1a : Eating out in Cormatin (1 of 1)

This story marks the beginning of a project that has been in the pipeline for a very long time, but that finally gets off the ground as of now, and is actually finished. We have visited a number of restaurants around La Tuilerie de Chazelle, and we have given a (very personal) review of the establishments concerned. Since restaurants often change hands or disappear altogether, we will try to keep those articles as up to date as possible. The first place to be covered : Cormatin.

Cormatin is not really a place where one would find the highlights of French haute cuisine. However, there is more than one restaurant that serves good home cooked food. We will review those places in order of appearance, coming in from Chazelle.

Pizz'a Marco

Pizz’a Marco – Grande Rue
Marco has a good assortment of pizzas, all made on the spot. If you do not want a certain ingredient on your pizza, Marco will without hesitation deviate from his recipes. His pizzas have a very nice thin bottom and are well filled, which are musts for a good pizza in my opinion. Marco has a small terrace outside, but one can also eat inside. Although he is in this sense a small pizzeria, most of his pizzas are to take away. The prices range roughly from € 8 to € 10. For those who forgot to buy some wine: he also sells small and normal size bottles of white and red.

La Terrasse

La Terrasse – Grande Rue
La Terrasse has been closed for a short period of time, but has reopened on july 1st 2013 under new ownership. The interior has been renovated, new tables, chairs and parassols have been installed, in short, the old La Terrasse has made place for a completely new one. Although I always have had a soft spot for La Terrasse old style, the new place looks a lot more inviting. We have eaten there once so far. The service is excellent, the food is good (in stead of the Plat du Jour the place offers a Suggestion du Chef, which is slightly more expensive than what the previous owner had to offer) and La Terrasse had potential to become quite a competitor for its neghbours at Les Blés d'Or, reason why I have dedicated a separate blog to La Terrasse.

Les Blés d'Or

 Les Blés d’Or – Grande Rue
This hôtel-restaurant, located next to La Terrasse, has a slightly more extended menu compared to La Terrasse. In summer there are pizzas available. The service is excellent, the food is good, and there is also a terrace where one can sip a cold beer whilst watching the village life of Cormatin. The prices and the menu are similar to those of the neighbour. 

Café de la Poste, since early 2013 also under new ownership, shares the premises now (mid 2015) with the Tabac, and the owner has developed the place from a not so efficient snackbar into a proper restaurant. About the food as well as about the service we have heard nothing but positive reactions. It might result in a separate blog once we have tried it out.

Snackbar Le Hameau des Champs

Although Cormatin cannot boast a fast food joint like a kebab place, there are some alternatives available for those not too hungry. The campsite “Le Hameau des Champs” has a snackbar also open to those not staying there.

Also Bakery Roy (Boulangerie du Château) has opened a lunchroom cum tearoom next to its shop, where one can buy the baker's products.

Elections

This guy is certainly not standing!

The elections are coming up. Not the national one, not the presidential one, no, this time we will have to vote for the town council. There are no familiar parties taking part here such as Labour, Tories or LibDems, no, not even Screaming Lord Such is running for local councillor. I can only compare these elections with the local ones in the Netherlands, and the French certainly know how to make something simple quite complicated, at least in my eyes. How it works? I have not the foggiest, but I hope to find out in the coming weeks!
Everything started off by registering in the voting register. Once registered, on may, even as a foreigner, vote for the town council. We have found out in the meantime that there are different rules for the elections, depending on the size of the commune. Our commune has 503 inhabitants, hence we follow the rules for the category less than 1000 inhabitants.
The mayor still in function has drawn up a list of 15 candidates, of which he is the head, hence the mayor to be. This list is completely non-political, if that is possible at all. In Cormatin we will not see a struggle between ultra left-wingers or ultra right-wingers. There are quite a few communes with only one list, and this list is often incomplete as well. One could ask oneself what on earth is the purpose of an election with only one incomplete list. But that seems to be a non-relevant question. Even though there are 15 candidates, it is quite well possible that one cannot identify with one or more of those. The voter is allowed to cross off names, and even add different ones.

(Part of the ruling clique

The new names however will have to be chosen from those who made themselves available, although they did not want to be on any list. Their names are displayed on a piece of paper in the voting booth. It appears to be possible, someone explained to me (without me understanding one word of it however) that the complete list does not get a majority of 50% + one vote, in which case there will be a different voting round. With two lists I can however more or less understand this majority principle. And fortunately Cormatin has produced a second list, although with only 11 names and without leader, but anyway….

