Jeannine & Roger's French Cheese Odyssey

Polignac - 26th June

Living proof of the climate; even when I take my jandals off, they are still on!

Today these hardy jandals climbed up the Rocher Saint-Michel d’Aiguilhe.
That translates to St. Michael of the Needle, which is a chapel reached by 268 steps carved into the rock. It was built in 969AD on a volcanic plug 85 metres (279 ft) high. Bishop Godescalc of Le Puy-en-Velay had the chapel built to celebrate his return from the pilgrimage of Saint James.

The chapel is dedicated to the Archangel Michael, the patron of mountaintops and other high places.

The charge of 6€ each to visit is well worth it for the views, the chapel, history museum and other lower down chapels incorporated into the whole historic site visit. All except the souvenir shop that wanted 7.50€ for the tiniest jar of cooked lentils.

The following photos were taken of...
• The very small hexagonal chapel near the bottom of St Michel’s Rock

• And a smaller chapel part way up the rock

After our siesta we went to Polignac, which is known for its chateau on a volcanic mound. The small village of Polignac is not very kind to tourists, they ask that you park at the bottom of the hill and walk up to the chateau in the 34 degree heat and then want 6€ each for the visit.

They do however have a nice church. Below is Roger experimenting with taking photos of stained glass windows; it’s quite an art because the camera just wants to photograph light rays. The last photo below is my bugbear, crystal chandeliers don’t belong in an ancient church.

Last geocache of the day took us to Lavoute–sur-Loire, for a cache by an old bridge and one in a kid’s playground - why would you. The locals have an ongoing argument whether the bridge ruins in the foreground are the remains of a Roman bridge, so far the medieval fans are winning because somebody carved an 18th century date in it.

Essence of France Photo Challenge No.26 - The Loire River France is famous for its rivers that run right through the country such as the Seine, Rhone, Dordogne, Garonne and the Loire. In times past the rivers protected villages from siege, provided transport for supplies and passage, and provided water for consumption and crops.

Cheese Experience No.66 - Cheese two-ways As we wind down our holiday we are clearing our pantry stocks, so tonight’s tea was tomato soup, with a dollop of cheese and bacon lardons. For dessert we had cheese with honey puffs and strawberry jam. Very versatile cheese, it tasted good as a savoury or sweet dish.

For his adventurous rock climbing, Roger was allowed another beer from a local cafe, however the following is the result of him ordering his beer in French, English and Sign language and me ordering mine in English. I got two drinks and he got none. I earned my second drink, a geocacher from Provence saw I had found a puzzle cache yesterday that he hadn’t been able to solve let alone find and messaged me to check his answers.[Ed: For those who may be worried, Roger chased up a couple of nice pints...