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Poitiers

Poitiers is a medium-sized city with no less than six historic churches. We managed five of them yesterday, which are all scattered around the city, so it was quite a long and exhausting day. But I was thrilled with the abundance of medieval art and we had lots of fun, as always. Here are some highlights.The Baptistery of St. John, the oldest church in France. It was built in the 4th century and

by Jour ~ Tuesday, July 15, 2008 0 comments

Toulouse

Tonight is the last of three nights we've spent in Toulouse, one of the largest cities in France and capital of Europe's aerospace industry. It's actually pretty nice for a big city and we've enjoyed our stay here. It's been consistently sunny and in the upper 80s; a little hot but not nearly as bad as the South was.Yesterday I had a busy day of "work" here in Toulouse, with David joining me

by Jour ~ Thursday, July 10, 2008 0 comments

Le Puy and Orange

Partway through the long drive described in the last post we stopped in Le Puy en Velay, which is the largest city in a fairly remote and mountainous area. Every route out of the city goes over a pass of 1000m (3280ft) or higher, so it's pretty isolated in the winter. It is built on several volcanic formations and makes an interesting sight when you come down out of the mountains. The large rock

by Jour ~ Tuesday, June 17, 2008 0 comments

Autun

As promised, here are some photos from our last stop on Wednesday, the city of Autun in northern Burgundy.Autun was settled in Roman times, when it was known as Augustodunum. You can still see some Roman ruins around the city, the best of which are the Roman amphitheater (which we didn't have time to see), a large gate, and the 1st-century Temple of Janus. We stopped at the temple on the way out

by Jour ~ Tuesday, June 10, 2008 0 comments

Church and Temple Crawling

Last Wednesday we drove a loop north of Mâcon and saw some great churches as well as an ancient Roman temple and a Buddhist temple! We came back with lots of pictures; here's a small selection of them.The drive was, as always in rural France so far, beautiful and easy. There was almost no one on the roads and they were smooth and wider than those in Britain.First stop was the village of Chapaize.

by Jour ~ Monday, June 9, 2008 0 comments

April 5: Tarifa and Bolonia, Spain

After our adventures in Gibraltar, we took advantage of our rental car and spent the rest of the afternoon driving along the coast towards the west. The scenery was beautiful after we passed Algeciras - lots of rolling hills and trees. Most of the hills were covered in windmills, which was so impressive. Apparently it is one of the biggest wind farms in Europe. Our first stop was Tarifa, a port

by Jour ~ Monday, May 28, 2007 0 comments

Three Churches and a Roman Villa

After a long rainy spell we were blessed with mostly-sunny weather this weekend, so we headed out for some local sightseeing. We started out at the North Leigh Roman Villa, which is not far from Blenheim Palace to the west of Oxford. It is the ruins of a country estate built by a rich Roman aristocrat in the 4th century AD. There wasn't a whole lot to see, but the location couldn't be beat! It

by Jour ~ Monday, May 21, 2007 0 comments

April 3: Italica, Spain

Our spontaneous excursion to Italica from Seville turned out to be well worth it. It was much larger and more impressive than we thought, and an ancient Roman site was a nice change from the churches (not that I ever really get tired of churches). And thankfully, it didn't rain on us and we even had sunshine for some of our photos.Italica was founded in 206 BC as a place of settlement for veteran

by Jour ~ Thursday, April 19, 2007 0 comments

A Day in the Cotswalds: Cirencester, Burford and Bibury

It has taken me almost a week to post this, but we took a little day trip last Sunday to Cirencester, a medium-sized town in the Cotswalds less than an hour's drive from Oxford. Its two attractions are a good Roman museum and a medieval parish church. Here's an interesting factoid we learned: "cester" at the end of a British city name indicates that it used to be a Roman city. Our route to

by Jour ~ Friday, March 24, 2006 0 comments