The list without head

After having verified for the umpteenth time that we are properly registered (where we were allowed to look at this important piece of paper), we are now waiting for the propaganda of the two fighting factions. The “Opposition party” uses the words transparency and involvement a lot. Of the “Ruling party” however we know most candidates personally, and even without knowing the “political programs” our choice will most likely be quite simple. But who knows: one week before the elections the presses start rolling and the Agitprop will be distributed. So there is still time for change!

In some villages windmills are a hot item.

You can find out whether there are any great changes in Cormatin or not during a stay in La Tuilerie de Chazelle.

One ticket with discount, please

As mentioned earlier, an old admission ticket to certain castles entitles the holder of it to claim a discount when purchasing tickets for a different one. And since we were told this explicitly when leaving the castle of Germolles (see a previous blog), and because we had not been to the castle in Brancion for a long time we decided to cash our discount. A nuclear bomb could not have caused more panic in Brancion.

Brancion

Those behind the till were aware that "their" castle took part in some sort of discount scheme of a number of castles, but how it all worked was a total mystery to them. We had read outside on the sandwich boards that the normal admission was € 5 pp, and that certain groups (students, unemployed) could visit the château at the reduced price of € 3 pp. After long and painful deliberations the two behind the till asked us if we could live with a 50% reduction. Of course we could; and finally, after 15 minutes waiting, we marched into the castle.

The logis

The word castle in its own right suggests robustness, and makes one automatically think of the famous big English castles. Not that this castle was so much smaller, but there was relatively little left of this once great and mighty fortress. The big donjon is still more or less intact, there are some remains of a number of round towers, and both logis (residences), the one of Beaujeu and the one of l'An Mil give a good impression of how big the place once was. The lords of Brancion were regularly in conflict with the abbot of Cluny, and the location of the fortress is such that it is very well defendable.

Fishbone parttern

The undersides of the walls suggest that the original walls of the Logis de l'An Mil belonged to an older castle. They show in several places a fishbone pattern, suggesting that at least the foundations were built before the 11th century. The first known lord of Brancion was Warulfe I (approx. 875-927), who is mentioned in a charter of Cluny Abbey from 926. Which would make the château, or at least some parts of it, a pre-Romanesque building.
Even if Brancion would not have had the château which is well worth a visit (click here for a picture album of the castle), it would still be worth a visit. It is a lovely little village, located high above and offering stunning views of the Grosne Valley. It has a very interesting Romanesque church, an old mediaeval covered market hall, and the houses and streets have been restored a couple of years ago by a group of professionals, assisted by a group of inmates of a nearby prison. They were taught a trade during this period and were prepared for a return into "free" society.

The view from the donjon

The church is sometimes used for concerts, and in the church "square", an open field with view across the valley all sorts of events regularly take place.

As for more châteaux in the area, the tickets to one of the castles mentioned hereafter give the visitor a discount on entrance tickets for or one of the others : Berzé-le-Châtel, Brancion, Brandon, Couches, Demigny, Drée, Germolles, La Ferté, Pierreclos, Pierre-de-Bresse and Sully. I always staple the tickets to the brochure "La Route des Châteaux en Bourgogne du Sud", because I know from experience that if I do not do it that way I will never be able to present old tickets at the till!

Logis and donjon

Although Brancion is only 12 km away from La Tuilerie de Chazelle, it is not advisable to go there on a bicycle. The slopes are quite steep, and one year the Tour de France had an intermediate sprint on the Col de Brancion, which counted for the mountains classification.

An old acquaintance

When we (finally) managed to visit the castle of Germolles we bumped into an old acquaintance. Well, bumped into.... not in the flesh, at least.

Château - Germolles

Germolles was already an existing fortress when Philip the Bald, Duke of Burgundy, obtained the castle by seizure. He had the place renovated and turned it into a country estate for his wife Margaret of Flanders. It is one of the few remaining residences of the dukes of Burgundy.
The château still preserves some of its mediaeval glory: the cellar is interesting, the remains of the towers are 13th century and the 2-storey chapel shows a mixture of Romanesque and Gothic architecture. For some pictures, click here.

