Known primarily for its crazily huge (and, let's face it, marginally tacky) red statue of the Virgin Mary, Le Puy is a surprisingly lovely little town. I get the feeling it's not on many people's radar as a big tourist spot, though apparently, perhaps thanks to our giant friend Notre-Dame de France, it does attract a lot of religious visitors each year.
Some friends had day-tripped au Puy a little while ago, so I knew it was a feasible destination from Saint-Etienne. Getting there actually proved to be a little more turbulent than I would have liked; Claire and I were on an almost empty train, but towards the end of the voyage a crazy guy plopped down next to me and across from Claire and started making very strange snorting noises. He was quite an invader of personal space, elbowing me repeatedly and sticking his legs out entirely under Claire's seat, forcing me to cram up against the window and Claire to sit with her legs curled up under her. I also got the distinct impression he hadn't bathed in a few months, but since I was trapped in the window seat we couldn't move... and his level of crazy was high enough that I don't think he'd have taken it kindly if we'd asked him to. At any rate, we suffered through the last 30 minutes of the train ride before arriving in Le Puy, where we told ourselves it could only get better from there.
And get better it did! Friends of a friend live in Le Puy and had invited me to come visit them, so we planned to get some lunch. Claire and I met up with Stephan and Laurence near where they work, and we headed to one of their favorite restaurants nearby. I realized when it came time for dessert that I hadn't had a chocolat liégeois perhaps since I first came to France in September, so when Laurence decided she'd have dessert I thought I might as well indulge as well. One bite of molten frozen chocolate heaven and I was wondering what had taken me so long... then again, you get what you pay for, and a 6.50 € indulgence is not something to be consumed every day. Claire got a café liégeois, which is similar to its chocolate version except you pour a shot of espresso over it instead of melted chocolate. Yum.
But enough about dessert... It was really nice to see Stephan and Laurence again; I had met them once before when an English teacher I work with, Lilian, had shown me around Saint-Etienne in October (back before Sainté was home). They lived in Tahiti for two years with their four-year-old twin daughters and had done some traveling in the US, so they were full of awesome stories and also gave us some great tips on making the most of our day in Le Puy.
One such tip was to check out the bakeries on Rue Pannessac, which invented a pastry called "le pavé de Pannessac" and modeled them after the cobblestones, or pavés, that pave the streets. Claire and I took some would-be arty shots of the culinary pavés with a reflection of their source material in the window, as shown on the right. You'd think our earlier dessert binge would have given us pause, but no! We later stopped back by this bakery and each picked out a pavé; I was feeling adventurous and opted to try the verveine version, since Le Puy is also known for historically manufacturing verveine liqueur, while Claire stuck with the regular chocolate kind (a wise choice, as it turns out). They were an interesting cake-like cookie, with two macaroons surrounding the respective verveine/chocolate filling, wrapped in an outer shell of white or milk chocolate. Gotta love regional French delicacies.
We did manage to fit in some sightseeing between dessert consumptions and made our way up to the beautifully Byzantine and Roman Cathédrale Notre-Dame du Puy (shown to the right and also visible in the first picture, directly below the statue). I do love me some nice Gothic architecture, but I do admit it was a pleasant change of pace to see some colorful Byzantine influence in this cathedral. More than just the building of worship itself, the cathedral complex also comprises a pretty cloister filled with lavender and the entrance to the climb up to the giant Virgin Mary statue, both of which I managed to connive us into getting the EU-resident student price. Mwahaha. I'm pretty sure the shop lady shot us a dirty look afterwards when she heard us speaking English.
Some more photos from around Le Puy:
The view from the feet of Notre-Dame de France
Notre-Dame, up close and personal
The view from the central arch of the cathedral
All in all it was a wonderful day trip, and I'm glad I was able to drag Claire along with me. Tomorrow I'm headed to Annecy with my "student" Laura (who's on exchange au Lycée du Forez), and then next week is Avignon, Arles, Aix-en-Provence and Marseille! Hopefully I can keep up the momentum on blog posting.
au revoir!
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