15th October 2007

Monday 15th October 2007
We just can’t seem to stop having a look around this part of the world as today we decided we should head for Bourges, just over 100klms SW from were we are. Looking at the map we could see the scenic roads to take so we headed off for the day with our coffee made and our lunch packed. (Well we still had to buy the baguettes)
Once again we were enjoying a beautiful sunny day and up to 20deg. The roads were not busy and we found our way without too much trouble. Part of the route took us on some very straight single lane roads that went on for many K’s. Unfortunately this resulted in it being notorious for accidents and black life size cutouts at every spot that a death had occurred graphically highlighted it. This section had 21 of them over the period of the last 5 years. They were working on the road and widening it for overtaking lanes wherever they could, but speed was still the main killer. Needless to say we drove carefully and observed the speed limits.
Passed through many vineyards on either side of the road, densely wooded areas, ploughed fields and others with cattle grazing. The visibility was clear and we could see for miles. We passed nuclear power stations with huge smoke stack belching out white clouds across the sky. It has said that the Loire has not been the same since they have been using its water. No problems here with the French using nuclear power!
We parked the car in the gratis area and walked into town to look for the tourist bureau to pick up a local map. Needless to say we had arrived at just before 12 noon and all the shops, big and small were in the process of closing for their 2-hour lunch break. We find it very hard to get use to this, however it happens in every town except for the very large ones like Paris, Dijon, Lyon etc. We realise some of them on reopening do stay open until 7 pm, however today also being Monday a lot of them were also closed for the day.
Narrow cobbled streets and a history that dates back to 52BC when Julius Caesar sacked the region and who is supposed to have massacred 40,000 of its inhabitants. However in the 15C Jean de Berry made it a centre of the arts to rival Dijon.
We eventually found the Tourist Bureau and picked up our map giving us all the points of interest. Too many to mention here, however we had to see the stained glass windows in the Cathedrale St-Etienne which are some of the finest in France and we had to agree they were magnificent and dated back to the 13C.
The 15thC Palais of Jacques-Coeur was also on our list as was the Musee du Berry of important Egyptian, Gallo Roman and medieval artefact's in one of the original great 16th C mansions.
As always we walked all around this historic town and by the time we were heading back to the car we even saw some of the shops opening up again for the late afternoon trading.
Remembering where we parked the car was always on the top of our agenda but somehow we seemed to have erred on this occasion and it was quite some time before we found it!
The fun part was getting out of Brouges and as usual we followed the Toutes Directions, which usually works. Needless to say it didn’t this time and we found ourselves going around in circles until we eventually settled on a different way to get home. On our trips we always dread the Deviation signs they put up when they close the roads, for repairs etc, as invariably you get to a junction and they just seem to disappear. Luckily on both of the deviations that we had to follow, there was other traffic, which we took potluck and followed when we were in doubt on which way to go.
Home again and feeling good that we have now seen a good part of the area we have been staying in and a greater appreciation of France in general.