Information on Guided Tours in the Area

Also available from the Cluny Tourism Information Office website is this brochure of guided tours in Cluny and Clunisois.

from: Cluny Tourist Information
(click image for brochure)

The guided tours are for groups rather than individuals and cover a wide variety of subjects including wine tasting, meals, cheese tasting, berry picking, lavoirs, crafts, churches, chateaus, gardens and old Cluny houses. They operate in places such as Taizé, Cormatin, Chapaize, Brancion and Berzé-the-city as well as Cluny.

I have not been on any of these guided tours, but its probably true that you can gain much by knowing more about the place you are visiting and a guided tour is an easy way of doing this.

Composite Images From Auvergne

In August we visited Auvergne for a couple of days during which I took a number of photos which I have combined into a couple of composites. The first looks at doors and details in Saint Flour and the second the countryside around Corbier.

photograph by ChigyTweeter

published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.

photograph by ChigyTweeter

published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.

Parking in France

Going through my photos from the last 5 months, I came across this one which I had forgotten.

photograph by ChigyTweeter

published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.

It's taken in a back street in St Flour and shows this car stopped in the middle of the road. As I watched the car drew up and a guy got out and went into a medical centre with some package or other. His car sat there in the middle of the road holding up others for several minutes.

It's obvious from the photo that he was effecting several cars. In Cluny he would have driven up onto the pavement, in Nice the hooting would have been deafening, in South Africa it would spark racial jibes - while here he just put his hazards on and went about his business.

Catching Up on What We Did

Our time at The House at Le Gros Chigy turned out to be much busier than we expected, especially with the house renovation which took a lot of our time. One of the results of this was that there is a lot that I didn't blog at the time - so you will see some of these posts over the next while.

We were always surprised by the number of activities that there always seemed to be on the go in the villages around the region. One of these was was in the Church at Saint-Vincent-des-Pres.

photograph by ChigyTweet

published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.

This was an evening of music by The Black Velvet Band three Austrians from Germany singing Irish songs in a French church! This is an amazing band which still attacks their music with passion after playing and touring for more than 20 years. They are well known in the area and even have a CD entitled "en Bourgogne"

Of course the church is not that large and supports it's roof with rather too many columns for good uninterrupted viewing. We therefore ended up to the side of the later. This have us a very close up view of the singers, although from the side.

photograph by ChigyTweet

published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.

The three are Christiaan Hartung the violinist, Udo Hafner the percussionist and flautist and Peter Wendel the guitarist and singer - we thank them very much for a great evening!

Le Papyllion - Bierexquise & Convivialithé Available Again in Soane et Loire!

If you have seen my post or the comments on Le Papyllon or you move around the area you will know that Wolfgang the proprietor, has recently started selling his vast range of beer from new premises in Cormatin

Driving into the parking near we were welcomed and encouraged by the sign below on the side of a commercial vehicle. This was the first time we had visited Le Papyllon in Crmatin. Our previous visit was three years ago in Bissy-sur-Fley

photograph by ChigyTweet

published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.

Sitting down under the trees and sampling a few beers gave us the chance to think about the change. The disadvantage that is immediately obvious is the location on a busy junction of the D14 and the D981, which means that there is a lot of traffic especially compared to the back road of Bissy-sur-Fley.

photograph by ChigyTweet

published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.

On the other hand the Voie Verte runs right past the building and the Papyllon has put up a sign to tempt the thirsty cyclist! This and the passing traffic on those busy roads, seemed to result in much more business for Wolfgang which is great!

The actual setting under the trees is really great, while the interior looks comfy and warm for those cold winter days when an urbock goes down well!

photograph by ChigyTweet

published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.

Wolfgang was in good spirit and did not even raise the problems he has apparently had with French Beuraucrats, which made for a relaxed afternoon. He told up that he has re opened Papyllon almost exactly 20 years after he first started serving beer at Bissu-sur-Fley.

The most important thing was the selection of beers is still massive and the two I selected were really enjoyable!

The maps below gives an idea of where Papyllon is located - the interesting thing is its only 12 km from the House at Le Gros Chigy!

Donkeys in a Downpour

It seemed a pleasant enough task for a sunny Bourgogne day - moving three donkeys around a kilometer to a new pasture. All started well, although rain was threatening.



However, no more than a few hundred meters into the move and the rain started



an got fairly hectic at times



The task was eventually accompolished and the soaked handlers were able to get in out of the rain, change clothes and eventually warm up!

Musicians at the Fête Médiévales de Mont-Saint-Vincent

The main attraction at the Fête was probably the fighting of the knights, but I am going to have a look at some of the musicians who were performing there. For more on the knights have a look at the article in Le Journal se Soane-et-Loire.

Our first stop at the Faire was a group playing close to the entrance with some interesting instruments.

photograph by ChigyTweet

published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.

The group was expanded with more players during the day and entertained continually.



Another pair of musicians walked the streets singing traditional folk songs and entertaining the younger visitors with this interesting form of puppets!



Just for the record here's a photo of the knights lined up at the start of the jousting!

photograph by ChigyTweet

published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.