Seeing the sites in Vichy
Trip Start
Mar 14, 2010
1
14
51
Trip End
Jul 11, 2010
Vichy, Auvergne, France
Monday, May 31, 2010
Today we were served the usual French breakfast sans the yoghurt. I'm getting quite addicted to the French baguettes. We don't seem to get the same chewy crust on the ones we get at home.
After breakfast it's off to see Vichy. We started with a little tour on the tourist "train" around the city. Vichy is a spa town. There are many in France but Vichy is the biggest. Most spa towns have passed their heyday but the tour still concentrates on the many spa resorts around the town - many dating back to the Napoleonic era. The other thing Vichy is famous for is being the seat of French government during the occupation of 1940-1944. So a lot of hotels etc were converted to house government and diplomatic officials and have now reverted back to their former roles. The city itself is very elegant, with a good number of historic buildings being maintained in pristine condition.
We had lunch at a creperie. Sharon and Phil wouldn't let us eat crepes or galettes before this because they've had enough for a lifetime apparently. Anyway, having avoided crepes in Normandie and Bretagne (the home of crepes), we now have our first crepe in Auvergne. For what it's worth, no surprise but not a bad as they were made out. Not something you'd eat everyday but OK.
After lunch we went to Charroux, a medieval village that is almost perfectly preserved. There are people living in it but you'd hardly know it, it's so quiet. We spent a few hours there just strolling through looking at stuff. Headed back home after this and went back into Vichy for a pizza dinner.
