European Heritage Days

JdP 2018, Musée d'Ochier Cluny

The third weekend in September is in France reserved for the Journées du Patrimoine, comparable to the British National Heritage Days. Many monuments and museums are opening their doors either free of charge or with a discount. Often people who are living in a monument open their habitat to the people at a modest entrance fee.

Trésor de Cluny

Certainly when we first lived here this was an opportunity to see interesting buildings or museums for a very reasonable price. But, as with many things, there comes a time when you've seen it all.

However, in September 2017 archeologists found, whilst digging on the abbey grounds, a treasure consisting of golden and silver coins minted in the early 12th century, and a signet ring from the same period.

Signet ring (photo Journal de Saône-et-Loire)

For these Journées du Patrimoine the trésor de Cluny was brought back to the town where it was unearthed. It was on display in the Musée Ochier in Cluny. The public interest was so big that (something that never happens at this museum) people were quieting up to enter. So instead of visiting the abbey for the umpteenth time, I decided to join the queue, like a good Brit would have done.

Trésor de Cluny

A new second-hand shop

The old shop of Mme Nicolas

for a long time now we have had a weekly lunch at La Petite Auberge, a simple but good restaurant in Cluny's high street. The restaurant is located next to a second-hand bookshop, Livres Anciens run by Mme Nicole Nicolas. Even though we only ever bought one small book in her shop, we got to know her.

Mme Nicolas in 2012 (photo Journal de Saône-et-loire)

She often ate at La Petite Auberge, and Bugundians being friendly and polite people, we were soon on "Bonjour" terms with her. End of April however we noticed that the shop window had been emptied, and a week later there was a little card on the door saying that Mme Nicolas had passed away. From the owner of La Petite Auberge we learned that Mme Nicolas had died after a very short illness.

the shop of Amaury Bonnetain

Until August this year the empty shop was a painful reminder that nothing in life is eternal. In August however a new card appeared in the shop window. A certain M. Amaury Bonnetain was going to reopen the shop in October, again as a second-hand bookshop. In October the shop window had al of a sudden some books in it, one of which was a standard work on Romanesque churches in the region.

Book on Romanesque churches

One of my friends was interested in that particular book. After some phone calls and an inspection of the book itself the deal was made very quickly. The new owner happened to be a very amiable person, and we have left him in charge of some book titles of books that are new no longer available.

The Arab market in Chalon-sur-Saône

The Arab market - Chalon

Every Thursday morning Chalon-sur-Saône hosts a very cosy and busy market, known by the locals as the Arab market. The market is located in a quarter where the population is originally from North-African or Arabic descent. That is also the reason why the market is more colourful and aromatic (due to the many different sorts of ground spices) than the average "normal" markets with predominantly French buyers and sellers.

The Arab market - Chalon

When some years back French politicians started to compete each other by imitating Marine Le Pen in an attempt to cajole part of her voters out of her supporters, Mayor Gilles Platret was one of the politicians of Les Républicains (the right wing party of a.o. Sarkozy) who announced taking "measures". One of his spearheads was stopping providing halal meals for school lunches.

The Arab market - Chalon

That is still challenged by the supporters of halal food, and every so often Platret is summoned again for another appeal case concerning this item (end October a court of appeal in Lyon decided that Platret's decision had te be withdrawn). More recently he ordered the police to do street checks around the Arab market, no doubt in search of potential terrorists. These actions however were not very successful. If they had caught only one person Platret would have made a big show out of it.

The Arab market - Chalon

However, after the police checks in the area we thought that that might have had a negative effect on the market, but that turned out not to have been the case.
Recently we went there again, not necessarily to buy something (although we did), but just to taste the atmosphere. The market is still what it used to be: a cosy day market, where lots of colourful clothing is sold, where people are friendly, where the vegetable stalls sell more exotic stuff than the supermarkets, and where there is a constant smell of freshly ground spices and herbs, which we recognise from markets in the Middle-East and Asia.

The Arab market - Chalon

Réserve Naturelle de la Truchère- Ratenelle

La Truchère - the lake

Our photo club in Cluny came with a proposal to organise an outing to La Truchère. La Truchère? Yes, La Truchère. We had no idea what on earth was interesting about this village, so we decided to look it up in Wikipedia and Google Maps. La Truchère appeared to be a small village on the East bank of the Saône near Tournus, there where another (small) river, the Seile flows into the Saône.

