We left the gîte du Riou in Le Puy (Auvergne) at about nine o'clock on that Saturday morning, March 9, and stopped to spend an hour or two in Brioude, which I've been blogging about for more than a week. Then we got in the car and drove the 3½ hours to Saint-Aignan on the autoroute. I was going to do a slideshow of some of the photos I took along the way, but instead I've decided to post just three images.
About 25 kilometers (15 miles) north of Brioude, and on the southern edge of the town called Issoire, we drove past the place called Le Broc. The Wikipédia article about the village says that about 700 people live there. At Le Broc, there's a hilltop medieval castle that's now in ruins, there's a medieval priory called La Commanderie de Chassaing, and there's also a prehistoric dolmen. Plus there's an airport. The priory is the tall, rectangular building you see in the foreground of my photo.
This second place is a town not far north of Le Broc, where the Couze Chambon river flows under the autoroute and into the Allier river, which is itself a tributary of the Loire. The village is called Montpeyroux and is one of the plus beaux villages de France. It's another place I'd like to see, but there are so many of those in France that, well, good luck! Maybe someday. Here's the page about Montpeyroux on the official Plus Beaux Villages web site, and it includes a short photo gallery showing the local sights.
And finally, here's a photo taken much farther north, when we were in the Berry province northeast of the Auvergne. This is the magnificent Cathédrale Saint-Étienne de Bourges seen from the autoroute as we drove by at about 80 mph, at a distance of about four miles (nearly 7 km). Ignore the two water towers (châteaux d'eau), including the one that partially blocks the view of the cathedral, which soars over the town. Bourges is a small city, pop. 66,000, located about 90 minutes west east of Saint-Aignan by car. (See my comment about east vs. west below.)
Can't believe it was already more than ten years ago we went to chateau de Meillant and Bourges! I do recall the delicious foie de veau at the brasserie.
ReplyDeleteI've never been to see the cathedral in Bourges, though I've seen many photos of it.
ReplyDeleteYou saw a lot in those five days, there are things to see even on the autoroute.
ReplyDeleteIsn't Bourges east of Saint-Aignan? Although with my North American orientation, I confess I have to do the equivalent of counting on my fingers sometimes to figure out which way is which is western Europe.
ReplyDeleteThat cathedral looks as if it'd be spectacular.
DeleteOh, did I write west? I do that all the time. I had the same trouble in California. Having grown up on the East Coast, I have a mind that is convinced that the ocean should be on the east side of the land. Do you know of a food writer whose name was Waverly Root? He wrote, I think, for the Int'l. Herald Tribune. In his book on French regional foods and cooking, he also made the mistake of mixing up east and west. His editors obviously didn't catch the error. Thanks for noticing my error.
I do the same thing re the west coast. And I have a couple of Root's books, didn't realize he did it, too. We're in good company.
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