This Village was an absolute delight. It is very small by French standards, about 1000 population. It has two potteries, a butcher, a baker and small store but everything else must be purchased from the nearby town. Not unlike Walpole.
We were in five groups for the walking tour and our group had 26 passengers. Our tour guide was Pierre. He was a chatty humourous slim man of approximately our age. He took us up through the narrow winding streets at a brisk pace pointing out ancient buildings and building features as we walked. Our first stop was a large churchlike building which was not concecrated as a church but was dedicated to providing support to the pilgrims who walk through the town on their way to Spain to worship at De Compestella. Pierre was delighted to have his group arrive first and seated us in the sanctuary to wait for our event; an organ recital. The organ was a tradtional instrument with huge pipes across the rear of the space and the walls were stone so once again the acoustics were excellant. The organist was a retired man with excellant credentials who had come to play for us despite having gone down the day before with a virulent flu. The music was wonderful. I sat with my eyes closed and just soaked it up. He played for half and hour and we gave him a standing ovation at the finish.
From there we gradually climbed to the cathedral which was of course on the top of a limestone cliff about 50 meters above the highest point in the village. It was huge being concecrated in 1498 but is credited with being the smallest cathedral in France. It was decorated with 5 huge tapestries one of which was given by Napoleon the Third in 1720. They measure 7 metres x4 metres and weigh 650kg each. Three were inexplicably stolen in 1974 and only 2 were found in a cave in Italy in 1982 and returned. There were only 4 present as one is in Paris for renovation which will take five years. The parishoners are worried that it will not be returned. For the same reason they sabotage the authority's inspections of the organ (installed 1841) by playng pieces that they know will not reveal it's gradual decline. They are very grateful that the allies bombs missed both the bridge and the cathedral in 1944.
The congregaton has gradually declined and many years ago the huge Bishop's Palace was uneconomic so the bishop approached the Mayor for help. The solution was to swap buildings so when we went to the Town Hall we were visiting the original Bishop's Palace. It is large enough that one wing is now the primary school. Pierre took us to a beautifully decorated room now used for weddings. Here he told us he had a surprised for us. He introduced us to a very attractive woman who has been his dance partner for 50 years. They have competed at National level and he said they were going to perform five dances which showed the history of dance in France since 1944. They danced beautifully and performed the French Walsz, The Java, the Tango, the one which imitates a bull fight and was the feature of "Strictly Bballroom" but which I can't remember and then Rock & Roll. It was amazing and fun. We were then served a glass of sparkling apple drink which is a local tradition. And walked back to the boat still talking about the dance and the dancers.
We discovered each group had had different entertainment from visiting the potteries to wine tasting. We thought we had the best deal but so did every group. It was a really creative way for a small town to show off it's resources when there were no souvenier shops to attract visitors. In the afternoon we passed through the largest lock on the river. It is 150 metres long and very deep.
And so ends another page.
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