Towers and chapel - Germolles

The 15th century residential part is inhabited by the owners, however, a few rooms can be visited during the guided tour. The rooms with the walls decorated with the initials of Philip and Margaret are very interesting; unfortunately photographing is not allowed inside. The attached picture of the interior was copied from the website of the château.
But whatever happened to the old acquaintance? It turned out that Claus Sluter, court sculptor of Philip, was involved in the renovation of the property. There was a big fire place in one of the rooms inside the residential building, adorned with two beautifully sculpted capitals made in the workshop of the originally Dutch sculptor.

Capital of Claus Sluter - Germolles

Not so long ago, after having been closed for a long period, the hall with the mausoleum of Philip in the ducal palace in Dijon was reopened for the public, and the famous mourners of Claus Sluter were placed back in their niches around the walls of the mausoleum.
As for more châteaux in the area, the tickets to one of the castles mentioned hereafter give the visitor a discount on entrance tickets for or one of the others : Berzé-le-Châtel, Brancion, Brandon, Couches, Demigny, Drée, Germolles, La Ferté, Pierreclos, Pierre-de-Bresse and Sully. I always staple the tickets to the brochure "La Route des Châteaux en Bourgogne du Sud", because I know from experience that if I do not do it that way I will never be able to present old tickets at the till!

De ducal chapel - Germolles

Germolles is only a three quarters of an hour's drive away from La Tuilerie de Chazelle, and the road takes you all the way through the vineyards of the Chalonnais region.

One letter can make the difference

Couches has a beautiful mediaeval castle, normally referred to as the castle of Margaret of Burgundy. The construction of the castle was started in the 11th century.

Donjon, Chapelle, Tour de Justice - Couches

When we visited the castle recently, the guide told us that there is no written evidence whatsoever that the castle had ever belonged to this Margaret (1290-1315), let alone that she had set foot in it. Again, according to our guide the confusion could well have been caused by the fact that there is another castle in Conches (Normandy) which in its turn has had something to do with Margaret of Burgundy. For some pictures of the château, click here.

The owners of the castle in Couches have solved this "problem" very elegantly and pragmatically: the castle is now called the "Château de Couches dit de Marguerite de Bourgogne", or the castle of Couches AKA that of Margaret of Burgundy. This Margaret was imprisoned by her husband Louis X (the Stubborn), the King of France in Château Gaillard (Normandy), where she died under suspicious circumstances.

Logis, Chapelle, Tour de Justice - Couches

Wikipedia comes with yet another story to link Margaret to Couches. She did not die in 1315, but was secretly transferred to Couches on request of her cousin Marie of Couches, where she died in 1533. However, in my view this story has a too high content of the Anastasia Romanova story.
In any case, the castle with its medieval donjon, round towers and its flamboyant-gothic chapel (1460) is certainly worth a visit.
As for more châteaux in the area, the tickets to one of the castles mentioned hereafter give the visitor a discount on entrance tickets for or one of the others : Berzé-le-Châtel, Brancion, Brandon, Couches, Demigny, Drée, Germolles, La Ferté, Pierreclos, Pierre-de-Bresse and Sully. I always staple the tickets to the brochure "La Route des Châteaux en Bourgogne du Sud", because I know from experience that if I do not do it that way I will never be able to present old tickets at the till!

Chapelle

Couches is slightly more than an hour's drive away from La Tuilerie de Chazelle, and the road takes you partially through the vineyards of the Chalonnais region.

Building using a paper model

A cube in 2D

Everybody will remember having struggled once with a pair of scissors and a pot of glue to build a palace or a castle from a paper model. Producing a 3D representation of a building from a paper model is one thing; to actually make the paper model itself is something even more complicated. A very simple example of such a paper model is that one of a cube, as shown here.

Drawing of a "simple" stair case stringer

When I was attending a school in my youth which would provide me with a diploma as a carpenter or joiner the word "paper model" was always used in conjunction with the complicated modelling of e.g. the parts of a winding staircase. Fortunately, I never had to make one. It requires a very good insight in solid geometry as well as mastering the use of a pair of compasses and a ruler, to produce a flat, measurable image of something only using plans, views and cross sections. It becomes even more complicated when one has to produce a paper model to build the constructions as shown in this blog.

Scale model of a stair case

In Romanèche-Thorins, a town close to the Beaujolais hosts a museum, the Musée départemental du compagnonnage, dedicated to a guild that used to educate young craftsmen to become master craftsmen. The apprentices did a "Tour de France", whereby the compagnons worked with a number of masters throughout the country to master their trade. Their education was completed after they had made their "master piece". This was, in the case of carpenters, often a scale model of a very complicated roof construction, a church spire or a stair case.
Making paper models ("la tradition du tracé dans la charpente française" = "the scribing tradition in French timber framing") the way this guild practised it, has been inscribed in the "UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List".

