Poultry and Royal Monastery In Bourg En Bresse

Bourg en Bresse, the capital of Ain, is in the way between Burgundy and Chamonix Mont Blanc, two destinations that generally go together for us. So, after Tournus, en route to Chamonix, we stopped in B en B for lunch and a tour of the Brou church and monastery.

You guessed it, Bresse chicken

After the previous evening's over-indulgence, we opted just for the one-plate
affair; Vicki really likes this stuff; I prefer Costceaux

From the Bresse chicken restaurant row, you gaze across the street at the Brou
church, an early 16th century Flamboyant extravaganza that is part of the Royal
Monastery of Brou, which was intended to be a royal burial ground sort of like
St. Denis, but for the elites of Savoy and Burgundy; the Flamboyant is interesting,
the tile roofing is impressive

Interior

Elevation

The sculpture on the rood screen, the choir, and the tombs
is exquisite and fairly unusual in having escaped the
Revolutionary ravages most royal/noble/religious edifices
were subjected to

The tomb of Margaret of Austria, the donor of Brou, widow of Philibert the Fair,
duke of Savoy; or possibly her mother; or possibly someone else, maybe
Philibert himself

Margaret died of blood poisoning, our guide (Vicki) said, from a cut on her
foot, pictured here (right foot); always, ALWAYS wear shoes or other foot
protection; and treat even minor cuts promptly...

Chartered helicopter view of the entire complex; notice there are three different
cloisters; Margaret lived here, so one was for her private use; I bet it was nicer
than the others

One of the cloisters; a double-decker, too; nice picnic pavilion in the center

Giant sun dial outside the church

The monastery proper is now the home of B en B's municipal
museum, which is fairly formidable considering it is a small
city; above is what happens when you don't brush and floss
after every meal; I wonder if Caravaggio ever did one of these,
and if so, how he handled the lighting...

Would it have made more sense, compositionally, to have
had four angels, not three? I mean, with four, you could
avoid the juggling act of the left angel; and it still would
have made symbolic sense, 3 for the trinity + 1 for the unity
=4; am I right? 

Always looking for a Millet, one of Van Gogh's heroes

We really were looking for a Breughel, which turned out to
be a "studio of" Jan Breughel, and a Dante and Virgil that
was under restoration or on loan, but were nonetheless
pleased to see this and a couple other Gustav Dore pieces...
Vivien and Merlin

Abbey Church At Tournus

We first saw the abbey church at Tournus in 1989, and I was impressed, and remained impressed. It is a 10th-11th century Romanesque church, and, until we saw Charlemagne's "cathedral" in Aachen in 2011, it is likely the oldest strictly European (post-Roman) building we have seen. From Beaune we headed south, with Tournus one of a couple of notable stops.

The abbey was founded by survivors of the
Viking raids in Normandy, carrying the remains/
relics of St. Philibertus; in Burgundy they got
raided by Hungarians and even Moors; and
resisted Cluny's efforts to take them over; times
were nasty and brutish

Nave

Elevation

11th century mosaic in the ambulatory, recently discovered,
relating the Zodiac to monthly labors, a common Medieval
theme

Not a lot of sculpture going on...

Altar

Looking astern, great organ

Now in the crypt

This puppy is really old

More crypt

10th century well

Crypt view

Outside, looking at tower

Cloister

Cloister sculpture

Deteriorating jamb statues removed for
preservation

Capitals, other pieces, removed for preservation

Now in the huge hall above the huge narthex

Looking up into the tower above

Thus; impressive place...

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.