London!

Joy Don Windsor Castle

Originally uploaded by Joyz Life.

Don and I stopped by to give our regards to HM, but she was unable to see us. So, we took the tour of Windor Castle.

This is a very short stay, but thanks to Janice and Tony Lee, we had a very fun and memorable Saturday at Windsor. Today, we hopped on a double-decker tour bus and spent most of the afternoon at the Tower of London. The Crown Jewels are a must-see, after all. However, you will see no photos of them as photography is not allowed.

When I have a chance to catch my breath, I will be catching up on all the other places we have seen the past weeks. Right now, we are getting ready to move on to Ireland, but FIRST — Stonehenge! That’s tomorrow night.

   

Mysterious Saint-Michel d’Aiguilhe

St Michel climb1Originally uploaded by Joyz Life.Another stop on the Soroptimist tour of Le Puy was Saint-Michel. At the top of a volcanic chimney laid bare by erosion, called Aiguilhe, sits the mystical chapel finished in 962 in honor of St. Michel. There is evidence this site was used for worship in pre-Christian times and a chapel at the base of the rock is still referred to as Diana’s Temple.

The climb up via over 200 irregular steps is challenging, but offers several landings for rest and appreciation of the vistas that include the Statue of Notre-Dame de France (visible in this photo), the Cathedral of Notre Dame and the city of Le Puy.

The tiny chapel is lit only by natural light thru narrow windows and flash photography is forbidden due to the fragile nature of the frescos that have recedntly been uncovered and somewhat restored. There are 34 columns in the chapel — one for every year of Jesus’ life. The atmosphere is indescribable — powerful and mystical.

This chapel is part of the Saint Michel pilgrimage axis–starting in Italy and ending in Ireland. There are two Saint Michel’s in France — the other on a rock offshore on the Normandy coast and was the destination of our roadtrip this past weekend. Our travel companion, Francis Chan, has some wonderful photos he has promised to give me to share with you.

Here are photos taken on my climb to the Le Puy Saint Michel entry, the rock and the chapel.

 

 

Chartres Car Show

Chartres Car ShowOriginally uploaded by Joyz Life.

How about this? We went on a roadtrip this weekend (gorgeous weather by the way) and found a classic car show going on in front of Chartres Notre Dame Cathedral. What a treat! A local Rotary Club organized it with a car club to benefit children with cerebral palsy. Looks like “car folks” are generous folks all over the world.  There was a row of old “Formula 1″ cars and the proud owner of a teeny, tiny Vespa.  That’s a 1899 vintage car Don is posing with below.

 

 

  

Le Puy-en-Velay: The Tour Begins

First, I have to give proper photo credit to SacredSites.com. Le Puy’s Notre Dame Cathedral complex is so large and the city so built up around it I didn’t get a photo that did it justice.

My designated tour guides for the day – Marilyne, Janine and Marcella (left to right in the photo below, conferring on our route for the day) – met me at the hotel the morning after the club meeting. The plan was to take a walking tour of the “vieux ville” (old town) and climb up to the Cathedral at the top of Mount Anis.  Le Puy is an ancient city with relics dating back to 2nd Century Roman times. The narrow, winding streets in the vieux ville were laid out in medieval times and some of the structures still bear markings and decorations back to those times.

One of the city’s proud traditions is a particular kind of lacemaking called dentelle.  There are many shops in the vieux ville selling dentelle and the proprietor of one of them offered to teach me. Needless to say, I won’t be taking it up as a hobby when I get back!

With Chartres, the Le Puy Notre Dame Cathedral is the oldest in France. The original structure was built on Mount Corneille in the 5th Century but was replaced by subsequent structures which were built in the 10th to 11th century as the popularity of the Cathedral grew. The design and colors on the facade and in the cloisters show a strong Byzantine influence, probably the result of Crusaders returning from the Holy

Land. The Cathedral is the starting point for the St. Jacques de Compestela Pilgrimage. Since 951, pilgrims have made an act of piety or pilgrimage by walking from Le Puy to Saint Jaques de Competelle, Spain. On the way they stopped at places where the relics of other saints were worshipped. 

   Over time, the cathedral has been subject to major repair work, so some of the original structure has been replaced. The inside of the cathedral is lovely and some of the frescos and statuary were repaired  or discovered under whitewash. There is a copy of the Cathedral’s famous Black Virgin on the main altar. The original was burned during the French Revolution. The interior of the cathedral was very dark and I was not able to get a good photo, so this one is from another website: us.franceguide.com.

Les femmes du club de Le Puy-en-Velay Soroptimist sont merveilleuses !

