4 May

My friends Paul and Sheila went home to Australia, and lent me their car while they were away. So, of course I had to take advantage of the opportunity and freedom to get out and about. I looked at the map one Saturday and thought "which direction haven't I really gone?". I decided to head to Macon for the weekend. No real ideas what there was to see in Macon, but only one way to find out eh?

So off I went. Once I reached Macon and wandered around a bit, I discovered that the Abbey of Cluny was not far away. So I decided to just fly through Macon and go to Cluny. I do need to go back to Macon though, because there was this to be seen:

Macon, France

On the way to Cluny I saw in the distance Berze le Chatel and decided I needed to drop in there on the way back on Sunday, I also dropped past a gorgeous chapel, but sadly couldn't get inside. It is the Church of St Andrew of Bage, and apparently is the finest example of the Roman Art of Burgundy in the Ain County. It was built in the middle ages, but nothing remains of the original 9th century chapel, and was extended in the 11th and 12th century.

I arrived at Cluny as the sun was setting and started searching for a place to stay. There was no room at any inn, but at one of the restaurant hotels, they directed me to another town where I eventually found a place.

Cluny was actually not as amazing as it looked at first glance... :-( While the buildings are mostly in good condition they are pretty much empty shells. There was a really rather cool lcd screen set up that showed a digital creation of the parts of the building that were gone, and you could move it around and the image moved around with it... very funky.

I decided it was time to go back to Berze le Chatel. I arrived in time to enjoy a bite of lunch on the grass and wander around a little enjoying the amazing views and colours of the countryside. They really were this colour!

The tour of the castle was mostly on the outside, but that was spectacular enough! We did get to go into the chapel, which they think was once a pagan grotto, so that was pretty groovy. The colours of the trees with their glorious purple flowers, against the flourescent green of the grass was quite unbelievable, and I can only hope I managed to capture it a little with these photos. Well worth a visit!