[Gocamino] Re: [saintjames] Tour de France ends at Le Puy Today

[Stuart Thompson]

Television images from a helicopter-borne camera clearly showed today a multi-colored floral arrangement on cathedral steps.  The lighter-colored flowers spelled out "Chemin de St. Jacques en Compostele" or similar words.  Mon francais est pauvre...

Sil <sillydoll at gmail.com> wrote:Stage 19 of 21
Issoire to Le Puy-en-Velay

Le Puy-en-Velay (pop. 20,490): It's said to be the only significant
city in France that exists solely because of the extraordinary,
three-Michelin-stars-worthy site — a deep basin out of which jut
towering volcanic needles. The ancients built a temple to the god
Mercury atop the 262-foot-high Saint-Michel Rock, and the current
chapel perched there was constructed in the 11th century. The Roche
Corneille is capped by the monumental statue of Notre-Dame-de-France,
built in 1860 from 213 melted-down cannons seized during the battle of
Sebastopol and presented to Napoleon III. It's 52 feet high and weighs
110 tons. Le Puy also has its own Notre Dame, barely less spectacular
than the much more famous one in Paris.
Historical footnote
It was from Le Puy that pilgrimages to Santiago de Compostela in Spain
embarked during the early 12th century. But a vicious gang of bandits,
Les Cotereaux, came to prey on — not with — the devout medieval
tourists, wreaking havoc on the town's economy. Inspired by a vision
of the Virgin Mary, a local carpenter directed a vigilante campaign
that led to mass hangings of these nasty brigands and, eventually, to
open rebellion against French authority, too. The government was not
amused and, in turn, slaughtered them.


-- 
Sil


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