La ville de Brioude et son église

The town of Brioude (pop. 6,700) is on the main road that runs between Le Puy-en-Velay and Clermont-Ferrand. Each of these larger places is at least an hour by car from Brioude, which is a town that has a history going back to Roman times. I have to admit that I had never heard of it before our recent trip to the region.

Brioude is famous for its church. It's the largest Romanesque church in all of the old Auvergne province. In 1957, it was elevated in status by Pope Pius XII and classified as a "minor basilica" — of which there are more than 150 in France — mostly because of its outstanding architecture. (The only four "major basilicas" are all in Rome.) I have to admit too that my first glimpse of the Brioude church didn't overly impress me. The west front looked very plain. Going inside and walking around the exterior of the building changed my mind.

One thing we didn't want to do during our quick, last-minute birthday trip to Auvergne was spend too much time driving around on narrow, curvy roads in the car. At age 70, long hours of driving are too tiring for me. We wanted a more relaxing vacation, and we wanted to be nice to the dog by walking her twice a day instead of keeping her strapped into the back seat of the Citroën so much of the time. Tasha enjoys riding in the car, but still...

So we had decided not do the two- or three-hour drive round-trip from Le Puy to Brioude during the week. There were other places, including Clermont, Saint-Flour, and La Chaise-Dieu, that we didn't visit because the drive was too long either because of distance or because of the kinds of twisty mountain roads we'd have to drive on. Iffy weather was also a factor.

Still, in the Michelin Guide to the Auvergne, which I didn't really have time to study until we got to our gîte in Le Puy, there was a stunning photo of the interior of the church in Brioude. I wanted to see it, and we would be driving right past it on our way back to Saint-Aignan on a Saturday morning. I told Walt I wanted to stop and take a walk around the town, weather permitting. And I definitely wanted see the interior of the church. So we stopped and did all that before continuing the drive back toward home.