Some master pieces

The museum shows a number of master pieces and very briefly explains how these paper models of complicated structures are made.
It also emphasizes on the history and the background of the guild, and how it almost disappeared at the end of the 19th and how it revived itself during the 20th century.
Outside the museum a few young lads were demonstrating how modeling works, but the most impressive feature of the museum is the collection of the old master pieces.

Mater piece - detail

If I only imagine trying to make a paper model of a construction like those which are shown in this museum, I wonder whether there is enough paper in the world allowing me to finish it....
Romanèche-Thorins is less than an hour's drive from La Tuilerie de Chazelle.

Bank error in your favour

In general I am a bit suspicious when banks are giving away something free.

Flamingo colony

Banks are, in my view, a necessary evil, sometimes handy, but when a bank starts giving things away you better beware. But this attitude could well have its roots in a leftish past, and when we received a discount voucher from Crédit Agricole for a tourist attraction in Ain (01) it was not filed in the recycling bin like other unwanted printed matter, but put aside for possible future use.
The department Ain is part of the Rhône-Alpes region, and is located (relative to where we live) at the other side of the Saône, south of Mâcon and of "our" Bresse. The Bresse Bourgignonne is mainly known for its chickens, which, as many of the prestigious Burgundy wines, have an AOC. The Bresse savoyarde, a bit further south, has also something with birds, but of the inedible variety. In the middle of that area in Ain (01), amidst hundreds of small and bigger lakes (La Dombes) lies the small village of Villars-les-Dombes.

Pelicans

The money-off voucher of the bank promised a 50% discount on a ticket for the bird park in Villars for a second visitor; the first one had to pay full price. The park is roughly one and a half hour driving away from our house, so on a lovely early autumn day we got into the car and drove direction Ain. We had been there once before, when we went to see a place of pilgrimage in Ain (Ars-sur-Formans). However, that was on a national holiday (Assumption of Mary), and when we arrived in Villars the queues for the ticket office almost reached the banks of the Saône...we decided to leave the park for what it was, and headed direction Mâcon for a visit to the beautiful church of Saint-André-la-Bâgé.
When we arrived on a Monday morning the parking area was less than half full and we could walk straight up to the till. We handed in our voucher (no hidden clauses!), received the discount and headed, armed with our map of the place off into the park.

Griffon vulture - ready to attack!

The park is laid out along an elongated lake which is surrounded by lush woods and meadows. At strategic places aviaries were scattered, some accessible through two doors separated by a bird lock, some just to be admired from the outside, and on a number of places around the lake there were open sanctuaries, only sporadically surrounded by low fences. The first "free" birds we encountered were a group of flamingos and a group of pelicans. Also waders and other birds one finds in meadows were walking around freely. The parakeets, parrots and cockatoos were living in an accessible aviary as well as a collection of vultures, among which some griffon vultures. The access door had a warning saying "please do not shout or run", but I was not sure what that remark was in aid of. Until I was admiring a griffon vulture, standing on a rock high up and spreading its wings (approx 2.5 m wingspan). An animal like that weighs about 8 kg, and is roughly 1 m tall, and when it all of a sudden dived off its rock in my direction, narrowly missing my head and landing about 1 m behind me, I had to suppress shouting and making a dash for the exit....

fast-dyed colours....

Apart from the beautiful collection of birds and the ambiance they live in, the pièce de résistance turned out to be the bird show which takes place a few times a day. The animals are very cleverly manipulated, in such a way that they approached at exactly the right time from across the lake or from the vomitorium and landed on the stage or in the lake, and flew off in time to make place for the next group of artists. To name a few: a number of pelicans landing on the lake in front of the spectators and then landing on the podium; a marabou flying time after time from the podium to different spots on the top edge of the amphitheatre and back, again narrowly missing the spectators; a similar performance of a collection of brightly coloured birds (red and black ibises, colourful macaws and other parrot like birds).

Crowned crane on the wing

The most stunning view offered the crowned cranes, because they fly and land in a very peculiar but elegant way. Even though in general shows with animals do not turn me on, this half hour show was very gripping, and I did not get bored for one second.
Anyway, in view of the money-off voucher from the bank I will refrain from using the expression "financial vultures" for bankers (at least for a couple of weeks)!

