France and Italy 2004

Semur-en-Auxois, 2-3 June

Semur-en-Auxois is a walled medieval city (with modern building around it), on the river Armançon about 50km from Dijon. It was our first stop and, unlike many of the others, it was a real town having a purpose other than just tourism.

		We had booked at Hôtel les Gourmets, but the owner had "forgotten" our booking and gone to the horse races. Not a good start to the holiday! The local tourist bureau found us a room at this pleasant hotel. *
		Across the road from the hotel was this typical French collection of road signs. †
		A general view of the town from the approach road. *
		The town centre near the tourist bureau. *
		Flowers in the town centre. *
		The bridge over the river, downhill from the town centre. *
		The church of Notre-Dame was quite impressive. *
		It had many carvings, some religious ... *
		and some not. *
		We visited the nearby village of Époisses, hoping to buy some of its renowned washed-rind cheese, but it was lunch-time so the entire village was shut. The chateau had this delightful little watch tower on its surrounding wall. *
		The other place we visited from Semur was Fontenay Abbey. The rest of the photos are from there. *
		The cloister. *
		The interior of the church, very austere as Cistercians liked. *
		The dovecote, with roses. *
		This stream provided water for cooking and to power water mills, but was also decorative. *

From Semur, it was off through mountains to reach Yvoire.