Saturday. May 14, 2022 - Noyers - The Second Plus Beau Village of the Day

 Noyers - the name means "walnuts" and it's not clear how this Plus Beaux Village got its name.It's 38 km from Vézalay, less than a half-hour's drive.  

Noyers is half an hour northeast of Vézalay

It's claim to fame is it medieval city center with cobblestone streets and half-timbered houses. It is like walking on a movie set. The medieval town is small, one main street with houses on each side and a street outside the city walls that follows the Serein River for a few blocks. 

We meandered down the main street of cobblestones, the scooter bouncing me along but not complaining about the uneven road surface. 

The pediment above this door says 1776.

I just liked this old door.

The Mairie of Noyers - a Renaissance building

I feel like I should be in Stratford-on-Avon in England, talking to Shakespeare.

Every village and city seems to have a spring Vide-Grenier - garage sale, literally, empty the attic sale

looking through the town gate

the town gate

We turned into an alley leading down to the river and walked along the river going out of town. At the end there was a sign for the castle. We already know that the castle was completely dismantled by Henry II in 1599. It is, at best, the site of an archeology dig to find the walls. Dave wants to check it out (of course). Janis and Clark would prefer an ice cream back in town. So I went with Dave to see what was there. Well, you must go up 300 steps and then there are paths through the woods (and no markings). But there are really good views over the town. It was a long wait until Dave came back down to report his findings. 

reconstructed partial wall

stabilized ruins

view of the countryside

the church

the town

looking over the town

working on discovering the wall

here's the start of the 300 steps

Back down, Clark drove home because Dave was tired from his adventure. We ate out at our local Commarin restaurant, le Ban Bourgogne. We made the mistake of sitting on the terrace where there were thousands of gnats trying to get into our wine. But the food was really good. I had confit of duck and Dave had the chicken epoisse (that's a kind of  local cheese). Both were delicious. 

Janis, Clark, Lynn with our wine

confit of duck

chicken époisse (a really yummy local cheese)

I've been on the lookout for good examples of pollarded trees. Have a look: 

how the branches grow out on a pollarded tree - multiple branches grow out of each stub; the branches then get long. 

this tree looks dead - unsuccessful pollarding?

lots of little branches come out of the stubs of the pollarded trunks and make a lot of shade

pollarded trees that have also been trimmed to look like little rectangles. all very symmetric

Tomorrow is something very different - we're going back to the time of the Gauls and Julius Caesar.