La Truchère -swan

The only other things La Truchère has on offer are a church built in 1830 and a tiny little mooring place for small pleasure boats, neither of them very photogenic. We had no idea why the club had chosen this place for an outing.
Upon inquiry we were told that, smack in the middle between two villages, there was a Nature reserve called Réserve Nature de La Truchère-Ratenelle, where one part with sand dunes, marshland and peat district is in la Truchère, the other, with a lake, marshland and peat district, is in Ratenelle.

La Truchère -swan

The area is known to be home to some interesting birds, among others the purple heron.
We should have known better, and not go to this bird reserve completely unprepared. We have not the foggiest when birds are breeding or when they migrate, etc., and apart from that we have not got a zoom lens sufficiently strong to shoot some nice pictures.

La Truchère -swan

The chances that we would return with some spectacular bird pictures was in any case nil. An extra drawback was, that due to the extremely long and dry summer the water table was also extremely low. This of course did not add to the picturesqueness of the place.
Irrespective of this I managed to shoot some acceptable pictures, albeit not of exotic birds, but of everyday swans, and who knows, maybe we will have more luck next time….

La Truchère -swan

Steaming Southwards

Arrival Chalon-sur-Saône

Last year we made a long trip, from Le Creusot to Mulhouse (in the Alsace) on board a train pulled by a beautiful steam locomotive, the 241P17. This was one of the last operating express train locomotives in France, and there are only a few of those left. The three first digits of the train number indicate the number of axles: 2 leading truck axles, 4 driving axles and 1 trailing truck axles. In England, where they indicate the number of wheels, this would be called a 4-8-2 locomotive.

Lyon-Perrache

The home base of the train is Le Creusot, also the place where the locomotive once was built (1950) by the Schneider Company. She was operating until the end of the sixties.
An enthusiastic group of steam maniacs have revived this locomotive and keeps her going. Every year there are outings from Le Creusot to a.o. the Alsace, the Loire region, Lyon, Aix-les-Bains, Switzerland, etc. It is obvious that there is a price tag attached to these trips, however a "real" trip with a steam train is quite different from a 1 mile trip on a specially installed or restored short rail track.

Lyon-Perrache

After last year's trip to the National Railway Museum in Mulhouse, where we had a dinner in the museum amidst historical locomotives, we decided to keep an eye on next year's program for a revival.

Between Vienne and Valence

The first brochure that came in advertised, apart from the "standard" trips, a three-days outing to Marseille, where the second day was reserved for a trip along the coast line. That sounded promising, hence we started to make inquiries. Last year we had reserved places in a 6 person first class compartment, and that worked this year as well. This year it looked like we could occupy all 6 seats, because some French friends would like to join as well.

Steam on the left bank, nuclear energy on the right bank (Cruas)

The website https://www.train-vapeur.fr/ however did not give sufficient details, hence we decided to phone the organisers. In the meantime their plans had changed: the trip was one week later than the original one, and the trip went to Avignon instead of Marseille. For the second day one could choose between a river cruise on the Rhône at Avignon, a trip on our train to Arles where one could stay for the day, or from where one could continue to the Miramas Train Festival. We found neither the river cruise nor the Miramas Train Festival very appealing, hence we went for a day in Arles. Our French friends could not join us, because they were free during the original weekend, but they had other obligations the weekend after. Their place was taken by some Dutch friends of our friends, so we still had the compartment to ourselves.

Old next to new in Avignon

There appeared to be another bottleneck when we heard that the trip before ours had to be cancelled because of engine problems. Fortunately these were solved in time, hence our trip was still on the rails.
Two days before departure we received a phone call informing us that the departure times had been changed to one hour earlier than planned. However, since we had decided to board the train in Chalon-sur-Saône, this change did not affect us much. Instead of driving at the crack of dawn to Le Creusot (a good one and a half hours drive) to catch the 6h24 train, we drove at still a comfortable time to Chalon, to catch the 9h35 train.

Avignon-Arles

The trip was wonderful. We had indeed our own compartment, we had ordered some sort of airplane lunch both ways, the weather was like in summer, hence we drove with open windows, fully enjoying the steam train noises and smells, the soot particles threatening one's eyes, the musical interludes the driver managed to get out of the steam whistle…. In a word, this was going to be a super trip.

Arrival Arles

There were only a few minor drawbacks: the whole track was more or less straight, and for nice photographs of a steam locomotive in her full glory one needs long bends. And the amount of spectators along the track was disappointing. Last year, in Vesoul, where the train took in water, half the population was at the station to wave us goodbye. In Lyon, where we also had a long stop we were only gaped at by travellers to other destinations. However, this could have been to blame on the last minute change in the time table indicated on the website; when we left the website had not yet been updated (it has been now).

