Chapter 3(of 8) Holiday 2005

We left the Sarthe in the extremely early morning as we had decided that the next place the wind was going to blow us was somewhere in Burgundy. I can only hope that the knowledge the some of the finest wines in France are produced here wasn’t part or the winds intent.
As we left at 7.00, unbreakfasted, the first stop had to be for fodder.
We drove into Vendome only to be told by the café that “No, there was absolutely no bread, ALL the Bakers had taken their holidays together.
Even the Market was shut but they at least had left their pictures up on the windows to remind us of what they looked like.

So we struggled on and decided to stop in the first town where we could reasonably demand lunch.
In Sully-sur-Loire we were not disappointed.
We had a marvellous lunch in “La Ferme des Chataigniers”.
An endless and generous supply of courses helped to sustain us and we ate in solitary splendour in the garden of the farm with a hopeful hen begging for scraps by our toes.

The campsite in Chateau Chinon was pleasantly placed at the edge of the forest and had the necessary emplacements so,having managed to find a day old Guardian, (for the crossword) we installed ourselves there.

The following day was cloudy, mist was filling the valley when we woke up.

Fortunately the town had two large museums.
Mitterand had been the local T.D. here for many years so he had given all his many presentations to the town. These were numbered in their thousands and most were the sort of hideous, but valuable souvenirs that you would expect.
In the fairly small Irish contribution we found that Waterford Co-Op had presented him with a piece of bog oak. This was strangely pleasing among the jewel encrusted chessboards etc.

The other museum was a very good one of costume where I managed to take a few surreptitious snaps,(for the costume designing daughter) with the flash turned off, thus the shakes.

The nearest large town was Autun whose chief claim to fame was a lovely old cathedral. This had a beautifully carved doorway

A wonderful Spiral Pulpit Stairs

But the thing I liked best was a window where all of the prosperous burghers, who had endowed it, had managed to get themselves portrayed as Saints and Apostles. If you look carefully I think you will see that the Vitrail maker has managed to poke subtle fun at them at the same time.

The town also had some nice Art Deco buildings includingd a particularly pretty Arcade

The following day saw us take off on a long trek to a town whose name I have forgotten to another Brocante Fair. This was far more up market than the last and consequently way over my limited budget.
However on the way back we stopped in a wayside Brocante and in a rummage box, where everything was for sale at 20 cent, I found a true Absinthe saucer, complete with printed price of 40 centimes. These are difficult to come by and sell on ebay for anything up to $100.
My day was saved!