We arrived in Autun with quite high expectations of a grand City, the aire in Autun overlooks a large ornamental lake and park area, everything looked pristine, the grassed area was being cut. The cemetery to the rear of the aire was having a new path laid, our first impression was that of a City that takes great pride in its space.
The aire is very large and could easily accommodate 40+ motorhomes. We parked between two vans, using the demarcation lines as guidance. Given how much space was available on the car park both ourselves and our neighbour were horrified when in the early evening a small campervan wedged itself between us and them. In fact, so close to our neighbour that they could not physically get into their habitation door, Luigi (more on that later), had to shuffle his vehicle across a few feet so that they could get into their campervan, ridiculous!
Tuesday afternoon Lina took a nap, whilst I walked down to the lake, she was not feeling so well, still recovering from her overindulgence of a “McFlurry”. I sat for a while, watching a group of school children trying to master the art of sailing, whilst a grandfather was instructing his grandson on the skills of fishing. Later that evening we both took a stroll around the lake, the whole area has been designed with recreation in mind. Outdoor gymnasiums can be found along the path, a large sports complex with indoor and outdoor pools, volleyball, “childrens” cycle tracks, skateboard arena along with the usual watersports. A really nice set up, we sat by the lake for a while just watching the world go by. On the way back to Maurice we came across an ancient Roman amphitheatre, one of a substantial size and simply open for everybody to walk over. On our return to Maurice, we sat outside enjoying the evening sunshine. There is a large Military School that sits in the grounds above the cemetery, occasionally the sound of mass singing would drift down the hillside.
Early Wednesday morning the campervan, that had squeezed itself in beside us, extracted itself and departed, making our neighbour even more angry because he had moved just to allow them to park for a few hours. This started a series of actions between ourselves as we tried to communicate between each other, eventually google translate came to the fore. It turn out that we were talking with Luigi and Josiane Rossi. Luigi Rossi is French but it was no surprise to find out he had Italian parents. He doesn’t speak English, only French, Italian and German. They live in the Alsace department and Luigi was adamant that we should try and learn French. He asked to exchange phone numbers and since then we have received Whatsapp messages trying to encourage us to learn, don’t know how long it will last but we will try!
Autun holds a market on Wednesday mornings so we nous avons fait nos adieux to Luigi and Josiane (gave our goodbyes) and headed into the City. The streets were deserted, all the houses shut up, it was like walking through a ghost town. We eventually reached St Lazarus square in front of the Cathedral, but still did not see anybody. A quick look at google maps, how we ever coped before the internet I do not know – finding our way to the Town Hall. Autun is a large City but its centre is quite uninspiring. Many shops stand empty and boarded up, the market in the town hall consisted of a fruit and veg stall and a local cheese stall, outside was a flower stall together with one clothes stall, not so impressive! The tourist office gave us the obligatory map explaining that the most interesting points could be found outside of the old City walls. We walked back to the Cathedral, it houses relics believed to have come from Lazarus of Bethany, which promotes many pilgrims to visit. The interior of the Cathedral has very clean lines and the column capitals provide very realistic sculptures telling some of the dramatic scenes from the bible.
Lunch was beckoning, so we returned to Maurice via an ALDI store and spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the sunshine. It was whilst sitting at the back of Maurice, overlooking the lake, that I noticed a plant growing near to the roadside. I am no expert but from its distinctive shape I think it might be something more than just a weed, if you get my drift!
From our vantage point we could see in the distance what looked like a huge pile of stones, sticking up through the trees. Our map informed us that it is a historical monument called Pyramide de Couhard. Sign posts suggested it was a 20 minute walk, so before tea we hiked up the hill and through the woods to the clearing where the pyramid stands. A very strange sight, it is literally a pile of stones, exploratory excavations have revealed nothing, nobody really knows the purpose of the pyramid. Perhaps this was the first instance of somebody building a stone pillar that just got out of hand. There was one advantage of walking to the pyramid, we had a marvellous view across the valley to the City of Autun. We found it difficult to get a handle on Autun, a very modern city on the outskirts, the old City walls and Cathedral provide you with an insight into life hundreds of years ago, whilst Roman remains show evidence of their occupation in France during the reign of Emperor Augustus. Autun was a useful stopping point on our route home, not sure that we would return to this City again.
Maurice on Manoeuvres 