On the road

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Geo: 47.0829, 2.39658

We were all out the door with our luggage by 8:15 this morning to meet our Flemish driver, Jean (who somewhere along the route got a call from his daughter telling him he's going to be an Opa next year), for the journey to Guedelon and then Bourges.

Except for 15 minutes at a rest area (which was a helluva lot nicer than any rest area I've ever seen in the U.S.), our first stop was at Guédelon to see a 13th century castle being built. When I saw this bit on the itinerary, I thought, "Meh." But it wound up being absolutely fascinating. Some rich French guy who "collects" castles thought it would be fun to actually build one, and to build it in exactly the same manner, method and style they would have in the 1200s. He found a large patch of land with oak trees and a limestone quarry and set to work. Work started in the late 90s and is on schedule to be completed in 2025. There are men cutting stone and men shaping the stone. There are carpenters and tile layers. There is a Clydesdale named Kabul to haul everything around, and a huge treadmill that acts as a crane. There is a well, and even though there is a moat it won't be filled with water when the project is done: it will be filled with thorned bushes.

Since everything is being done in the method that was used 800 years ago, there are no modern tools and they are not even using any modern method of measuring things. Instead, there is a stick that would have been created by the architect of the project that has markings on it for an inch, a palm, an outer palm, a span, a foot and a rod, and this stick was used for all measurements on the castle. Our guide, Anneliese, showed us a rope with 13 knots in it, which creates 12 equal sections. With this rope, the architect could create any geometric shape and that's how he would create the plans. There were several problems the current workers encountered that must also have presented a problem to the 13th century workers, so the modern-day builders had to use a great deal of imagination to figure out how something might have been done in the 1200s. The project is being followed very closely by archeologists to ensure that everything is being done correctly, and they have been excited by certain things that were figured out on this project because no one could ever before figure out how a problem was taken care of.

We had a picnic lunch on the grounds. I had a ham and cheese baguette with a Jupiler beer, and there were chocolate eclairs for dessert. It was completely yummy, and it reminded me of summer camp (if the food was a lot fancier than what we had at Camp Cabrini).

We got back on the bus and continued to Bourges. We are in the region of Burgundy, so we passed a lot of vineyards and little wineries, including the town of Sancerre. In the late 1500s, Sancerre was a rare Protestant town in Catholic France. The Catholics decided that that simply wouldn't do and laid siege to the town ... for nine months. The people of Sancerre started to die off from starvation, and there were reports at the time of cannibalism because that was the only thing left to eat. Now, of course, it's known for its wine, so everything seems to have turned out okay. ;-)

Our hotel in Bourges is the Best Western Hotel d'Angleterre (www.bestwestern-angleterre-bourges.com), and my room is twice the size of the one in Paris. Plus, there's a shower curtain! I wish we were staying here for more than one night.

We immediately had a walking tour of the old town with Barbara, an American who has lived in Bourges for 20 years. She showed us Bourges Cathedral, which is even more imposing than Notre Dame, even though it doesn't have a transept. It has some gorgeous original windows (13th century). It is dedicated to St. Étienne and used to house his relics (his jawbone, some clothing stained with blood, and a vial containing three drops of his blood). During the Wars of Religion, the Protestants came along and decided to make the cathedral Protestant, so they removed all the statues of the saints and martrys that used to stand in the niches surrounding the church. Those statues that couldn't be removed were beheaded or at least defaced. In 1975, an American girl working in Bourges on a fellowship discovered a stone head in some museum archives. She took some measurements of the head and of the headless statues at the cathedral and found a perfect match. The head was finally returned to its body just last month. It only took 24 years. Imagine how long it would have taken if this was Italy!

There are a lot of beautiful half-timbered and stone houses in Bourges. Barbara showed us one that was the home of a merchant named George, who was known about town as "Bienaymé Georges" because he built a convent for Joan of France, Duchess of Berry, when her husband Louis XII decided to divorce and banish her. She ended her days in the convent in Bourges, and supposedly her last words were, "Never marry!"

It was 6:30 when the tour ended in a cute little square (the whole thing looked like a set on the backlot at Universal Studios). After a quick wander on a couple of the streets, a bunch of us met back at the square to go to dinner. We eventually split into three groups, so I ended up having dinner at Le Comptoir de Paris with Yvonne, Bert and Linda. Yvonne and I both had bavette (akin to sirloin), which was very tasty and considerably cheaper than last night's beef! I figured since the guy actually brought the chalkboard to our table and even explained some of the dishes to us, that it was safe to order. Linda was brave and had wild boar with mushrooms and chestnuts. I had a very, very tiny piece of the boar, and it was very flavorful. I tried to order chocolate mousse for dessert, but they were out. So I ended up with something chocolaty/hazelnutty/whipped creamy, and I was happy. Damn! I didn't take a picture of it!

On our walk through town earlier, Linda -- who is a concert violinist with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra -- noticed a violinmaker's shop. She went in, and we didn't see her for maybe 45 minutes. She eventually turned up with TWO violin cases, which the man let her borrow so that she could test out the instruments. One of them was actually a viola that apparently was unusual because it was smaller than an ordinary viola, which meant that she would be able to play it easier. After dinner, we went back to the hotel and sat in the lobby listening to Linda play both instruments while she tested their tone. She decided she didn't like the violin so much, but she was clearly very pleased with the viola. She has to take them both back by 7:30 tomorrow morning (we leave town at 8:30), so she needs to make a decision tonight. I hope she gets the viola because it was absolutely beautiful. It costs 7,000 euro, which is apparently a bargain.

This hotel is very nice, but at 11:30 p.m. I am discovering that the walls are very thin and the elderly people in the room next to me need hearing aids.

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Photos

Guedelon
Kabul working.

Guedelon
The structure so far.

Chocolate eclair
Can you believe Marsha actually saved hers? Mine was gone in 2.5 seconds.

In Bourges
Friendly chat.

Bourges
The square where we had dinner.