Weather was supposed to be raining so I came prepared this time and of course didn’t need to. We drove to Avallon the town that uses frogs as indicators to explore the city same way Dijon does with owls.
On to Vezelay to the Basilica of the Madeleine which is now very beautifully sympathetically restored. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%A9zelay_Abbey
It is situated on top of the hill, town spreads out below it, most walk up the hill but there is parking on the hill, behind the Basilica.
What was missing wasn’t replaced, just cleaned up.
So much better than the visit in 2019 with no boring tour guide that didn’t guide through the church. http://bevbrucelexi.blogspot.com/2019/08/ . I am not a religious person, as you know, so I wondered the difference between a basilica and a cathedral, here is your answer on a rather messy website in my opinion. https://askanydifference.com/difference-between-basilica-and-cathedral/
Christoph was looking for a particular book and the store there told him to go to another church, actually working monastery so we drove over country roads for about half an hour to get there using his phone GPS otherwise we would have been easily lost.
Getting there expecting a large old church with nothing else we encountered the monastery with quite a few others wandering around and it’s relatively modern, likely the chapel was built in the 70’s surprise to us on both accounts. http://www.apqv.fr/
The full name is Abbaye Sainte Marie De La Pierre Qui Vire, no wonder they shortened the web name.
Left at 10 am back at 6 pm made for a long day of driving for him and me trying my map skills because we couldn’t get cell signal on the back roads. But, it didn’t rain!
Countryside is green due to the rain they have had, small herds of charolaise cattle, larger ones of sheep dot the fields and large fields of sunflowers. Landscape is rolling hills with woods between fields.
Road tolls that day were 8.30 Euros total
More touring to come...
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