Day 24 - Tuesday 24th May 2005

Jude did a load of washing this morning, while I sat in the sun.  The weather is currently perfect.  We set off for Nevers, on the Loire river in Burgundy's west.  It was a lovely drive through the mountains.  Everything is so green and lush and little villages pop up at every turn.  We arrived in Nevers and parked in the old town before following "the blue line" (a line marked on the footpath leading you to various points of interest round the town).   We had lunch at a pavement cafe surrounded by very stylish people and also accordion players. We had healthy salads and Jude decide to balance it with a delicious Creme-Brulee.  We then continued our walk. There were more vast churches to explore, the Cathedrale St-Cyr-et-Ste-Juliette was particularly impressive dating from about 1331.  But the stained glass windows are all obviously very modern additions and don't fit in at all with the rest of the architecture (Apparently the originals were destroyed by allied bombing during WW2.)  We followed the line down to the Loire, wide and fast flowing, with some tasty looking fish swimming under the bridge, we then circled back through the Porte du Croux and dropped into a china shop displaying the famous Nevers faience ware. Fortunately, Jude didn't care for it. (It was quite expensive).  We found our way back to the car and fairly rapidly found our way to the road to Autun.  We were diverted on the way home and found ourselves driving down narrow little country lanes until we could join the main road again. No idea why.  Dropped into the supermarket at Arnay-le-Duc to pick up some supplies and then headed home for tea.  It's now 9:30 and its still quite light outside.   We are again inside round the fire.