13 - 5/13/2015 on to Mulhouse

Wednesday - May 13

The trip today from Tours in the more westerly part of France to Mulhouse, almost directly to the east to the eastern border of France  took us across about 3/4 the width of the country and turned out to be a bit of a crank. We passed through Bourges where the Gothic Cathedral St. Etienne was a must see. It was, and is yet another one that's gradually being scrubbed down and sandblasted for that world of difference. Good economic sense, too, because these artistic and engineering marvels are tourist (money) magnets, an updated version of the old days, when they were pilgrim (money) magnets.

We liked this painting on one of the buildings that we passed:

Cathedral St. Etienne:

What took us out of the way and consumed a chunk of slower driving time was a side trip to Vezalay, a World Heritage Site for its 12th century Basilica of St. Mary Magdalene. It is "...one of Europe's largest and best-preserved Romanesque churches." It houses a bone fragment relic of Mary herself, which we did not see. Powerful stuff. This basilica is ALSO in the process of getting an inside/outside deep cleaning, with the inside mostly finished. Actually, this style of exterior has a certain charm with its centuries of soot, black mold and greenish and yellowish lichens coating it. But those charms also serve to bury the intricacies of the architectural details, so rub-a-dub scrub it is.

Basilica of St. Mary Magdalene:

Well, a bothersome occurrence has been refusal of our credit card at toll booths beginning in Toulouse. It was a manned booth and the attendant said "no good" in sign language (i.e., a brusque shake of the head). This Chase-issued card had worked fine at other manned and automatic toll stations and for other purchases even that morning. We tried another card, this one a full blown European style "chip and pin" card just issued by USAA that had also been working fine. Received even more brusqueness, only this time with a scowl thrown in. We tried again after Toulouse but finally got tired of holding other cars up and turned to just using bills and coins. What can you say? It's not like we haven't been going to church, or something. 

It seems rain may be in the offing. Starting from Dijon we began encountering low hanging dark clouds above which were tremendous, towering cumulus clouds, light suffused and of the whitest white. Seen through our car's glass roof the effect was pure high def. Later, after sunset,there was lightning and finally some shower activity in the few miles before Mulhouse. Three nights in Mulhouse gives a chance to see the sights in the Alsace region, perhaps partaking of another tasting of spectacular wines, made more spectacular the more they're tasted. California eat your heart out.

Taken through the roof:

By the way, apologies to Willie (not Willy) Nelson for the typo. Must have been these sparkling wine bubbles at work.