Breakfast over, we had two missions today: (1) work out how to use the in-car navigation system; (2) acquire a local SIM card to insert in our iPad to give us mobile Internet access for our month in France. A journey to the town of Avallon, about 50km west, would provide an opportunity to knock over both.
Mission One was easy and we very soon came to like the Tom Tom system built in to the Renault Clio. The iPad has a great built-in navigation system which can be used in cars, trains and on foot, but there's little doubt that the car-dedicated system is better, in the car. On the other hand, if your car doesn’t have a built in navigation system, or you want to navigate on foot, the iPad will fill the bill admirably, although ideally you need a mobile Internet connection.
Our safe and hassle free arrival in Avallon delivered us Mission Two for I had previously discovered the location of the SFR store (SIM card supplier) and checked its opening hours. We parked the car as close as we could to the shop, about two or three hundred metres away, and used the iPad to guide us through the convoluted streets, straight to the shop. In a few minutes the deal was done and we were soon getting the Internet-delivered lowdown on Vezelay, a hilltop village further west, which we decided we'd visit since we'd come most of the way already.
Parked the car in a parking area outside the village walls in drizzling rain, air temperature about 7°C. Payment was required but pay machine broken (I recognized the word “hors” on the display). Decided to chance it and save €3, as had every other car parked nearby. We started the climb up the main street which, as you’d expect for a touristy village like this, is lined with boutiques hoping to attract the tourists, of which there were precious few today.
We were cold and it was almost lunchtime and we’d only got about 200m when we saw this sign on the footpath outside a shop with a very enticing and warm looking interior.
There was only one other customer and the shopkeeper’s eyes lit up when he saw we were inbound for his door. On the way up from the car Mary and I had been jointly fantasising about hot soup with bread and as we sat down in the brasserie with its menu we hoped to find such listed. No sign of it! Mary had given up and was about to order a croque monsieur when I thought I'd ask about the soup anyway. Problem: no English spoken there, no decent French spoken at our end. Time to resort to the iPad, on which I have installed Google Translate. The shopkeeper looked over my shoulder with great curiosity as I tapped in “Soup?” then tapped for the French word. “Soupé?” came the written response, delivered by the Internet, instantly. “Oui, oui, legume!” this from the Frenchman, getting more excited by the second. Marvellous, pea soup! Now for the coup de grace. I typed in “with bread” and tapped the magic button. From the ether appeared the words “avec du pain” and this time I tapped the “speak” option and the machine blurted out the words as spoken by a sexy French lady. “Mon dieu!”, our new friend marvelled, then dashed out to the kitchen to personally make two big bowls of thick pea soup and a large bowl filled with fresh and crusty bread broken into bite-sized pieces. Best soup we’ve ever had!
Mary wandering up to the Abbey at Vezelay after the soup.
Brass rendition of scallop shell embedded in the road at Vezelay. This symbol marks the various routes which pilgrims tread, and have done for hundreds of years, on their pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostella.
Later… on the way home
It’s a pigeonnier, sort of a high rise accommodation option for pigeons. This one has 3000 pigeon holes inside… Several hundred years ago pigeons were farmed using these structures.
The pigeon holes line the interior of the walls and the pigeons enter and exit the pigeonnier via the "windows" higher up.
More info.
Here in Flavigny until Saturday
Kev and Mary
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