Musée Départemental Arles Antique

In Avignon we stayed in an Ibis Budget hotel, not luxurious but adequate, the evening dinner in Avignon was excellent, the day we spent in Arles (a place we know quite well) was very enjoyable, also due to the summer temperatures and a for us brand-new museum, the very interesting Musée Départemental Arles Antique.

Departure Arles

Even though the heavens opened the morning of our departure, we managed to reach the station in Avignon relatively dry. And the skies cleared during the trip north.
And that was the end of a nostalgic, long weekend. I am very curious to find out what trips are planned for 2019….

Exposition 2018 Photo Club Cluny

Setting-up the Expo 2018

Last year, while walking across Cluny's Saturday market, we noticed a poster near the Salle Malgouverne in the town centre announcing a picture exhibition of Photo Club Cluny. And since both of us are interested in photography we decided to walk in and see what the club had to offer.

Making the mats

The pictures on display were varied and interesting, we bumped into someone there whom we knew from another occasion, and we were invited to see what it was all about during the next biweekly meeting. When we arrived there a couple of weeks later, we found more people like us who had found the club through this exhibition.

In the concert hall

We received a short introduction in the activities the club had on offer: dedicated outings to cover a specific event, or a specific seasonal phenomena (autumn/mushrooms, Carnaval Vénitien in Annecy, playing with light ant lighting, a deer park, etc.), taking part in competitions of photo clubs in the department, access to a whole host of photography magazines, etc. It sounded interesting enough to give it a try for one year.

In the country

And soon the time has come: our club organises its yearly exhibition. We are now a group of 12, whilst there were 5 members when we joined. Not exactly a massive number, but nevertheless… Each member has to fill 3 exposition panels, covering 3 different subjects of max 6 pictures per subject.

Romanesque heritage

I am very curious to see what the rest of the group comes up with: my subjects are "In the concert hall", "In the country" and "Romanesque heritage". In this blog some of my chosen pictures.

And even the local newspaper had item on it! 

Lancharre

The church of Lancharre

The church Notre-Dame-de-l’Assomption in Lancharre, or what is left of it, once was part of a priory. The original nave of this Romanesque church was demolished in the 17th century, and only the transept, apses, choir and the bell tower are still in existence.

Interior 2012

Even though the church was not open, but closed off with a wall and a door, and hence not directly exposed to the elements, the building was in bad shape. The walls were full of cracks, the plaster was here and there heavily damaged or absent, in a word, the church could do with a renovation. It is always difficult for a commune of this size (Chapaize, 150 inhabitants) to cough up the dough for a restauration.

Interior 2012

However, with a little help from some friends, in this case the State, the Province, the Community, generous gifts from private persons and the revenue of cultural events in the commune, there has been enough money raised over the last 20 years to fund a restauration. The church has been given new stained glass windows, cracks were repaired, plasterwork and decorations were patched up, in a word, the church obtained a facelift.

Interior 2018

September first was the big day: this part of the restauration was finished, and the church was re-opened to the public.
An inauguration is not complete without festivities: there were 2 bagpipe players and a hurdy-gurdy player, there was a lecture about the history of the church, the Dutch madrigal choir Roundelay gave a concert and at the end the mayor of Chapaize declared the church officially opened.

Interior 2018

We saw the interior of the building for the last time in 2012, and comparing the before and after pictures reveal what has been done.
Hence: I take my hat off for those who contributed to the metamorphosis of Lancharre's church!

Roundelay 2018

For those who are really interested in what the church looked and looks I have set up some picture albums:
Exterior of the church
Interior around 2012
The church in September 2018

The downfall of a pizzeria

A very thick pizza (from Dr. Oetker's website)

Once upon a time, whilst living in the Netherlands, I saw pizzas as huge circular thickly cut sandwiches, with a topping that was usually varying from tasteful to acceptable. Since I am not really a dough-liking sort of person a pizzeria did not rank very high on my list of favourite restaurants. Until one day, in the vicinity of Avignon in France I discovered that when pizzas are made wafer-thin they could be very nice indeed. This held for most of the pizzas I ate in France. When we settled down in this part of Burgundy we quickly found a pizzeria that ranked high on the list of making the thinnest pizzas in the world.

A reasonably thin pizza (from Koopmans' website)

And even though the restaurant recently changed hands and recipes, the quality of the pizza bottoms stayed as it was.
However, at the beginning of this year "Le Loup Garou" closed down for a number of months, and we had no idea what was coming in its place. A boutique? A drugstore? A restaurant offering local specialities? Recently we found out. A new restaurant opened its doors, under the same name with a similar menu: "Le Loup Garou" ("The Werewolf") had risen from the dead!

