The Road to Flavigny — Friday, July 8

Je suis désolée mais je ne peux pas continuer écrire en français parce que il n'y a pas le temps traduire. 

I'm so sorry, but I can no longer translate this adventure into French. There simply isn't time. It took me half a day to post the last one and I really need to break away from this computer!

Yesterday, we said goodbye to Paris. It was a long goodbye, because getting out of Paris takes some time!  From the back seat of the car, I took a few parting shots:

Note the face mask on the bicyclist above. Some people here think air pollution in Paris is a problem. They have not been to Beijing.

And then, suddenly, we were on the superhighway! All major superhighways in France are toll roads. We paid about €14 to go a distance of less than 2 hours.

 

If you want to see exactly where we're going, look on a Google map of France. You'll see highway

A6 going SE from Paris toward Dijon.

This area of France is Burgundy, or Bourgogne.

Wisconsin landscape has always seemed the epitome of sweetness for me. Burgundy is even sweeter.

Rolling hills, golden fields of wheat, white cattle in the fields.

We drove through a lovely field of windmills. I could not capture them with my camera.

We turned off A6 and drove through Semur-en-Auxois, which you'll find on the map due south of Montbard. 

Semur is a medieval town, and like so many towns and villages near here, it is surrounded by a high wall. Why? To protect them from the ENGLISH, of course!

In the next post, I'll show you more pictures of Semur — we went back there this afternoon — and of Flavigny, where we are now. Suffice it to say, when we drove into Flavigny, I felt as if I were entering a fairy tale. 

But I'll jump ahead to the evening. After a quick supper in the garden at home, we got back in the car and drove to Précy-sous-Thil for a concert. The drive took us along 2-lane roads, more sweet pastoral scenes and woods, and up to a castle high on a hill.

The view from the top of the hill was lovely.

Across from the entrance to the castle grounds — closed now — are the ruins of an ancient church. No doubt, this is where the workers at the castle came to worship centuries ago. It was what they refer to as a "collegiate" church. 

You can see, in the photo below, that chairs were set up in front of the red doors of the church. Look how old the trees are!

We are here for a concert of "Ornette Project," with reference to Ornette Coleman. One of the three musicians in this group is Jean Gaudy, son-in-law of my hosts, Jean and Nicole. It was to be their first public performance!

We were a little early. I strolled around for another look:

We sat in the front row and waited for the concert to begin. Here is Jozef, grandson of Jean and Nicole, exploring his mother's camera. His mother, Claire Jachymiak, is a professional photographer.

And then the musicians came out. The concert began. Here — You can listen to some of their music:

http://musiquedanse-auxoismorvan.fr/ballades-concert-ornette-project-08-juillet-collegiale-de-thil/

These three members of the band are all classical musicians. This is what they do to be creative on their own time. After the performance of several pieces, they announced that we were all to come inside the church for some quieter acoustic music.

Here we are, filing into the interior of this place which once was a church:

And the second part of this performance began, equally creative, totally different.

People of all ages were here. Plenty of children, all totally attentive.

We went back outside for the conclusion of the evening's production. When it ended, shortly before 10:00, the sun had already set.

We went back inside after the concert to chat with the musicians. Here, on the left, you see Jean Gaudy and his son, Jozef. In the center is Claire, and on the right her parents, Jean et Nicole.

As we walked to the car, someone noticed the moon up high. Can you see it in this photo?

All of that was yesterday, Friday, July 8. It was 11:00 pm when we got home to Flavigny. I did not open my computer but immediately fell fast asleep. You would, too!