Bourges

inside the Cathedral

Seasonal chocolates

The Marais in Bourges

Flying buttresses

Today's trip was to Bourges, in the region of Centre, about an hour from where we are staying.  Bourges is another medieval city on a hill, now larger than any of the other places we have visited so far.  We parked in an underground lot near the cathedral, very convenient to the tourism office.  I'm always inclined to take the first available spot upon entering a city, but Jake prefers to find where we want to go first and then park, and in this case it was a great parking job.  We were able to go back to the car a few times to make sure we'd locked it and then to retrieve the umbrella.  There was a light rain most of the day, but a little warmer than it has been.

We first visited the cathedral, a most impressive one with 13^th and 14^th c. stained glass windows, a lunar clock built by a French mathematician, and huge flying buttresses.  We also visited the museum of exceptional French artisans which had a display of marquetry that really was amazing.  Most were marquetry as wall hangings rather than furniture pieces.  My favorite was one of dragonflies, the wings done in shell, flying over a marsh.   Sorry, no photos allowed in that exhibit!  By then it was noon and everything (museums, shops) were closed until 2pm.  So we found a place for lunch on a little plaza.  Jake was adventurous and ordered the Andouillette 5A.  This is not the sausage from Spain, but rather a tripe sausage served with mustard.  I got a salad with toasted goat cheese.  The waiter did graphically make sure Jake knew what he was ordering.  I tried a piece and found it too strong, but Jake managed to eat at least half of it.  The waitress explained that the 5A meant that it was produced by an andouillete artisans cooperative, #5.  Other numbers taste different.

After lunch we walked over to the Marais, or former swamp, now a lovely suburb of houses with large gardens and a lot of canals.  Then we walked back into town for the reopening of the rest of the museums.  Several are free, so we didn't feel obliged to spend loads of time in them.  One was a medieval house with different furnished rooms from various time periods.  It had some interesting art and furniture.  Another is a more modern art museum in an old house featuring some particular artist whose work we did not find terribly interesting.  There are lots of stores in the old part of town from H&M to fancy chocolatiers (see photo of the amazing autumn chocolate selection!).  Not being in much of a shopping mood though we finished our walk and left for home.

We were hoping to find some gourmet soup for lunch, and then for dinner, but no menus in Bourge featured soup, and back in Charite we couldn't find any soup at any of the little stores in town.  We ended up buying a box of soup in the grocery store.   Bon apetit!