Elephants sans culs (elephants without asses)

Friday 30th May

Another public holiday today so we decided to go to Chambery, a largish town, about an hours drive away (60k). We had visited this town in 2016 but didn't remember much of it, and nothing rang any bells when we first arrived. We had the map of the town with the must see sights so we found a car park which we thought was pretty close to the centre, and headed off.

Quick visit first to the wool shop for a look, then a hundred or so metres along the road to the main feature of the town - the elephants with no tails fountain. From there it was time for a cool drink - the day was heating up and headed for low 30s (last time we were here it was also a hot day).

Erected in honour of General de Boigne 1751 - 1830
who found fame and fortune in India,
and returned to his hometown of Chambery and gave 1/3rd of his fortune to the town.

Place du theatre
- lots of lovely 'places' to sit and drink or eat or just people watch.

We wandered the streets of the old medieval village - beautiful narrow laneways, old stone buildings, cobblestone passages. We just love these medieval villages. Everything is so close in the heart of the village - the maps are deceptive, we think it is a large block from one street to the next, but quite often only 20 metres or less.

Cute little elephant symbols to follow on our walk.

The last aerial passageway between apartment buildings left from medieval times.
Most others were destroyed for fear of fire. 

No - we didnt!

One of the covered shopping arcades. A lot of shops were open on this public holiday,
 but some were closed.

Dog of the day (statue).  Not a great photo taken through the shop window.

The massive organ (1847) at the Cathedrale Saint-Francois-de-Sales.
This was the ancient church of the Franciscans, and made a cathedral in 1779. 

A few photos inside the cathedral. There were some lovely murals
but the photos dont show them very well.

We spent 4 hours wandering the village and enjoying an Indian lunch - had a conversation with the waiter at the restaurant who spoke great English and would love to travel to Australia one day. 

France seems though to be suffering from the closure of many small businesses just like at home - result of covid? Not sure. As we drive through small villages, restaurants that we would have found to be open in previous years, were now closed and showing signs of neglect. We seem to have found less 'tradie' stops this time, but that might be the area we are in. 

Saturday 31st May

Another beautiful day today - 32. Today we just had a walking tour around the village with a map from the tourist information office in town. Was a bit of a ho-hum walk. A few interesting titbits in the leaflet but not really a lot to see. Until we got to one of the squares in the village, where something appeared to be happening. Old men in military uniforms, flags, musical instruments, a small number of people, soon boosted by 2 busloads of more old military men. From our limited french we think it was a memorial service for the french Algerian war. 

The bridge that divides the town in two - Pont de Beauvoisin in Isere,
and Le Pont de Beauvoisin in Savoie.
In 1355 the river became the border between the Kingdom of the Dolphin, and the Savoy County and split the city in 2 parts. It is called Francois 1sts Bridge as in 1517 he financed the reconstruction of the bridge made of wood, with a new one of stone.

The Guiers River running through town.

The bell tower on the Carmes Church - lovely loud, clear bells.
They gave a real performance at 12 the first day we were here.

The assembly of service men and women.
Have a look at some of the hats on the men. 

The Carmes Church in Savoie.
The story goes that when the town was split in two,
those in Savoie could no longer go to the church which was in Isere without paying a tax/toll to cross the river, so they built this new church in Savoie in 1419.

Walking back to the car we found another wool shop in this small village - luckily (unluckily) she had closed at 12 so nothing more for the suitcase. But - she is open Monday afternoon! 

Stopped at the supermarket to buy dinner and then at the pizza restaurant attached to the supermarket for lunch, but they don't do just one pizza to share. If we only wanted 1/2 pizza each we had to buy it with salad and dessert - pass, we went to the bakery and bought a sandwich. 

We've had a problem with the door to our apartment not locking (it's very quiet here so we've been leaving the door unlocked when we go out) so a locksmith came this afternoon and replaced the lock. All good to go now - tradies here are not cheap either, call out and repair on a Saturday afternoon,  ouch! 

Village life

 Wednesday 28th May

We are now staying in the village of Le Pont de Beauvoisin - about 1k out of town. We headed into the village in the morning to visit the tourist information office which was only open Wednesday. We struck a very helpful lady there who spoke very good English and was able to give us suggestions on what to see over the next few days. We came away with a handful of brochures and half a plan. 

Time for morning tea at the bakery across the road, then a visit to the boucherie next door for dinner for the next couple of nights. A queue had formed at the butcher which was right in the heart of the village, and we watched as lots of cars passed by right through the centre of the village. This village has a great feel to it - the sort of place we enjoy spending time in. The village actually has 2 halves separated by the river - one half is in department Isere, and the other in department Savoie. We have a map for a walking tour of the village which we will do maybe Saturday.  

Washing day again so we found the laverie in the supermarket car park and did the washing while we grocery shopped. As we headed to the laverie it was right on 12 and the church bells gave us a really good performance - not just the 12 bells for the hour.

Thursday 29th May

Today is a public holiday - Ascension Day. Many countries in Europe celebrate this day with a holiday. It's a beautiful warm day - Rob has broken out the shorts. Hopefully this lovely weather will continue. 

Today we headed out to visit 3 medieval villages nearby. The first, Morestal - the city of painters (though we didn't see much evidence of this, only one artist exhibition). This village was a fortified village from the 14th century with a tower sitting on top of the hill, which once used to house a dungeon. The views from the tower were pretty spectacular. Over in the distance we could see snow on the Alps. The village was very quiet - not sure if this was normal or because of the holiday. 

The tower at Morestel.

View from the tower, across the rooftops and to the mountains.

We elected not to explore this street - some real ankle turners there!

Hmm! An alternative to a mantlepiece.

The tower from a different angle, with the flag flying.

Moving on to the village of Cremieu, only 10k away from Morestal. This one was great - old fortified remparts, through the gateway into the heart of the village. The church was started in 13th century and finished 17th century. An Augustine monastery from the same period. The remparts were mostly still in existence with housing etc built on and into the walls. Perched on the hill above the town were ruins of the old castle and towers. The remparts went up this hill and around the towers we could see on the hill. We didn't walk up the hill to the old towers but this had been one pretty impressive village in its time. We had lunch in the village - along with lots of French people enjoying their day off. 

Beautiful colour.

The exterior fortified walls of Cremieu.

One of the gateways.

The old covered market - still in use today.

The cloisters at the Augustine monastery.

The old tower ruins on the hill above the village.

One more stop on the way home in the village of Saint-Chef. This was a bit of a loss. We had been told about the frescoes in the abbey (dating from around year 500),  but the abbey was closed so we missed out. 

The 'locked' abbey at Saint-Chef.

This was out the front of the biblio museum.

Snow - it's a long way off but pretty spectacular.

We'd obviously climbed a bit in our trip to these villages because as we came home we could see lots of snow on the Alps.