The old Loup Garou

After the restaurant had been going for a couple of days (never try a new restaurant on its opening day, we have found out) we decided whether the chef could match his predecessor. All signs were pointing that way. The old oven had not been replaced; the machine that produced thin pizza bottoms was still there, in a word, provided they would produce decent toppings as well there was not much that could go wrong. At least that is what I thought. The pizza bottoms turned out to be hand shaped, and unrealistically thick with a very thick edge as well, and what was worse, the edge was toppingless. On top of that the topping of my pizza saumon was not a shadow of what the original "Loup Garou" offered….

The new Loup Garou

Something that had never happened to me happened here. The bottom was so thick and tough, that I could not cut it with the provided knife. After 6 attempts of cutting it the waitress brought me another, sharper knife, which cut marginally better. When I finally had a mouthful of pizza I needed more wine then there was in my glass to work it down. The result: after half a pizza, of which I had removed a 5 cm wide edge, I could not eat anymore. Despite all this (we had paid for it!) we took the other half, without the edges, home. As far as I'm concerned I am waiting for still another owner, and in the meantime I will be roughing it with the other pizzerias in Cluny….

Musical balance

Duo Atlas - Chazelle Eglise Notre-Dame

Even though the beautiful weather still continues, the summer season, where it concerns festivals and concerts, is drawing to an end. Hence time to draw up the balance sheet!
We'll start off close to home: Guitares en Cormatinois in Chazelle's church. Unfortunately the three first concerts were given during the period of the World Cup Football, which drew even more attention of the population because France reached the Finals and won.

Paris Gadjo Club - Chazelle Eglise Notre-Dame

The number of visitors of the concerts reflected that; Irish Kind Of, Markus Held & Cie. and the Hair Brothers performed for a half empty church. Fortunately, the remaining two concerts filled the church almost to capacity. The Spanish/Dutch Duo Atlas played an excellent classical concert, and the Paris Gadjo Club played for a full house a mixture of Manouche jazz and Brazilian Choro, with the emphasis on Choro.

Roundelay - Chapaize Eglise Saint-Martin

From Chapaize Culture we had chosen what we thought were the best concerts: the Dutch madrigal choir Roundelay gave (as usual) an excellent performance, and the Irish Folk concert with the trio Rachel Goodwin, Hervé Dréan and Gilles Poutoux radiated an enormous amount of pleasure, which was not lost on the spectators.

Quatuor Modigliani - Cluny Eglise Saint-Marcel

For Les Grandes Heures de Cluny and the free Festival Off Les Petites Minutes de Cluny we had this year made a conscious choice. Last year we saw all concerts (7 + 7), which soon resulted in concert fatigue. Like last year, this year had for two weeks 3 consecutive concerts per week, and a separate concert a week later. We had chosen one concert per week, 3 concerts in total. And because we were looking at a Festival and a Festival Off, we nevertheless saw 6 concerts.

Trio Goldberg - Cluny Farinier des Moines

Highlights of this year was a series of string quartets by the Quatuor Modigliani and the free concert by Trio Goldberg with a.o. Bach's Goldberg Variations arranged for violin, viola and cello. Note however, that this does not mean that the other concerts were of inferior quality!

Picnics

La Boulaye

The summer is an ideal time for tourist outings, and how can one better break a long ride in order to stop somewhere for a picnic. We often do that, just the two of us, but we do it also when we have family or friends over. The day starts with a fixed ritual: the car is loaded with camping tables and chairs, e tablecloth, sometimes a picnic blanket, the cool box is filled with drinks, sandwich fillings and salads, and then we are on the move to our first stop. However, stopping at the baker for a fresh baguette is also a must.

Perrecy-les-Forges

Throughout the years we have built up a nice collection of picnic spots. When we travel direction La Boulaye to visit the Temple of 1000 Buddhas, we often eat in the shadow of the church of Perrecy-les-Forges, which on its own is certainly also worth a visit.
On our way to the Brionnais for the cattle market in St-Christophe or for some beautiful Romanesque churches we often stop at the Butte de Suin or by the war memorial in Beauberry. Both locations are high up and offer beautiful views.

Suin

However, we are also quite happy to skip our favourites and trade them in for a spot along a canal, by a lake or a river, or somewhere in the middle of the vineyards. They may not offer wide views, but one can enjoy peace and quiet there.
Besides, the word "Picnic" has an added value as well: when my better half is not so keen to visit another church again, the "P"-word makes her eyes light up, and it certainly softens the blow of visiting churches.

Ladoix-Serrigny