  It has a lot of very old books and manuscripts but the room is not climate controlled, and I think the books are suffering because of that.

The books on display have warped, wrinkled pages…from moisture I wonder?  It seems a shame but everything costs money and I don’t think this little museum would have the funds to make the library climate controlled.  As soon as we left the library they locked the doors behind us…they kept it open so that we could see it.  Nice!

In the museum we see this carved stone with the same symbol as the bronze medallions that helped us find our way earlier.  It is called the ‘keystone of the paschal lamb’.  I looked up paschal and it means relating to Easter and the Jewish Passover.

There were interesting carved panels that lined one of the museum rooms.  Every circular design was different than the others.

These reliquaries were interesting.   The relic is usually so revered that the reliquary is traditionally made of precious metals or gems like these two below. Relics may include pieces of bone or hair, pieces of cloth, or natural objects that were significant in the lives of a saint or holy person.  The bottom photo is of two unusual portrait reliquaries.We have a rather quick look a the rest of the museum and then we are told that they need to close up so we go outside to find the ruins of the Abbey.  On the way we walk by a lovely medieval herb garden.

By the time of the French Revolution, hatred of the Catholic Church led to the suppression of the order in France in 1790 and the monastery at Cluny was almost totally demolished in 1810. Later, it was sold and used as a quarry until 1823!  This plaque shows what is left of the Abbey Church…only the black bits remain today.

The Abbey Church was the largest church in the world until the construction of the St Peter’s Basilica in Rome.  These are the remains of a few of the church pillars.

Our entrance to the museum also gives entrance to the Abbey.  There is a fantastic 3D film that shows the construction of the Abbey and we walk through many of the existing Abbey buildings.  Today only part of the transepts and bell tower remain of the Abbey Church. There is only 8% of the Church still in existence today, but that little bit is spectacular.  

It is 30 meters up to the vault above us.

Around 1100, Cluny and its monastic order held authority over 10,000 monks and 1,500 monasteries across Europe. The decline set in from the end of the Middle Ages. The abbey became the target of an entrepreneur who used explosives to demolish the buildings, and sold the stones as building materials!

There is a small chapel with sculptures of biblical figures.  Some of then still have bits of their original paint.  We are used to seeing sculptures as bare stone and it is easy to forget that they used to be colourfully painted.

We marvel at this intricately carved stone and wonder at the skill it would have taken to carve such delicate work.

The remaining abbeys is currently a trade school.  Here are some of the hallways around what used to be a cloister.

The granary has the most amazing wooden roof that was constructed using wooden dowels, which you can see in the bottom right photo.The basement of the grainery was used for storage.

Parts of the remaining abbey are shown their age and really need major repairs.

The cloister looks quite lovely… but when I hold my camera up to a broken panel in one of the doors along the cloister walkway this is what is inside!  Not what I was expecting.  I thought these doors would open into rooms but at least some of them seem to be storage rooms…for what looks like junk.

On our way back to the car we pass an artists studio, which is closed but I sneak a photo through the window.  

It is another two hour drive to Dijon and we see a lot of army trucks on the highway.  We wonder where they are going. 

Sarlat le Canéda, France

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Day 34, Sunday, October 1, 2023

Our first day in Sarlat, Bob goes for a walk to check out the neighbourhood and I am quite content to watch the world go by from our window.  There is a knock at our door and when I answer it there is a box of local goodies from our Airbnb hosts.

In the late afternoon we go for a little walk through the narrow cobblestoned streets.

This is a Medieval town and most of the buildings date from the the 15th century and even some from the 13th century!

This old church is now an indoor market.  We will have to return when it is open.

This statue of three geese is a reminder of the importance of the local fois gras industry.

Some of the shops are already starting to decorate for Halloween.  This clown is particularly creepy.

There are always interesting doors in French cities and towns.

What to do when you want a garden but don’t have a yard.

The Fontaine Sainte-Marie is nestled in a natural grotto not too far from our apartment.. This 12th century fountain was used until the 18th century when the water became polluted from nearby streets and stables.  

We walk back home under a street festooned with flowers.  This is going to be an interesting place to stay.

Tours, France

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Day 25, Friday, September 22, 2023

Today we explore Tours.  Our apartment is within easy walking distance of downtown. First stop is the Tours Train Station which is one of the prettiest train stations in France. The architect is the same one which designed the station which is now the  Musée d’Orsay .  I can see the resemblance. The inside is decorated with tiled pictures of French towns and chateaus.

We pass a little patisserie and buy couple treats for our tea time.  So far I am able to have the odd gluten treat with no ill effects, although I am sensitive to gluten at home. They were delicious!

We visit the garden behind the Beaux Arts Museum and see this phenomenal tree!  It is an enormous Lebanon Cedar with a height of 31 metres, a width of 33 metres and a trunk with a circumference of 7.5 metres!  It is a magnificent tree.  

I love big trees, and this one is one of the biggest I have seen.  It has enormous cones, and long arching branches, some of which lie along the ground.  Pictures do not do it justice.

There are flowers and lots of benches.  The device just above the red flowers is used so that the gardeners can sit or perhaps lie down and weed without having to walk in the flower beds.

