3a : Eating out in Cluny (1 of 4)

Cluny is without a shadow of a doubt the town around here offering the widest range of restaurants. We have tried (almost) all restaurants mentioned here at least once. There are a few places we prefer not to eat, and that is irrespective of the quality of the food; it is mainly due to the ambiance we do not like. We start off with low budget places.

Fast food

Le Bosphore

Le Bosphore in the Rue Prud’hon (centre) is an excellent kebab place, although different compared to their English name sakes. For less than € 6 one gets a very nice sandwich kebab, and for around € 9 one gets a plate with kebab (different varieties), French fries and lettuce. The sauces that come standard with the dish are sauce blanche and harissa, a North-African hot (spicy) sauce. The service is excellent and the personnel is very friendly.
There is something resembling a (French) fast food place in the main street, called Quebec Burger. This street changes name as number of times, hence I keep calling it main street. One can buy French fries here, or various types of burger sandwiches, at very reasonable prices. The portions are big, possibly the reason why this place is very popular with the ENSAM students. The restaurant plays rather noisy music, with heavy basses pounding away, reason why we do not go there anymore. However, the service is good.

Pizzerias

Le Loup Garou

The main street has two pizzerias, Le Loup Garou (at the beginning seen from the post Office) and La Petite Auberge (a tiny bit further).
As a pizzeria I prefer Le Loup Garou, because the pizzas there are very thin, well filled with a negligible empty edge. For less than € 10 one has a wonderful pizza here. Since I have discovered the pizza saumon, I have never ordered anything else anymore. They also sell various pasta dishes.
La Petite Auberge is also a pizzeria, with roughly the same assortment. Since I am rather choosy when it comes to pizzas I refused to order a pizza here after I tried it once. My better half, very keen on thin crusty edges on pizzas, disagrees with me on this and fully enjoys her pizzas whenever I indulge in their unbeatable plat du jour (see also under cheap restaurants in part 2).

Le Forum

Just outside Cluny’s centre, on the other side of the river Grosne, lies Le Forum, another Italian restaurant / pizzeria. We ate there once, and were quite happy with the food as well, but we prefer Le Loup Garou because of quality, ambiance and location.

2 : Eating out in Saint-Gengoux

Saint-Gengoux-le-National is located approx. 10 km north of Cormatin along the Voie Verte, reason why many cyclists sooner or later end up there to find something to eat. Apart from a handful of bakers, always good for a cake, a quiche or even a (French) sandwich, Saint-Gengoux also has some restaurants.

Not really in town, but somewhere halfway Cormatin and Saint-Gengoux on the D981 is restaurant La Place in the hamlet with the same name. La Place is a dépendence of Les Blés d’Or in Cormatin. The food is good and reasonably priced. The restaurant often gets bus loads of tourists, because the kitchen is capable of catering for big groups.

Hôtel de la Gare

On the edge of town, near the old station on the Voie Verte one finds hôtel-restaurant de la Gare.
Early 2012 some friends invited us over for a lunch there. Although we had made a reservation for six, there was no table laid for us. However, one of the laid tables (linen napkins, proper wine glasses) was re-laid, this time with paper napkins and the typical glasses normally used wit the menu du jour. The restaurant has a bar and a dining room. The bar is meant for menu du jour (€ 12.50) or plat du jour only; the dining room is restricted to those ordering à la carte only. How they go about companies where some want a menu du jour and some want to order à la carte is beyond me. The reception was rather chaotic, and I thought the prices were a bit on the steep side. The available menus were € 20.00 (simple menu, starter, main dish and cheese), € 28.50 (starter, fish or meat dish and cheese) and € 34.00 (starter, fish and meat dish and cheese). One of the available starters consisted of an excellent buffet à volonté of various starters. The other dishes we ordered were nicely laid out and of very good quality.

La Jouvence

My verdict: if I want to spend a bit more money than usual for a meal, I know where to find better places with the same price around La Tuilerie de Chazelle. And if I want a simple meal in a place with a nice ambiance, Saint-Gengoux has more than one other place to offer than just Hôtel de la Gare. In a word: for the time being I will not store Hôtel de la Gare under “My favourites”.

In the centre, on the Avenue de la Promenade one finds restaurant La Jouvence, which is a “normal” French restaurant. It serves good food at very reasonable prices. A formula or menu du jour costs (order of magnitude) € 13.

