My Aunty Terry, or Sister Marie Aimee lives in Clermont-Ferrand in the community of Little Sisters of the Poor. As I wasn't able to go and see her last time I was in France I was very keen to go this time, and luckily for me, my awesome new friends Mackie and Laura were willing to come with me.
We had to catch three trains there...
....but as you can see from the smiley-smiles, this was okay because French trains are super comfortable and watching the French countryside roll by is like the prettiest thing ever!
The first port of call was the Little Sisters of the Poor where we were greeted by Aunty Terry who promptly offered us cheesecake, brownies, yogurt, fruit and almost everything else imaginable!
We then realised that I had forgotten to write down the name of the hotel.....
and the epic hike to an internet cafe began.....
....and then....
....there was a hailstorm.
Yes. That is hail. That is actual hail. And all we had were umbrellas!
And we walked and walked and walked. And it hailed and hailed and hailed. And we did not find a single internet cafe. Not one. And it was now 6pm at night.
Luckily I remembered how to attach my brain to my spinal column and realised, about three hours too late, that the name of the hotel was on my email and iphones allow access to previously received emails even if you don't have wifi access at present.
So we found the hotel... and eventually got dry.
Clermont-Ferrand excites me for two reasons.
Number One: Urban II declared the First Crusade here after the Council of Clermont in 1095. Here's a vintage happy snap of the proceedings:
And here is the big guy himself proclaiming things and rallying armies in Clermont-Ferrand outside a beautiful old church.
Number Two: Close to modern day Clermont-Ferrand, Vercingetorix (a Gaul) won a battle against the Romans (yes - actual Romans. This was a big deal, they were like, kind of a big deal back then).
Vercingetorix was a Gaulish tribal leader, who united the Gaulish tribes against the Romans. At that time the Romans in Gaul were led by Caesar, so he ultimately lost at the Battle of Alesia. He surrendered and was imprisoned for a few years and then paraded through the streets of Rome in Caesars triumph and then executed... :( For those of you familiar with the Rome TV series, it's this guy:
He kind of dies embarrassingly in the series, but I promise he is awesome. Napoleon III, when looking for French heroes to rally his people around got pretty keen on him.
Hence the epic statue of him here in the main square of Clermont-Ferrand....
It happens to be by the same sculptor who made the Statue of Liberty, Frederic Bartholdi.
Here is a close up of him without me being a fan girl.
Here are some more Vercingetorix's I found in the museum at Clermont-Ferrand which happened to be FREE today because it was the first Sunday of the month.
And here he is, hanging out with Joan of Arc. It seems they were buddies. Or at least both helpful symbols of French unity in the 19th century, when the French were not exactly united and experiencing a fair bit of political upheaval.
Dead couple...creepy!
The morning after the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre during the French Wars of Religion.
I found this one very moving.
And finally here is a happy snap of the ville itself, note the much darker colours used in the buildings, this is, my "host-dad" tells me because they are made from volcanic stone from the surrounding hills.
Until next time!
1 comment:
Looks like your summer is still very grey??? :(
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