April 26, 2022 - Autun

 We're heading south again today, this time to Autun.

Autun is an ancient Roman city, founded by Emperor Augustus. It was a large and prosperous city, somewhere between 30,000 and 100,000 people at its largest. Remains of city walls and 3 of the 4 entry gates still exist. There are also remains of the largest known Roman theatre and a temple to the Roman god Janus. 

It was also an important medieval city whose center still has many of its medieval buildings. Smack dab in the center and on the highest point in the town is the Cathedral of St. Lazare. (Lazarus). In the 12th century, vast numbers of pilgrims followed the holy routes to St. Jacques de Compestelle in Spain. Nearby Vezelay was one stop on this route and the bishop wanted to lure pilgrims to Autun to venerate the relics of St. Lazare. Pilgrims would increase the reputation of Autun, but also the revenue. 

Clark Hunsinger photo

Clark Hunsinger photo

Construction began in 1120 and was mostly completed by 1146, an amazingly short period of time for such an endeavor. The cathedral is known today as an example of Cluny-inspired Romanesque architecture. While the exterior has had later renovations, the interior maintains its Romanesque architecture and decoration. The relics of St. Lazarus have been removed - they were destroyed in the French Revolution. 

entrance to the nave of St. Lazare

the tympanum above the entrance to the cathedral

Equally important are the 12th century carvings on the tops of the pillars and on the tympanum (a half circular space above the door). The tympanum was saved from ruin in the French Revolution because in the early 18th century, the canons had the tympanum covered over with plaster, believing the sculpture was childish and ugly. The tympanum is signed "made by Giselbertus" about whom not much is known. His work in this cathedral, however, is considered a masterpiece of Romanesque sculpture. 

carvings on top of a column

Dave wanted to follow the walking tour of the old town from the Michelin guide. 

The Rolin museum is closed on Tuesdays

Joann shopping at a "brocante" - 2nd hand store

Clark on one of  the streets in Autun

However, the guide doesn't show all the streets and street names and there are a tangle of streets heading away from the cathedral. We started down the wrong street, which led us to the bishop's house and a small park with 3 benches where we stopped to eat our picnic lunch. 

eating lunch by the bishop's palace

where I parked the scooter for lunch

We crashed around other streets, some in the guide, some not, and finally headed back to where we'd parked our car. 

This area of France has many patterned tile roofs

Wisteria

house covered in wisteria

the parking area. Notice how the trees are sculpted to be square. Not sure why, but we see if often

Of utmost importance was finding a public toilet. The ones we had seen in the old town were closed today because they were on museum grounds and the museums are closed on Tuesdays. (Janis kept asking, does that mean people don't need to use the bathroom on Tuesdays?)

There were public toilets back at the parking lot, a little building with two doors each leading into a bathroom stall. This toilet is one that self-cleans between users, only I forgot to pay attention. There's no need to push the green and red buttons - they are simply indicators of whether the toilet is in use or being cleaned. You open the door, which turns on a light, then push the lock button from inside, do your business, wash hands and leave. Once the door closes behind you, the lock and red button engage and the toilet goes through a cleaning phase - which I can describe to you as I foolishly went in as Janis was leaving and so the door didn't close until I was inside. It then locked (and there's no way to unlock it) and began to spray water over the toilet and sink (stainless steal). The spray also hit me standing in a far corner. Then a giant fan blows air over the sink and toilet and finally, the door unlocks for the next person. Everything is dampish, including the floor (and now my pants). There's plenty of toilet paper, so I wiped off the seat and all was good. Sigh. I should have remembered how this works. This isn't my first rodeo.

We were now looking for the Roman ruins by car as they are spread out mostly on the edges of the city. We found the theater first. Rows of stone seats line the hillside of the bowl shaped depression. Fencing ringed the outside at the top of the bowl, so we could only look down into the theater. 

Next we found two of the entrance portals to the old Roman city. Impressive. 

Porte St. André 

Finally, we drove to the Temple of Janus, which Janis claimed as her own. 

ruins of the Temple of Janus (or Janis)

Time to head home for appetizers and leftovers of beef burgundy and shepherd's pie. And lots of fun reminiscences of the day and stories from long ago. Tomorrow Joann and Larry have to leave and we're going to have to find a way to entertain ourselves.  But Clark and Dave are already scheming something about wine tasting.