Egyptian vulture

The Parc des Oiseaux in Villars-les-Dombes is only a day trip away from La Tuilerie de Chazelle!

There ain't no mountain high enough

After having been finished for quite a while, the climbing wall in Ameugny was finally officially opened in July 2013.

The official part

After having seen this marvel, I thought it was only a children's playground, and the presence every so often of toddlers between 2 and 4 years old was pointing that way. However, the official opening showed that it was more than that. The wall is the pride and joy of of the Mayor of Cormatin, also the president of the CCGG (a cooperation of villages between the rivers Grosne and Guye). And since neither the commune of Ameugny, nor the ComCom can cough up the money for such an extravaganza, other sources of money had to be tapped. The tourist tax we have to pay each year turned out to be the ministering angel. So far this money had been used to lay-out signposted walks and other matters that more or less are in the interest of tourists. Whether this climbing wall will cause thousands of alpinists to flock to this area to practice climbing on the walls of an old stone quarry is however debatable.

The very first climbers

But, that is a mere detail. It looks good in the brochures, having a climbing wall available! For the opening all proprietors who had been paying tourist tax were invited, and our ComCom would not be our ComCom if they would not have invited some big brass to give the official opening an even more official stamp. However, every time it turns out to be the same brass showing up at these events....
Since France is governed along the lines of a constituency voting system, it is not so difficult to find some high ranking representatives who still have ties with their hinterland. There were "the" Senator from Paris, "the" representative in the district council, the mayors of the neighbouring villages, such as Ameugny, Cormatin, Taizé, Bonnay, etc.

Taizé in action

But how do you officially "open" a climbing wall? You cannot really ask some villagers to fall to their death climbing up or down a steep vertical wall! However, for every problem there is a solution. In nearby Taizé, where thousands of youngsters are staying throughout the year, it must be possible to find some alpinists. Two young girls, working there as permanente (long term temporary voluntary workers) were found willing to climb up and down the steep quarry wall. The whole thing took a lot longer than planned, but finally our patience was rewarded by a vin d'honneur and titbits of a local caterer. And so we finally received something useful in return for the taxes we have been paying without grumbling over the last year....

And this is what we came for!

Despite those critical remarks we are more than happy to welcome potential mountaineers at La Tuilerie de Chazelle!

Festi'Vapeur - Digoin

The Canal Bridge in Digoin (71) - The Loire on the right

Since 2006 there is a yearly steam rally in Chassenard (Allier - 03), near Digoin (71). The last place is quite well known, because this is where a "bridge", connecting the Canal du Centre and the Canal Latéral à la Loire, crosses the river Loire, hence a canal crosses a river overhead. Our department is not very rich when it comes to steam events, even though the Parc des Combes, the home of the Mistral locomotive (241P17), also has a working and running narrow gauge locomotive.

For big (?) and small...

The steam event in Chassenard is (in their own words) "le plus gros rassemblement de matériel ancien à vapeur". Whether this is in France, Auvergne or Allier is wisely left aside by the organisers. No matter how big the event is on the world scale of steam rallies, it is always fun to browse around the venue and admire the working traction engines, moving steam rollers and stationary steam engines, as well as vintage cars, such as several specimen of Citroën's Traction Avant, a Renault Dauphine, an old Peugeot 403, a Mathis from 1931... An overview of the 2007 and 2013 rally can be found in this Picasa album.

Neatly lined up

In short, these 2 days are excellent for those who like to indulge in this sort of nostalgia, and when the sun is shining as well on a day like that, what can beat such an outing?

La Tuilerie de Chazelle is very well located for a daytrip like this!

Our shop comes to you!

If one needs something, but one hasn't the foggiest where to buy it, here one can always wait until "the" brochure lands in the letterbox.

Spring-cleaning

"The" brochure is in this particular case a small brochure (A5 format) for a shop on wheels. They sell a lot of garden utensils, but also car accessories, tools, shoes, household utensils, etc., etc. The brochure tells you when the "camion" (there are a couple of firms operating like this) visits your town or village.
For a while now we have been looking for a jack which we can use to tilt the lawnmower to clean the underside of it. This, in our opinion, seemed something that one of those shops on wheels might sell. And lo and behold, the next time we received 'the" brochure, the jack was there, and it was on special offer as well.
So on the big day we went to the Place de l'école in Cormatin with the idea of finding a big lorry. Well, we were not disappointed, even though the lorry was slightly bigger than we had expected.... But at least we have found our jack!

