More from Flavigny ... ET... Le Marché aux Puces! Sunday, July 10

More photos from beautiful Flavigny ... from a Sunday morning walk:

 Inside the church (much smaller than the cathedral in Semur) the statue of St. Martin... or what's left of him.

 

The main gate to the city, from outside the wall:

And the same gate as seen from the inside in the morning:

The photo below was an accident, much like when I take a picture of my foot or my knee. But see the man in the window, about to shake out his rug? A moment later he called out, Bon Jour! I didn't know I had taken his picture until I got home.

Note the vista in the background:

Look at the shape of the lower windows in the building on the right in the photo below.  Just like the ones at the home of Jean and Nicole.

The flowering bush below gives out a very strong perfume to please the passerby.

 Look at the tiny flowers growing out of the rock wall!

Hollyhocks and roses are ubiquitous. They remind me of my grandmother.

The gate below is not the main gate but it looks like an important one. There are two gates, two walls, one inside the other. From inside the village, first you come to one gate, only part of the wall remaining.

And then, when you pass under that first gate, you see that the outer gate is flanked by two towers.

Some buildings obviously used to house animals. One can only imagine what life was like here a century ago or more.

After my little walk, we got in the car and drove to Semur for the Sunday flea market — le marché aux puces.

I loved it. Brought me back to Lawrence, Michigan, in the early 1970s. Lots of good stuff!

Look! Here's a dictaphone:

And knives with exquisitely tooled sheaths. I admired the second from the left, and turned it over to see the price.  €70 !

It's a good thing I could not drive to France, or I would have been sorely tempted!

Jean and Nicole bought four handsome old chairs, beautiful wood. Jean said they had probably been used in a bistro. 

Here in France, these chairs are not considered antiques. The term antiquités is reserved for valuable items from many centuries in the past. These chairs are simply brocantes, just second-hand stuff. But they sure are nice!

After lunch and a nap, Nicole and I walked a few blocks to check out the old abbey, used today for making anis candies. Flavigny is famous for this delicacy.

We got some free samples. Oh, yes! Mmmm!

I was delighted to see that Jean and Nicole's daughter, Claire, has her photos of the candy-making process on display here.

 We walked through the ruins of the abbey, just through the parts that are not used for the production of candy.

On our walk back home, Nicole pointed up to the rafters above a little alcove. I couldn't at first see what she saw, and then....  (imagine here that you're looking up at the ceiling)  ...  See, on the left, three teeny little birds' heads popping out of a clay nest?  And on the right an adult bird. These are the beloved hirondelles. Swallows, in English.

The saying, in French, is:  Une hirondelle ne fait pas le printemps.  Just one swallow does not mean it's spring.

Back at home, I was curious about two little doors, low on the wall both in front of the house and in the back. Turns out both doors lead down to the cellar. What's in the cellar? I got a tour, and saw an excellent collection of tools, a fine workshop, a dark room, and all the stuff we'd keep in a basement. 

Here's Nicole climbing up the back stairs out of the cellar toward the garden:

This may be my last post for a while. There may not be access to the internet for the next few days. Tomorrow, we'll be off to take a look at Dijon, and then I'll say goodbye to Jean and Nicole and hop a train for Franche-Comté.  À bientôt.