Friday July 11

Our two nights in Chartres got us over our jet lag and we were ready to head south. The drive time to our quarters in Provence was about eight hours. Much too far to go without stopping to take a picture. So we decided to lay over a night in the town of Le Puy en Velay, just over halfway. I'm definitely putting this place on my list of "Really Cool Places in France I've Never Heard Of". The town sits down in a valley, a bowl actually, so when approaching the town from any direction one is treated to a fine vista. The valley is watched over by a huge statue of the Blessed Mother with Child. The statue was cast from 213 cannons seized from the Russians in the Crimean war. She faces across the valley an equally huge statue of St. Joseph so the whole city is held in the embrace of the Holy Family.

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The cathedral dates back to Roman times and houses a statue if Our Lady, carved of ebony, known as the Black Madonna. And Le Puy is a major stop on the Camino de Santiago, the great pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain. The pilgrims were much in evidence. They were easily spotted, not just for their hiking gear, but the scallop shell displayed on it. 

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Below is one of the way stations where the pilgrims get their passports stamped. If the story of the Camino interests you the Martin Sheen movie "The Way" might be worthwhile.

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Le Puy has one more interesting building to mention. Perched on a massive chunk of volcanic rock is a chapel that dates to the 10th century, dedicated to St. Michael the Archangel. The town presented quite an impressive skyline. 

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Our quarters were in the center of town. We had everything we wanted close at hand. But this was the view from our front door.

_8501038-Edit  We now realize that if you want a comfortable room in the center of town, in high season, at a good price, be prepared to climb stairs. When we got to the top floor though we were rewarded with this view from our window.

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Sat July 12th

This was market day in Le Puy. Every town in France of any size has an open air market at least one day a week. These vendors come in for the day to sell their wares and the people do serious shopping. We love them.

_8501128 _8501120 Charles de Gaulle once quipped that it was nearly impossible to govern a country with 246 kinds of cheese. He would have known. Overall we found Le Puy not just interesting but bustling and vibrant. We really enjoyed wandering around looking for something interesting to photograph.

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_8501174  Time for a selfie.

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We would have happily stayed another day but the lavender was waiting for us. We headed south.