Another one of those trips destined to put the stone and canvas flesh on dozens
of art history lecture slides, this one is due to take in the ruined abbey of
Cluny, Claus Sluter's
Well of Moses,
Autun, Vézelay, Dijon, and the Rogier van der Weyden Last Judgement in
the Beaune Hôtel-Dieu.
Before the trip I needed some new socks and I found some nice ones online – not
thin or too big, in that one-size-fits-all way, and also dark red, a very
favourite colour. When they arrived I realised that they are the same colour as
the name of the region of France where my trip is heading! What were the
chances?
Wednesday
9th
Early awake to get to the St Pancras Eurostar terminal by
8.00 to meet tour guide Sally by the check-in desks, and realise there were many
more familiar faces on the trip than my faulty memory for names had suggested.
We were on the 9:31 to Paris which got into Gare du Nord around 1.00. There we
met up with Uli, our tour manager, and a coach took us through torrential rain
to the Gare Du Lyon, where we had comfortable time for lunch at the station
(pour moi Le Cheeseburger Végétarienne.) An hour and a half train journey took us
to Dijon, where it was milder, but a storm was promised, and our coach took us
to Beaune and the Hotel de la Poste.
The included intro dinner together on was at the hotel’s Restaurant le Bistro.
The big mystery of the night was why, as a vegetarian, I was given fruit salad
instead of the poached pear. The square and dark falafel with lentils in some
kinda sauce was fine though.
My room smells faintly of fresh paint and the pillows are oddly square, but it's
quiet and comfy and I quickly conked and slept through.
Thursday
10th
Breakfast report: croissants fresh, coffee
drinkable, and orange juice ditto. Highlights : pamplemousse marmalade and pain
de epices sponge cake. This morning our coach to Cluny in cloudy weather took an
hour and a half. The coach’s summer-appropriate tinted windows make the weather
look even dingier, but they also make the clouds look better.
Cluny is famous for its huge abbey church, very little of which remains, thanks
to Napoleon. The ruins have impressive remains and reminders of its glories.
Myself I enjoyed various windows, doors and crannies.
Lunch was booked at La Nation nearby, so we left by a gate much nearer the
restaurant than the one by which we had entered, and were told off by a passing
member of staff for not exiting via the gift shop. There had been no signs
saying NO EXIT - This way for the fridge magnets, needless to say. Lunch
was a veggie quiche for all of us, and a slice of chocolatey cheesecake. All
good and unstuffing.
Then back on the coach, to Tournus. to see
St Philibert. It was a place of more modest stoney treats, but with a very
crypty crypt.
Upon our return to Beaune we had an evening at leisure, so I plumped for a walk
around the walls, while daylight remained, as I'd spotted some nice turrets and
towers from the coach, to which much admirable topiary was added on the
photographic front. Intent on some solitude I got a pear and almond tart and a
lozenge-shaper biscuit thing on my way back, for taking with tea, and settled in
for a battery-charging evening, in both senses.
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Friday
11th
An 8:00 departure necessitated a 6.30 alarm-setting and waking up in
the dark. Seeing the sunrise from the coach was also a new experience. As was
being on a coach with the heating turned on rather than the air conditioning. We
were off to Vézelay, a journey of around two hours, to see the church of Sainte
Marie-Madeleine (see three pics above) which is a Romanesque treat, recently very cleaned, with famous
carved capitals lining the nave, and famous carved portals too.
Later a short coach journey to the village of Pierre-Perthuis for our included
lunch stop at Les Deux Ponts, where they specialise in food in pots. The starter
was bread with various pots of pates. The chick pea and onion and the lentil and
prune were my faves. The main courses came on larger pots - the veggie option
was veg chilli with kidney beans. The novelty was less strong with the desserts,
like the pear and chocolate sponge in a pot.
On to the abbey of Fontenay, which is a feast of photo opportunities
(see right)
and has one
of my, now, top 10 cloisters. More Topiary excellence too.
We returned to Beaune by 7.00 for another independent evening, of more
room-based solitude - writing, photo-adjusting, and reading.
Saturday 12th
A more comfortable 9:00 coach to Autun, and
the cathedral of St Lazare with its famous portal and capitals carved by
Gislebertus. His even more famous and sexy slithering Eve is now in a
(closed) museum nearby. I drifted off while the portal was being appreciated to
photograph some picturesque cottages nearby and met with a tabby cat who rolled
over to show me their belly in a friendly way - my only feline encounter this
trip.
A few of us took to the also-nearby creperie for lunch. The Végétarienne
featured sweet potato, goats cheese, fig, nuts, raisins and such. A pre-coach
visit to Carrefour down the hill resulted in a box of pear jaffa cakes and a bar
of dark mango and black pepper dark chocolate.
The coach then took us back to Beaune for the afternoon to take in the Church of
Notre-Dame (see right at night), its tapestries and frescoed chapel. Then to the Hôtel-Dieu for the
spectacular altarpiece by Roger van der Weyden of The Last Judgment - my no.1
reason for taking this trip. It has long been very near the top of my
Flemish art bucket list and it did not disappoint, despite the business of the
Hôtel. In the chapel of the ward that the altarpiece was painted for there is a
copy (see far below), but the thing itself has its own climate-controlled room, with the
sawn-off back panels on a separate wall.
Our last dinner together was at the Loiseau des Vignes, and was superior with
regard to the food and the chat.
Sunday 13th
A very blurry morning, with the alarm set for 6.30 to
enable an 8:00 coach departure. We took the pretty route back towards Dijon,
having taken the motorway on our first day, with a misty sunrise only adding.
The first stop was to see the remains of the Chartreuse de Champmol, just
outside Dijon, now to be found in the grounds of a vast mental hospital, which
was today full of taped off stretches for a decathlon, with added dogs. We were
here for
Claus Sluter’s portal (see the trumeau Virgin and Child left) and the Well of Moses
(see below right), which was never
actually dedicated to Moses - he is just one of the six Prophets it depicts, and
wasn't ever a well. It's a tall hexagonal feast of sculpture that was once the
plinth to a Crucifix, made for Philip the Bold, for reasons still contested, at
a date also argued about.
Our coach then took us into Dijon to the Musée des Beaux-Arts for more Sluter,
in the shape of the Tomb of Philip the Bold, with its porticos of small
alabaster pleurants processing (see below).
Then to Dijon station around 1.30 to catch the TGV to Paris arriving after
3.00 for a coach transfer to Gare du Nord for the 18:12 Eurostar to St Pancras
and home, after bidding farewell. |
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