Yesterday we drove 30 minutes west to Avallon, primarily to check out the carved portal of its church. The drive was beautiful and there were hardly any other cars on the road, which was what we were hoping it would be like here! The countryside and villages we've seen so far look a lot like England. In fact, as we drove through one village, which had old stone houses on either side and a roundabout in the middle, David said he felt the instinct to drive on the left for the first time in months!
One of the best parts of the drive was seeing the TGV (super-fast train) zoom through the countryside! We are only 10 miles from a station here, and it's thrilling to think how fast it could zip us to Paris or the south. David plans to park next to the tracks sometime with his camera and watch it go by.
The town of Avallon was larger than we expected and we had some trouble finding a place to park, mainly because it was market day. It's a pretty town, with a nice shopping street that leads under a 15th-century clock tower, past the 12th-century church, and out onto a tree-lined platform that overlooks a wooded valley.
The church (Eglise St-Lazare) was mostly built in the 1100s and is large and attractive. Both its name and its funding came from its claim to have a piece of the skull of St. Lazarus (the man Jesus raised from the dead).
The interior has nice architecture and an unusual raised porch, but otherwise isn't terribly interesting.
The church's main attraction is the west portal, which has multiple concentric arches (called archivolts) filled with sculptures of flowers, angels, zodiac signs, and the Labors of the Months. Some are quite badly weathered, but still fantastic!
Leo the Lion, Cancer the Crab, and Gemini the Twins as you've probably not seen them before! The Gemini Twins are often shown embracing in medieval art; I don't know why.
This probably represents the element of Air, but possibly the wind, or maybe a bad morning after a night in the alehouse!
Labors of the Months and zodiac signs for December: collecting wood, warming by the fire, and Capricorn the Sea Goat.
Crazy, curvy stone column that looks like iron rings.
For lunch we had delicious "Al Capone" burgers, with grilled onions and an herby secret sauce, at a sandwich place near the clock tower.