Shop on wheels

La Tuilerie de Chazelle uses the mower to maintain gardens of second home owners.

Off-Broadway

This is not the first time I have written a blog about jazz concerts in the area, however, other blogs have been concentrating on concerts organised by Jazz Et Caetera or by Jazz in Trivy.

 

Gadjo Combo

Outside this circuit however, there are also other concerts that are worth attending. France boasts quite a lively jazz culture, certainly where it concerns music in the tradition of the Hot Club de France. A guitarist like Biréli Lagrène (mentioned a few times in my blogs) can be considered to be the figurehead of this style, although the guy has a lot more to offer then being a good Django clone.
Recently we stumbled for the second time upon the Gadjo Combo. Gadjo is a Romani word, meaning a person who has got certain links with this Gipsy tribe, but is not a Romani himself.
Their music can be classified as Manouche or Gipsy jazz. We had once heard them in the Cellier of the former abbey in Tournus, a splendid venue with excellent music, and this time they were giving a concert on the parvis (the "church square") in front of the Romanesque church of Brancion. This parvis is a high field offering a stunning view over the Grosne valley.

 

A musical sunset

And again, a lovely evening with a stunning sunset, an enthusiastic and inspired band, an attentive audience and an interesting repertoire turned this evening into a success. They played, apart from a number of Hot Club the France standards quite a few good compositions of their own. Still I find that one of their encores, their rendition of the classic "Les yeux noirs" (Ochi Chornyye or Dark Eyes), is one of the tensest pieces they played during the concert.

The Gadjo Combo performs regularly in the vicinity of La Tuilerie de Chazelle.

Promoting local trade

This part of Burgundy attracts quite a few tourists, and for a varied number of reasons.

Pot d'accueil - Saint-Gengoux-le-National

Some come here to cycle, others to walk; some are hunting for special wines, others want to indulge in culture; and even tourists with a more contemplative character looking for spiritual enrichment will find what they are looking for, with Taizé next door.
Of course that is good news for those working directly in the tourist trade, such as gîte owners, hotels, camp sites, restaurants, but also local traders would not mind to get a small piece of this pie.

Smoked salmon of Fumage Artisanal de Bourgogne

And that is exactly the reason, why the Tourist Office in Saint-Gengoux in close cooperation with the local traders organises, during the summer months, on Sunday morning between 11h00 and 12h00 a pot d'accueil. During this event the local tradesmen and tradeswomen can promote their produce.
In practice this means that the local wine growers will present their wines, the various pastry cooks will dish out samples of their produce, and the same goes for domestic caterers, an artisanal Scottish salmon smoker, a producer of fresh fruit juices, etc. etc.
In a word, there is something to everyone's taste, and apart from tourists who have been informed of these tastings by the campsite, hotel or gîte they are staying in, there are always those tourists who popped by just to get the town map but who stayed much longer then they intended.

The contribution of Chocolatier Demortière

And of course that is the whole purpose of the exercise. The local traders are convinced that this promotion gives them clientele they would normally not attract to their shops.

The proprietors of La Tuilerie de Chazelle are usually also present at the pot d'accueil as volunteers of the OT Saint-Gengoux.

Finally!

Cormatin has finally its own, big flea market. Although the village hosts each year, on the 14th of July, a Brocante de Qualité, where one has to pay an entrance fee only to browse, it has always been lacking in the free flea market department. And that is something each self-respecting village around here has, at least once a year. For the very first time this year the Amicale de Cormatin (the village committee) had organised a flea market at the Plan d'Eau (on the green around a big fish pond), under ideal circumstances. It turned out to be a beautiful day, with a calm breeze, every so often a light veil of clouds, hence not too hot and not too cool. The public interest from sellers and buyers alike was so overwhelming, that by 3 o'clock all hot dogs had been sold out, and the members of the Amicale had to pick up their own personal wine stock from home because otherwise there would be no decent drinks available.
Because who can imagine a Burgundian flee market where one could not also enjoy a good glass of wine?

Plan d'Eau - Cormatin

La Tuilerie de Chazelle is an excellent base of operations for a search of brocantes and flea markets.

A guest writer

Map of Clochemerle

A few days ago I received an e-mail from a total stranger, who obviously had read and enjoyed my blog. When I asked him if it was alright to publish his interesting account of his holiday around here, he gave me permission straight away. And as a small reward for his kindness I will attach the map he had been searching for as well!

