Vézelay

Following the river Cure towards Vézelay   feels like being in the French version of the Cotswolds. The gentle countryside is interspersed with small, well maintained villages and lovely manor houses, except of course here there are the vines, which give us the delicious Chardonnay of this region.

Vézelay rises majestically, the village clustering around the monastery, where the remains of Mary Magdalene reputedly lie, the original reason for its fame. The monastery is one of the great buildings of the middle ages, sublime in its simplicity, superb in its execution, a true work of art. It was from here that the third crusade started, and it is one of the starting points for the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, the St Jacques shell on the façade reminding us of this.