Joy and President MarieJoOriginally uploaded by Joyz Life.When I received the email from Dr. Dominique Testud, I was charmed and delighted. Dr. Dominique not only speaks fluent English — she attended Lousiana State University — she was inviting us to visit her Soroptimist Club in Le Puy-en-Velay!

Le-Puy-en-Velay is a town in the “Haute Loire” region about 90 kilometers southwest of Lyons. It is a very old city going back to 2nd Century Roman times. The geology is volcanic and the city is built on hills — with dramatic volcanic spikes that hold religious statues and a church. The oldest part of their Notre Dame Cathedral dates back to the 12th Century. But more on all that later.

From the moment we stepped off the train in Le-Puy-en-Velay we knew we had come to a very special place. Four Soroptimists — holding a SI logo sign — and one Frère-optimist (that’s what they call the husbands) — were there to greet us, help us with our luggage and drive us to our hotel.

The warm hospitality continued through the next five days — in fact we were having such a good time, we stayed a day longer than planned. Dominique, Janine, MarieJo, Marilyne and Marcella were excellent tour guides, making sure we not only saw all the sights of Le Puy, but of the surrounding area. More on that later, too.

Thank you, ladies, for your generosity and friendship. Don and I will never forget our visit. As time permits I will be sharing all those wonderful sights of Le Puy-en-Velay in prose and photos. So stay tuned for Le Puy Parts 2, 3, 4, etc.

Champagne Roadtrip-Part 2

Reims Cathedral Originally uploaded by Joyz Life.

Our last stop on Easter Sunday was the city of Reims to see this city’s Notre Dame Cathedral. Built between 1211 and 1300, the church was used for coronations of the French monarchy. The plaza in front of the church is being excavated. Fencing around the site made taking a full picture of the church difficult. This cathedral is similar in size and style to the famous Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, but we all agreed walking inside this one was more moving. Many churches I have peeked into contain statues of Joan of Arc. I found the statue of Joan of Arc inside of Reims Cathedral really different. The statue is in living color and she truly looks real. The barricade set up in front of her side chapel and the dim lighting prevented me from getting a really clear photo.

Here are a few more photos of our Easter Sunday roadtrip through the Champagne country. Enjoy!

    

Champagne Roadtrip-Part 1

Don Joy and Dom P Originally uploaded by Joyz Life. We spent a sunny Easter weekend with our friends Denise and Michel who put us up overnight in their lovely home in Chatillon. On Sunday, we hit the road to the Champagne region southeast of Paris. The first leg of our trip was to the town of Chateau-Thierry. We found a church where Don and Denise attended mass while Michel and I took a short hike up to the battlements of the medieval-era Chateau-Thierry.  The outside walls are all that is left of the castle but it is a beautiful walk with a panoramic view of the town below. The Marne river flows through the town and this area saw a lot of fighting during World War I. There is an American military cemetery and memorial on a hill above the town.

Being Easter Sunday most of the shops were closed, but Don found a candy store open and we enjoyed meeting the owner, sampling chocolate and mugging for the camera. As we pressed on to our next destination, Épernay, we marveled at the miles and miles of vineyards dotted with quaint villages and farmhouses. We were starved by the time we reached Eparnay around 3:00 pm, which meant it was too late to get a bite to eat in the traditional brasseries. Thanks to Denise’s unerring navigation skills we found a brasserie that was still open called Le Progèss. We highly recommend both the food and service, which was fast and friendly. The restaurant is located on a traffic circle around a war memorial that is just a short distance from the Moët et Chandon winery. A modern headquarters has been built around the original family mansion.

The winery tour takes you through just a small part of the miles of “caves” – tunnels carved out of chalk – that run under the town and ends with a glass of champagne. This is where the wine is fermented and the millions of bottles stored. We learned that wine from three types of grapes is carefully blended each season to create the various types of champagne. A second fermentation process takes place in the bottles themselves after the wines have been blended. It takes from two to five years for the champagne to mature.

That’s Don and I outside the entrance of Moët with a statue of Dom Perignon – the monk who is (erroneously) credited with the discovery of the special fermentation process that creates the bubbles that turns wine into champagne. Click on the Dom Perignon link to find out more about him.

Once again, Denise and Michele were wonderful hosts. After weeks and months of hotel rooms, it was a special treat to stay at their home in Chatillon, a southern suburb of Paris, notable for being the location of the very first airstrip. Like many Paris suburbs, it was originally a medieval town, miles from Paris, and they have preserved some of the narrow winding streets in the “vieux ville.”