Pili-Pili

For those who want something simple there is pizzeria Pili-Pili. It is located in the Grande Rue, a side street of the Avenue de la Promenade, and not really worth this flattering name. Although not exactly a place for a cosy candlelight dinner, the pizzas they serve are of good quality and the service is friendly and adequate. It is also a take-away.

Further Café du Marché near the lavoir is said to serve sandwiches.

01b : eating out in Cormatin (2 of 2)

La Terrasse in Cormatin was run by a rather brusque lady, Mme Monique R., a woman requiring some instructions before use.

La Terasse, a few years back - Cormatin

We got on with her very well (which cannot be said for every one of her clientele) and we were very impressed with her cookery skills (grandmother's cuisine). It was for us a double shock to hear that, for serious health reasons, she had to sell La Terrasse. The restaurant did not stay empty for long though, and the new owner decided to renovate the rather old fashioned interior, to modernise the menu, to give the terrace itself a complete facelift and to buy the house next door in order to break through and to enlarge his indoor seating capacity. After the dust had settled La Terrasse new style has definitely established itself.

La Terrasse as of now, on a busy day - Cormatin

My first experience with the new La Terrasse was after a wreath laying ceremony on the 28th of June 2014. The local bars and restaurants in Cormatin serve, on turn, the vin d'amitié after the event, which gives "new" restaurants an opportunity to characterize themselves. La Terrasse came up with a big number of immaculate exquisite amuse-bouches, fitting for a good restaurant. We decided to try the kitchen of this place some other day. We grabbed our chance on the 8th of May 2015 (liberation day). After the wreath laying the mayor announced that the verre d'amitié was at La Terrasse, and since we often stay on in Cormatin for lunch in case the wreath laying takes place around noon, we decided to hang on in La Terrasse.

The longest parade since 2005 - Cormatin

Again this time there were amuse-bouches, and again they were a feast for the eye as well as the palate. We had to wait a bit longer than usual, but that could easily be explained by the fact that instead of the usual max. 25 suspects turning up this time the terrace was invaded by over 50 people. After we had sipped from the kir and had a go at the amuse-bouches, the meeting broke up and we went inside, into the newly opened part of the restaurant.

Wreath laying - Cormatin

Because we hardly ever eat a heavy meal for lunch, we decided to take only a main course, moisten it with a glass of local wine, and have only coffee for desert. I ordered a magret de canard, and for the first time in my life I was asked what cuisson I wanted. That is a very normal question where beef is concerned, but I was never asked that question with duck. The owner suggested rosé, and rosé it was going to be. At home I found out that the normal cuissons for magret de canard are bleu (red and bloody), rosé (pink) and bien cuit (well done). Normally I would have chosen bleu, but the rosé I had asked for was excellent and very tasty indeed.

Vin d'Amitié - La Terrasse Cormatin

The duck was served with a jacket potato and lettuce. The whole meal was very nicely presented, and the (cheap) wine we had chosen was excellent for the price we paid. This simple but more than adequate meal set us back only € 15 pp, and the price/quality ration was excellent.
Based on this experience we chose, when we were invited for a festive meal of our choice, for La Terrasse. Unfortunately this time it did not work out so well. My starter (escargots) was rather tough and chewy.

La Terrasse - Cormatin

My piece of beef, no Charollais but French, was streaked with sinew and as a whole also rather tough. The others were very happy with the salads they had for starters, but the magret de canard that was chosen by two had a peppersauce with it that was far too hot, even for my taste. Only the person who ordered poulet à la crême as a main dish was reasonably content. Everyone was very impressed with the deserts. The quality difference with the last time might be explained by the fact that the owner was not running the kitchen, as opposed to the previous occasion.

Poulet à la crême

However, the whole restaurant starts to resemble Fawlty Towers if the quality of the food is depending on the presence or not of a chef. The experiences only one month apart are too different to classify this place as a very good restaurant.
We had hoped that La Terrasse could fill the gap left behind by La Grange Finot in Bray (closed some time ago) or its successor La Régalade in Cluny (also closed down). Unfortunately this is not the case, hence we are still looking…..

Click here for the website of La Tuilerie de Chazelle.

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!