Tournus Abbey Church

New on Sacred Destinations: the magnificent Abbey Church of St. Philibert in Tournus, France. One of many fine Romanesque churches in Burgundy, this was built mostly in the 11th century and has all kinds of interesting things to see. Click photos for captions, learn more in the detailed new article or just go straight to the big photo gallery.

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by Jour ~ Tuesday, October 21, 2008 0 comments

Tournus

The last major sight we visited in Burgundy was the Abbey Church of St. Philibert in Tournus, built in the 11th century. It was magnificent. Here are a few photo highlights.View of the west front through the abbey towers. We parked right here outside the gate, and there is even closer parking around the church.View from southwest.The west front is austere and castle-like with no sculpture, but it

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by Jour ~ Sunday, June 15, 2008 0 comments

Paray-le-Monial, Anzy-le-Duc & Some-Other-Ones

Before moving on to our latest experiences, I can't neglect our last big day of sightseeing from Macon, which was last Monday. We saw a whopping eight churches, most of which were in small villages with long hyphenated names. The sun actually shone most of the day, which hasn't happened in a long time. We had such a nice day of driving around and enjoying ourselves at a relaxed pace. And we had

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by Jour ~ Friday, June 13, 2008 0 comments

Old St. Vincent's, Mâcon

We were mainly in Mâcon because it is a such good base for seeing lots of Romanesque churches in southern Burgundy, but it also has a nice church of its own. It's called Vieux St-Vincent and has been in ruins since the 1700s. The very impressive facade above actually faces east, and was originally inside the church - when taking the picture I was standing where the nave was. Most of the church

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by Jour ~ Wednesday, June 11, 2008 0 comments

Au Revoir, Little Cottage.

Wouldn't you know it, the night before we leave our vacation rental we finally get the beautiful sunshine we've been waiting for all week! It's hard to believe it was foggy, rainy and cool most of the day. It made a nice conclusion to our happy stay here. This evening I got to spend some time outside with the cows, reading my new book on the Cistercians with the sun on my face and listening to

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by Jour ~ Friday, May 30, 2008 0 comments

Castles, Churches & Frogs in North Burgundy

Chateau BourbillySorry it's been awhile since our last post. We've been out sightseeing a lot, and when we've been home I've been working on my website. It's been nice to have enough time to do that! Today is our last day in our little cottage and we've had a really good, relaxing time here. The cats are even more friendly now; one of them comes in all the time and we have to keep him from

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by Jour ~ 0 comments

Semur-en-Auxois

This morning the sun came out for awhile so we drove to the nearest town, Semur-en-Auxois. It's a pretty medieval town overlooking a river, with ruins of a big castle and a nice 13th-century Gothic church.General view of Semur, taken another day in less-nice weather.View from the bridge.Fruit and vegetable market.East end of the 13th-century Eglise Notre-Dame.South transept and crossing

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by Jour ~ Sunday, May 25, 2008 0 comments

Avallon

Yesterday we drove 30 minutes west to Avallon, primarily to check out the carved portal of its church. The drive was beautiful and there were hardly any other cars on the road, which was what we were hoping it would be like here! The countryside and villages we've seen so far look a lot like England. In fact, as we drove through one village, which had old stone houses on either side and a

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by Jour ~ 0 comments

Finally, France!

After a few brief stays in France in the last couple weeks, interspersed with visits to Switzerland and Germany, our big tour of France has finally begun. We are settled in a rental cottage in northern Burgundy, France, and are so happy here. We've been looking forward to the France leg of our journey for a long time - dreaming of a more relaxed pace, peaceful countryside and beautiful old

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by Jour ~ 0 comments