La Bourgongne

Burgundy as we know La Bourgogne is home to the French food we are all familiar with --Dijon mustard from Dijon of course, Chablis (made with Chardonnay grapes but never called Chardonnay!), beef bourguignon (combining the Charolais beef and the red wine), and home to the escargot (no, it is not a seafood --although I will never tell anyone that those snails crawling all over the bushes in front of Notre Dame have cousins bathed in garlic around the corner!). Burgundy is also an area of rich history from the settlements of the Romans (remember Caesar's Gallic Wars? written here!) to the powerful Dukes of Burgundy (Burgundy was independent of the French crown --and included Flanders and parts of the Netherlands-- until 1477. The dukes had great names like Philip the Bold, John the Fearless, perhaps we should try this --Bush le Pire, or McCain sans Verite, or Palin la Pit-Bull --she named herself!). Magnificent churches were built in Autun (see, I said I would come back to Autun!), Auxerre, and the Basilique Ste-Marie-Madeleine in Vezelay, which was a meeting place for pilgrims going to Santiago de Compostela in Spain (remember the scallop shells???).

The countryside is rolling hills, Charolais cows grazing (and they are so social they are always together!), vineyards and fields, small towns, rivers... and it is about 2hours south of Paris. (A little travel tip --I think that a trip to Burgundy gives you a flavor of the French countryside and terroir if you do not have time to travel throughout the country.)




As I had mentioned, we visited Autun in July on our way back to Paris from Provence. Our friend Philippe had highlighted Autun on a map of France he had lent us (and had highlighted a number of places that we should make an effort to see --we will never finish before January!!) I read about Autun as we made our way through the rolling hills of Burgundy, yet we were not prepared for magnificent Cathedrale St-Lazare. St-Lazare was built in the 12th century and has a stunning glazed tile roof which was laid in geometric patterns that were added in a rebuilding in the 15th century. And as impressive as the structure and its roof are, the most amazing and intriguing are the 12th century sculptures done by Gislebertus between 1125 and 1135. A bit of history...
Gislebertus hoc fecit (Gislebertus made this) was found under the figure of Christ at the Last Judgement, which is over the door of the west entrance --the west tympanun. Gislebertus himself is a bit of a mystery, but he is thought to have been trained in Cluny and Vezelay. Cluny was a prosperous and powerful abbey in Burgundy south of Autun (and the largest church in Europe until St. Peter's in Rome was rebuilt in the 16th century). The Benedictines were devoted to perpetual prayer, and because of their wealth, they were not monks working in the fields to support themselves. Their abbots hired managers and laborers, and the monks surrounded themselves with large and beautiful buildings and devoted their time to contemplation and prayer (they were hugely successful with 10,000 monks in their large and extensive network of monasteries, and four of the monks at Cluny became popes). Unfortunately, they found themselves on the wrong side of the papal schism, supporting their countrymen in Avignon rather than the true pope in Rome (at least that is what we learned in catechism!) And, of course, as with many churches in France, the revolution finished them off and made a quarry of their monastery (there are ruins, and some of the carved capitals remain in the museum in the town of Cluny). If you have visited the Cluny museum in Paris which is home to the Lady with Unicorn tapestries and a wonderful collection of medieval art, they were part of this monastic order.
St-Lazare is Gislebertus' own style based upon his training. The sculptures at St-Lazare survived the Revolution because some were hidden. They were thought to be out of style in the 18th century and the tympanum was plastered over --the head of Christ was damaged so that the plaster job would be flat (I cannot imagine some plasterer knocking off the head of Jesus presiding over the horrors of the Last Judgement without wondering what his fate would be...)



Inside, each of the columns is topped with a carved capital depicting a scene from the Bible or other religious theme. A number of these that were removed in the 16th century are in the adjacent Chapter House and are mounted lower, and you can see them closely.




We were so impressed by the town of Autun, a lovely hilltop town with winding streets and lovely old buildings and a spectacular Roman amphitheater, that we made plans to return to Burgundy to see more, and this last weekend, we had friends visiting and we did! As I have mentioned before, we love staying at chambres d'hotes and particularly those with tables d'hotes as you get to stay and eat in a wonderful old house that you would never get to see! (And you know we love old houses!) Our hosts were located in a small hamlet between Vezelay and Avallon, Girolles. Les Forges de Girolles is a 19th century house with out-buildings. It was once the home of famous scientist whom David knew about, the inventor of synthetic rubber --there was a plaque posted on the building along the street...




One has to wonder if in a hundred years there will be a plaque where Henry Paulson lives telling the world that he was the inventor of the $700B bailout --or maybe it will be on one of McCain's 7 houses... or maybe on Sarah Palin's... On a Clear Day, you can see Russia......