This is Fritz the Elephant.  He died in 1902 in Tours.  Please take moment to read about his tragic death.  He was stuffed and is on display in the gardens. https://graphicarts.princeton.edu/2017/05/26/fritz-the-elephant/  

St. Gatien Cathedral is very ornate.  

The decorative work on the outside of the church is very delicate and beautifully carved.

This interesting coffee shop/art gallery was under part of a building and open to the street.

Tours has horse drawn wagons!

These medieval buildings lean out over the street.  Each floor extends a bit further out than the one below.  Note the interesting carvings on the grey building.  There is just so much to see everywhere.

This photo has an interesting story.  We were having tea and I noticed that there was a large duffel bag sitting unattended on a bench some distance from us.  It made me rather nervous.  We have seen signs to be aware of abandoned bags or other unusual activity.      Several people walked by and looked at the bag, but just kept walking, until this fellow walks by, turns around and sits down beside the bag.  He sits there for about 5 minutes, then casually stands up, looks at the bag, picks it up and quickly walks away.  Pretty sure the bag wasn’t his.  Tours is a university town and Bob figures someone just forgot their bag, but I wonder how anyone leaves a big duffle bag behind.

On the walk home we pass this flower store.  If we had a bit more room in our apartment I would have bought some flowers, they were so beautiful and not terribly expensive.

Old Town in Wroclaw, Poland

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Day 11, Thursday September 5, 2019.

Today is a much needed quiet day. For some reason I only slept a few hours last night so I stay home and rest and do a bit of blogging. Bob goes for a walk and scouts out the route to the Old Town for tomorrow. Here is our view from the apartment, with our white car in the parking lot. Bob is in there too, but you can barely see his head as he walks along the street behind the hedge. 

 

Day 12, Friday, September 6, 2019

On our walk to Wroclaw’s Old Town we cross one of its canals. It looks so peaceful here.

Soon we are approaching the old part of town. There are many places where we see the old and the new side by side. These two buildings were across from each other.
Here’s how big items get delivered!

Wroclaw Town Square, another huge square with beautiful buildings. These date back to the 1600’s!

The flower market.Wroclaw has an ever growing populations of gnomes.  In fact, our guidebook states “the little buggers are currently rumoured to be running rampant to the score of over 300 making it literally impossible for us to try to keep track of them!”  I think they are delightful and I am happy to make their acquaintance .

A view of the glass panel fountain … and more tenement houses in the town square. The interior of St. Mary Magdalene’s Church which dates from 1330. We climb 147 steps up to the walkway between the two towers. In times past women suspected of being witches were forced to cross this walkway (there were no railings then) and if they made it across safely they were branded as a witch. If they fell to their death, then they were innocent of the crime of being a witch! You certainly didn’t want to be accused of witchcraft!  I am very glad there are railings now and I meet another couple of gnomes. We have great views of the city from up here. Here is a view of the walkway, way up there between the two towers.There were steeples on these at one time, not sure if they were destroyed during the war? More ornate colourful buildings.
I wish I knew the recipe for the bubble mixture this guy was using! He made hundreds of bubbles at a time with his string between two sticks.  Kids had such fun chasing all the bubbles.We found quite a few more of these little fellows, on doorsteps, or tucked into corners.

There was some sort of celebration happening with lots of women wearing fancy outfits and some very interesting hats.

The two little houses in the corner called Hansel and Gretel are the only two houses left of streets that used to surround a cemetery. The cemetery closed in 1773.  I wonder where the graves went?The interior of St. Elizabeth church dates to the 14th century. It was severely damaged during the second world war and then by a fire in 1976.

So it’s stained glass windows are modern. This one is quite unique.

More colourful houses on a side street…
and more busy gnomes.

We stop at a sidewalk restaurant for lunch and now we are ‘those people’ who take pictures of their meals! My salmon with a balsamic reduction was delicious.  It was one of the best restaurant meals I have had and Bob enjoyed his sausage and potato pancakes with spinach .

At the university we visit an ornate lecture room… and an interesting collection of artifacts.  This is a chart for determining eye colour.

I love all the old wooden cabinets with all their drawers. The Music Hall is under restoration but we are allowed a peak inside. We. climb another 203 steps up the Math tower, which has displays along the way.  

These are beautiful old compasses, some dating back to the 1600’s.The top of the Math Tower…
and the views. Notice the very modern looking tower among the old.

Bob standing on the Meridian line which runs through this University,  This meridian line demarcates the 51st parallel which runs right through the Math Tower as well. I just love all the reflections of the old buildings in the glass walls of the modern new buildings! Churches here are either very ornate…or look like this. The late afternoon sun was shining through the windows casting everything in a lovely olden glow.

We stop for tea and cookies in this little garden with its Baroque well. Then we visit the market and buy some fruit. Food prices are very reasonable here. More reflections. We catch a trolley bus home. We haven’t seem many paved streets or sidewalks here. Most of the streets and sidewalks here are cobbled in one fashion or another. All the uneven footing is hard on the feet and ankles. We walked 16,700 steps today and climbed the equivalent of 31 floors!