Beaune, 2013

After a quiet night in Autun--parked between a Roman theatre, a lake, and the town cemetery!--we drove on to Beaune, a place we have visited many times before and about which I blogged in 2011: http://roadeveron.blogspot.it/2011/07/beaune.html. We got there in the morning early enough to claim an actual camping-car space at the aire, which is always crowded well beyond its capacity. While Vicki spent the day resting and relaxing, reading and researching, I walked all over the town, spelunking (nyuk, nyuk, nyuk), and sampling the contents of the various caves. FWIW, I finally bought a bottle of Chassagne Montrachet.

Approaching Beaune, and not far from Meursault; not quite
up to harvest

When harvest comes, it will be done by one of these weird
machines

Unlike France's other wine regions, Burgundy seems to have
enough self-regard to permit humor; there's a whole line of
these cards, which I adore

It's a pretty town, an old and historic town, but alas I did not
take many pix on this visit

We had dinner at a place called Bistro de Bourguignon, and
forgot to take pix of my snails, Vicki's boeuf de bourguignon,
my steak tartare...until her creme brulee arrived...plus there
was a nice couple from New Jersey at the next table who
seemed quite interested in our life story...

Walking back home by the Hotel Dieu

And its light show

Thus

And thus

Autun, 2013

After a pleasant night at Bourges' aire, we turned back toward Burgundy and the old town of Autun, which we've been visiting since 1979. It has some Celtic bits, some Roman bits, some great Romanesque cathedral bits, and a modern town that is attractive and welcoming. I blogged about Autun's cathedral in 2011, so if you want to see more of it, go to http://roadeveron.blogspot.it/2011/07/autun.html.

Autun has a nice aire too, on the lake, maybe a kilometer from the centro; but it
is a bit noisy and angular, so we moved eventually around the lake to the aire by
the Roman theater 

Autun's famous Ecole Militaire, with beautiful Burgundian tiled roofing

Boys old and young and mostly old playing boulles at the park; I think I could
get into this...

The main reason for coming back to Autun is its wonderful Romanesque Cathedral
of St. Lazare and its 12th century sculpture, in its tympanum but mainly in its capitals,
all by Gislebertus..."Gislebertus hoc fecit," "Gislebertus made this," one of the great
signatures of all art

OK, I have to show you just one or two, here, my favorite, Simon the Magician
falling to his death, with St. Peter and Satan looking on, with pleasure

And just one more, never before seen on this blog, a bad guy, a snake, a woman, a
tree...

Anyhow, after the usual couple hours in the cathedral, admiring the barrel vaulting,
wondering about all the cracks, we walked back down through the pretty town of
Autun; here a 19th century shopping arcade

A pedestrian street scene

An Art Nouveau butcher shop, something that never escapes Vicki's keen eyes

Old city wall and tower, partly Medieval, partly Roman, perhaps; Autun comes
from Augustodunum

Augustodunum's theater, said to have seated 20,000

Up closer; the highest tier, built on barrel vaults, is now one; we believe the
theater here may have been what attracted us to Autun in the first place, in
1979...it was the first Roman thing we ever saw in Europe; well, that and the
fact it was on the way to Beaune

Fiddling In Bourges

On the Rue Bourbonnoux in Bourges we passed by a violin-maker's shop--something you don't see down at the mall anymore. And, when I stuck my head in, the young master graciously said sure, take all the pix you want. Well, he said "Oui" when I held up the camera. I tried playing the violin for a couple weeks in my youth and have ever since been in awe of stringed-instrument playing. And making. It's not a lost art yet.

Bourges Old Town

We were in a rush when we visited the cathedral in May, but now we took a little time to visit the beautiful old town, capital of Berry.

All-weather merry-go-round

One of the things we liked in Bourges was all the sculpted figures popping out
of walls, windows, etc.

Thus

And thus

And thus

And thus

Jacques Coeur was Bourges Great Man, a minister of finance
in the 15th century

Main bit of his palace

Part of another beautiful Renaissance building

In our not inconsiderable experience, every city and town in Europe has an Irish
bar; most have more than one; but this is absolutely the first Scottish bar we have
seen...shouldn't they be advertising MacEwans' and not Murphy's?

In addition to its Renaissance palaces and Scottish Bars,
Bourges also has its fair share of old half-timbered buildings

Many in the neighborhood along the Rue Bourbonnoux; nice
place, great cathedral

Bourges Cathedral, Again

We drove somewhat out of the way to get back to Bourges, south of Paris. We both wanted to see the great 13th century cathedral again, both for the glass and for the great size and age and uniqueness of the building. I did a long post or two on St. Etienne Cathedral in Bourges back in May, and, hopefully, I won't repeat too many of those shots. It's our new love, as cathedrals go.

The new roof is just about done, I imagine; there are several things I find intriguing
about Bourges...its non-cruciform shape, more akin to the original Roman/Christian
basilicas, reflecting, some surmise, the builders' interest in architectural unity; the
fact that, when built, it had no relics; and was not on any established pilgrimage route 

Elevation, with the great double aisles; Bourges is not as tall
inside as a few of the others, but it feels incomparably larger

In one of the aisles; because of their great height, you can
easily think you must be in the nave

Judgment window

Detail; paucitas salvandorum, multitudonem damnamdorum; including bishops

In another window, devils at play

From the Was, Is, and Shall Be window...Shall Be

And here, a treat or two we missed on our earlier visit...on a couple of apparently
mangled windows on the south side are intact remnants from the earlier 12th century
windows...one doesn't see that much 12th century glass...

Ditto

Vicki demonstrates how close you can get to some of the
glass at Bourges

And another treat...in the St. John chapel, a 1475 fresco that
was "discovered" and restored in the 1990s

Convincingly later 15th century, if you ask me

Bourges' bow