Day 25 - Wednesday 25th May 2005

Beautiful weather again, Jude packed a picnic lunch and we set off for the south of Burgundy.  Flashing down the A6 toll road at 130+kph, quite a quick way of moving around.  First stop was Tournas, the original Gaulish city of the Aedui tribe before the Romans took it over.  As usual for Burgundy, it was full of ancient churches, hospices and abbeys.  We visited the 10 century church of the abbey of St. Philibert with a rather imposing pipe organ jutting out over the nave.  The cloisters was restful in the heat.  Jude spotted a little shop across the square from the church and we bought three tapestry cushion covers depicting scenes copied from a famous tapestry now in a Paris museum.  The town is situated on the Saone river and we picnicked on the banks.  We then drove off through some delightful countryside, green and lush and sprinkled with fat white cattle, we spotted the ancient market village/fortress of Brancion perched on a rock spur.  We parked our car and walked through down to the ramparts and into the village.  On the way down we spotted  tiny snake on the road.  The village was packed with old medieval buildings many of them restored, I presume as holiday houses.  There were great views from the cliff edges.  The chateau with manicured gardens was unfortunately closed for extensive renovations.  We spotted a sign further on the Grottes de Blanot, so we turned off down a narrower road and drove for some time through vineyards before arriving the caves to find them closed.   Next stop was Cluny and a tour of it's vast abbey.  Much of it was destroyed after the revolution but enough remains to demonstrate the scale of the place.  We set off homewards stopping off at the little village of Taize, this place has a small monastic community but now attracts hordes of young people each summer.  They camp in the surrounding countryside but meet in a series of low buildings/tents/workshops each day.  We were guided round by a young Swiss girl who was very polite and who's English was excellent.  After that we just meandered home along the back roads past innumerable farms, chateaus and vineyards.   Another night round the fire.