We were undecided as to whether, or not, we moved on today, so in the interim, we took a walk up to the village of St Florentin for some shopping, and to look around the village. The lovely people in the Tourist Information Centre were most helpful even giving us the key to explore the 16th century church, the most outstanding feature of the town.
We took the large key, climbed the stairs leading to the summit and proceeded the unlocking of the ancient door. Even from an untrained eye the interior of the parish church is quite stunning. What power and influence religion had back in those times!
After our cultural hit we decided we needed to visit the patisserie for the weekly(!) mille-feuille, plus the daily baguette.
We wandered around the village, taking in the medieval part of the town, visited the garden/viewing area to get a perspective as to why the village was built where it now stands. There is only one tower of the village’s defensive ramparts remaining.
It was getting close to lunch time so we though we would leave for Tonnerre for lunch. At Tonnerre I walked around to the Hotel Dieu, the hospital built in the 13th century. The invalid ward is one of the oldest and biggest hospital monuments of medieval France. The building took three years and was finished in 1293. Its proportions are imposing - it is 101 meters long (today 90 m after the 18th century modifications), 18, 50 m wide and almost 20 m high..
We left Tonnerre mid afternoon for our overnight stop in the village of St Rémy, a little way from Montbard. We are now in the Côte d’Or Department of Burgundy.
Absolutely fascinating 4 storey home in white and black, wow, would love to have seen the inside of this place. Church is magnificent, all that stained glass!! Hard to believe that folk live in these old buildings - lovely xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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