Hallo Cees,
A few days ago I googled for a city map of the fictive village Clochemerle and one of the search results directed me to your blog. Well, I didn’t find the desired plan there, but as Burgundy is one of my favourite holiday regions and as we do share a common interest for Romanesque churches, classical music and best of all: the combination of it! That’s why I find your blog VERY interesting.
On my holiday trip last summer my first destination was the "aire camping-car" at the old station in Saint-Gengoux-le-National. To move my legs a little bit after the long trip from Bavaria I took my bike off the rack and cycled along the voie verte and into Cormatin. There I saw a poster of a concert in some chapel with guitar and bandoneon music which attracted me very much. Unfortunately I had nothing to take notes with on me - no pen, no mobile phone. So I had to memorize the info. The other day I dropped into the tourist office in Buxy and the nice Ladies there could tell me that the concert was on 23 June in L’Eglise de Chazelle près de Cormatin!
But fate had arranged something else for me. The same day there was a flute concert with four wonderful young Ladies at the Romanesque church of Baugy – I don’t have to explain to you where that is…

Concert in the recently restored church of Baugy

The other classical music highlight of my summer holiday was a concert in Le Pinacle (Saint-Vallerin, about 6 km south of Buxy) where the owners opened their parlour for a wonderful Sunday afternoon event. If you have never been there you really missed something!

Concert in Le Pinacle - Saint-Vallerin

The last evening I celebrated midsummer, the Feu de la St Jean on a hill close to the Grottes de Blanot … which wasn’t too far away from your place.
I’m already looking forward to my next holiday in Southern Burgundy and maybe even a concert in Chazelle will be the musical highlight next time… I will write in advance to the office de tourisme in Saint-Gengoux /Cormatin for information of the musical events in your area and I will definitely keep reading your blog to get new ideas for my next vacation in Burgundy.

Best wishes from Bavaria
Georg Albertshauser

The Priest of Ars

De Priest of Ars

As a non-Catholic it always surprised me to see, apart from the usual Christ, Mary and Joseph statues, the statue of a small guy with a rather pointed nose dressed in "modern", i.e. non-biblical clothing in Catholic churches around here. Asking an American Anglican Reverend (!) whether he knew who this could be, he came up with the name of Jean-Baptiste Marie Vianney, in England also known as Saint-John Vianney, the patron Saint of all (Catholic) parish priests.
On a lovely day we drove off to Ars-sur-Formans, a village in Ain (01), for us on the other side of the Saône. Very soon we stumbled upon road signs pointing to "Village du Saint-Curé" (village of the Saint-Priest) - the real name of the village was hardly ever displayed on those signs - and it did not take long to find the place. From the Michelin travel guide I had learned that Ars is an important place of pilgrimage, and not only for priests. Each year Ars is visited by half a million worshippers.

The body of the priest

The whole village breathes Saint-Curé. His house is converted into a museum, the old village church has been replaced by and partially incorporated into a new basilica (1862), which houses the remains of the priest (a rather tasteless grotesque building by architect Pierre Bossan who also built the Notre-Dame-de-Fouvière in Lyon), there is a museum with wax effigies of the priest during the various stages of his life, in short, the former parish priest still "lives" in this village. Inside the Basilica one can see the priest's body, and for the heart of the man a separate chapel has been built.

The heart of the priest

There are, in the bell tower of the "old" church, still six old Romanesque columns and capitals, originating from the cloister of a partially demolished priory church, that of Salles-en-Beaujolais.
More pictures of basilica and chapel can be found in this album.

Ars-sur-Formans is only a day trip away from La Tuilerie de Chazelle.

Under steam again

After a serious accident with steam locomotive the "Mistral" (241P17, which is a 482 locomotive) in August 2011 the machine has been out of service for repairs. In April 2013 there was a successful trial run, and since then the train regularly steams through Burgundy. Port of departure is always Le Creusot, and the destinations for this year are respectively Nevers, Belfort, Metz, Aix-les-Bains and Switzerland.

The Mistral at Rully

The trip to Aix-les-Bains follows this itinerary : Le Creusot - Changy - Chalon-sur-Saône - Tournus - Bourg-en-Bresse - Aix-les-Bains, where the train always passes underneath a viaduct near Rully. From this viaduct the spectator has a good view on the train which is approaching from the North.
You have to get up quite early (Rully is one hours driving away from La Tuilerie de Chazelle), but it is certainly worth the trip!