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 in the center is topped with a huge red statue of the Virgin Mary called Notre Dame de France. It was built in 1860 and you can climb up inside for views over the city. Just below and right of the rock is the large Cathedral of Le Puy. And on the left next to the trees is a smaller rock, which is topped with a Romanesque church! Like most churches in high places, it is dedicated to St. Michael the Archangel.


This beautiful photo of St. Michael's Chapel is by David.

The chapel is open to visitors if you're willing to climb the 265 stone stairs that snake up the side! Since David still had a lingering cough, he didn't feel like huffing up to the top; plus we didn't want to leave the car unattended with all our stuff in it. So I set off alone while David took photos from the parking lot like the one above. It was quite a climb, but so worth it!


Heading up the same stairs used by pilgrims



The interior was atmospheric and almost cave-like, like an extension of the rock.



And the oldest part of the chapel has ceiling murals dating from the 10th century.

Then we made a stop at Le Puy Cathedral, after some difficulty in figuring out where to park in the maze of narrow streets in the old town. David stayed with the car again while I ran up the old stone streets to do a quick photo tour.


Rue des Tables leading up to the cathedral, a medieval road named for the merchants' tables that were set up along the sides.


The unusually exotic west facade of Le Puy Cathedral, with Muslim and Byzantine elements. These ideas came from the Crusades as well as the pilgrimage roads to Spain.


View from the great porch down the Rue des Tables.


There's more Islamic influence in the porch, with Kufic script on medieval wooden doors.


More exotic stripes in the cloisters.


And a mermaid.


Inside the cathedral is this statue of St. James the Apostle, dressed as a pilgrim. Le Puy is one of four major starting points in France for the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, 1600km away in NW Spain. The pilgrimage continues today, and pilgrims are blessed in front of this statue before setting off on foot.


Part of a dolmen on which the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared long ago, promising to cure fevers. Many, many sick people have slept on this stone ever since.

Aside from a couple old murals, the rest of the interior has been mostly rebuilt in modern times and is not very interesting. So I hustled it back to the car and we were on our way, through the beautiful landscape shown in the last post.



And now we are in Provence! We are based at a bland Ibis hotel (shown above) in Orange, which is 30 min north of Avignon. The town is not terribly attractive and our hotel room is mighty small, but it's good enough for a few nights.


Orange does boast some pretty impressive Roman ruins, however. Seen here is the side of a Roman theater stage. The theater sat 9,000 spectators and is still intact, but it was closed when we arrived around 8pm. In the foreground are the foundations of a Roman temple. There is also a huge triumphal arch, just as large and well-preserved as those in Rome, but we haven't seen that yet.

As you can see in the above photos, the weather was gorgeous when we arrived and it gave us such a nice introduction to Provence. But almost ever since, it has been raining. Not appreciated! So we've used the time to relax and get some things done, such as blogging.

Today we visited a couple churches and although it was raining hard in the beginning, beautiful sunshine came out later and we had a really gorgeous, proper Provencal evening. It was fantastic. Pics soon, of course.