Day 11, Sunday 17 September
0k today. 538k total cycled so far.
Feeling: chilled
Day off the bike.
After a false start at our B&B, it has again proved to be another real find. The owner is a painter, and breakfast this morning was served in her atelier (see header photo). We could now see why it is called La Maison aux Couleurs. Absolutely delightful lady. Splendid colourful house and garden – even the shed. We also found we had a connection – her daughter did an exchange programme with the University of Hull, where Adam is now studying.
We then had a day as tourists. Liz will say more in her comment, but we did go to the cathedral, where Liz thought I had a passing resemblance to a gargoyle.
And we visited a special exhibition celebrating the work of France’s craft guilds. We particularly liked the cake and the shoes (Liz being a cobbler’s daughter).
Only other thing to report is we met a lady in the street last night walking her pet ferret. Well, I suppose you have to, don’t you?
Fascinating day being a tourist. Big personage here is St Martin born in 316 and a very early Christian. His story is interesting both from a linguistic and religious perspective. Legend has it that he gave half of his cloak to a poor cold man. He then saw a vision of Christ saying insofar as you serve the poor, you serve me. The cloak became a holy relic and was carried into war. The priests who carried it were called cappellanu from which we get chaplains. The small churches where it was stored were called capella from which we get chapels.
Over the ages, both the military and pacifists tried to adopt Martin. As the son of a military man he was obliged to enlist and the cloak in battle led to him being held up as a manly military saint. On the other hand he apparently was imprisoned for refusing to bear arms saying he was a soldier of Christ. Fascinating the way both sides can use the same story for opposite purposes. In London, St Martin in the Fields in Trafalgar Square has a strong pacifist tradition.
The other curiosity today as Malcolm has mentioned was the museum of compagnonnage. This was a system somewhere between freemasonry, trade unionism and guilds. To be accepted into your guild you had to do a tour de France, produce a masterpiece and demonstrate that you lived by high moral principles. (Ironic that the namesake tour de France is beset by drug cheating,) The exhibits were examples of masterpieces submitted by guild applicants. They were utterly amazing and so sad to think that these kinds of skills may soon be lost to robots. Indeed as a cobblers daughter I did particularly like the shoes.
And finally to mention the stupendous stained glass in the cathedral. I’m a bit of a stained glass addict and this was a real treat. Almost psychodelic. Two houses of colour in one day!
Malcolm and Liz, reading your blog is like a history lesson; it is so informative, whilst being fun to read. What a journey you are both having. There is definitely a ‘book’ here.
Liz, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Enjoy your day and lots of hugs from all at 107.