D15 sancerre to le guetin

We had a spot of accommodation booking malarchy yesterday. Having secured a night just in the right place at a promising chambre d'hotes via email ( b and b) the woman of the operation rang to confirm the arrangements whilst 20minutes later the man rang to cancel. Hmmm I have married friends who don't know what each other are planning but in a commercial operation it's a little unprofessional - anyway I was determined not to be put off our stride and in the absence of any more conventional accommodation tried air b and b to discover Jerome and son ' petit bayou'. Accommodation solved we could enjoy the ride - lunch stop at La Charitie being the undoubted highlight of the

day. In a rare glimpse into the medieval institutional world of Christianity in a direct line of communication with the Carolinigian era (see Orleans to Sully) the great monastic centre of Cluny (where we are headed in South Burgundy) established this church second only to Cluny in the scale of religious edifices in Europe. Opened in 1129 the Pope who attended was said to have witnessed a miraculous healing the same day. It subsequently became an important staging post on central France an route to Compostella hence the name of Charitie. The have by my down in the 1500s so we are only looking at the choir with domestic houses i  the shores up remains of the ruined nave. A surviving typanum of the transfiguration communicated to me vividly something of this medieval God gearing world

The afternoon took us to our very own boat for an unusual air bnb!