Walt has been posting some photos he took in the town of Lapalisse, not far from the spa town of Vichy in the Bourbonnais. We spent an hour or two there 10 days ago taking a walk, taking photos, and taking in the sights.
When we drove in, we could see the massive château in the distance, looming over the town. We stopped and stood on the roadway — no traffic! — to capture the view.
The existing château was built mostly in the 1500s, around the same time that Chambord and Chenonceau were being built in the Loire Valley. The architects and builders came in from Florence, in Italy. The town is about the same size as Saint-Aignan.
We parked next to the big church near the château entrance and walked around that neighborhood with Natasha on her leash. Walt has a special belt that he can attach the dog's leash to so that he has two hands free to operate his camera.
The year-old puppy was very well behaved both in the car and on our walks. Part of the point of this trip was to teach Tasha about traveling by car, staying in unfamiliar accommodations, and walking around in new surroundings. We plan to do more of these kinds of trips over the next few years.
What a great shot of the chateau! It's very imposing.
ReplyDeleteAnd let's stop at the brocante, halfway down the street on the left. Never know what awaits...
I wish we had stopped at the brocante, but we didn't. Anyway, we have enough junk (a.k.a. .treasures) in the house as it is.
DeleteI'd forgotten your car is a C4. Just today I saw one on the road. They are not common here. More C2 but I can't remember seeing a C3.
ReplyDeleteOnce I bought a Citroën (in 2015), I started noticing how many different Citroën models I see on the road here. Seems like nearly half the cars. I had owned a Renault in the past, and we still have the Peugeot we bought in 2003. Now a Citroën.
DeleteWhat a change from the last time I was in Lapalisse, which was more than a decade ago. We spent a couple of hours there, and while the chateau was magnificent, the center of town was grey, dreary, and traffic-choked. Then I read that there was going to be work done on the roads, particularly the N7, to avoid having all through traffic being funneled through the center of town. It looks like the work has been done.
ReplyDeleteWith all the new autoroutes, I wonder if the N7 still carries as much traffic as it did in decades past. Lapalisse was very quiet and a little run-down, but not more than many French towns nowadays. All the little businesses are pulling out and big super- and hypermarkets are replacing them but are on the outskirts of the towns. It's hard to live here without a car now, I imagine.
DeleteWhen we were there the route (N7) through the center of town was clogged with trucks, as well as cars, the entire time. I can see from your photo that that's not the case anymore, but it sounds like the new roads didn't manage to save the center of town, if that was the goal. I do remember when we were passing through 2 or 3 years ago, as we approached the outskirts of town the signage for where we were heading had us go around the town, so we didn't get to see the center then. I'm sure we took a road that didn't exist the first time we were there.
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