Day Seven: Belleville to La Charite: A fine Benedictine monastery

April 3, 2017

The UNESCO world heritage site part of the Loire valley runs from Angers in the west to Just beyond Orleans, at Sully. That ending point is also where the Loire turns and heads south (looking at it from the direction we are travelling). Halfway down (like at Belleville) the route picks up the Canal Laterale a la Loire, and often follows that, to Digoin.

Orleans is at the top of the map and its all "downhill" from there

Towns along the canal which we were passing through today, and where will go tomorrow.

All this made for just pleasant riding through quiet countryside, without a lot of chateaux or fancy towns at least through the day. But our ending point was a truly stellar point on the ride.

We began near one of two nuclear plants on this section of the Loire. In the early morning mist it made for a truly apocalyptic sight.

However things quickly calmed down, way down, into a day of quiet countryside riding.

Charolais cattle. We will detour to Charolles to see their home.

At St Satur, though, we ran into a bakery that had meringue with praline rose (pink coloured praline). Our friend Michel in Nantes had told us about this stuff, but this was the first we had seen of it. Praline is candied nuts, and is apparently a French invention. That perhaps explains why we had seen so much of it in New Orleans. The meringue is much like candy, so you have to like candy. But for a powerful sugar hit, this is good stuff.

Meringue with little praline nuggets at St Satur

Picturesque scene by the bakery in St Satur

The chateau at Sancerre is up there. Up is a direction we avoid if possible!

The jewel of today's ride was the spot we chose to stop, La Charite. This is a seriously medieval town that houses (was created by) the church of Notre Dame. It is a huge Benedictine monastery of the Cluny order. The abbey at Cluny, which we are detouring to see, was founded in 910. La Charite dates from 1107. It is huge, and once encompassed 400 buildings. Like Cluny it has a romanesque style, and today exudes an air of extreme antiquity. Charity was a strong basic tenet for the Benedictines, hence the name. The Cluny order up to the end of the 12th century was was a spiritual, intellectual, artistic, and political centre for the whole of Europe. We will also go to Paray le Monial, which is a Cluny site that is a faithful but smaller model of the mother monastery.

Because of the imporantance of the La Charite site, it also has UNESCO world heritage status. What we did not know was that its attractive power made it part of the Chemin St. Jacques from Vezelay. So in the tourist information they were well geared up to stamp our creantiale.

The north part of the voie Vezelay passes by La Charite

You may be able to enlarge this to read about the Cluniacs

In the garden, the ruins of the church of St Laurent were discovered in 1975. That church dates from the same period as the main one here. A roof protects the ruins from the weather, but while we were there we saw that kids find it a fun thing to scramble over.

We find buildings of this age much more pleasing than modern ones.

Restoration work has been ongoing almosf since the place was built. This photo of a poster shows the restoration of a shell shaped font in the cloister.

Here is my photo of the restored shell. In the foreground is a coffee maker and some jumbled tables. Needs a cleanup.

There is a path that has been part of the pilgrimage route since the 12th century. It's a hill with 84 stone steps. I loped up it. Yup, 84 steps as advertised.

Steve tries out being a walking pilgrim.

Also in the tourist information we had another experience of running into a town mayor. Well, deputy mayor. The deputy is from Sables d'Olonnes, which we will pass through when we get to the Atlantic Coast. She said to call her. We need to watch out though, it could just be for a time eating chat.

Pilgrim books in the tourist information

After yesterday's luxury hotel we were geared up for a run of smaller and spartan rooms. But at Le Bon Laboreur we were given a spot with its own ground level entrance, off a walled garden, while our front window faces the Loire. The room is large and with flowered wallpaper that makes it feel like a French country cottage. Inside includes a decent sized oak table that is great for typing on.

Last night's bath and rest was an excellent help for Dodie, and despite some coughing and needing a cold tablet she did well. So we had even considered making a dash for Nevers. La Charite was worth the stop, though.

We are now kind of out of sync though. We definitely have to duck in to Nevers, because Bernadette of Lourdes is buried there. But the next stop, Decize, could then be too distant to reach by evening. If we pull up way short and stick at Nevers, then of of course we would be losing kms of progress. We'll see.

Today's ride: 53 km (33 miles)
Total: 362 km (225 miles)

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