Lentils, lace, and Madonnas

On Sunday, we went to Le Puy-en-Velay, a small town about an hour from Clermont-Ferrand.  This town is known for its lentils (all the cooking magazines tell their readers to buy Lentils de Puy for the best results!) and for its lacemaking (http://www.ladentelledupuy.com/index_uk.php) which is done by weaving threaded bobbins back and forth across pins on a pillow.  Although it is very complicated, the stores in Le Puy-en-Velay sell lace-making kits for tourists like me who think, "Oh, I'd like to try that."  Since I don't need another quickly-to-be-abandoned craft project (I've been knitting the same scarf for two years), I decided not to purchase the kit, but I'm still intrigued by the process.

Le Puy-en-Velay is also the home to several unusual religious sites and icons.  The town served as an early base for pilgrimages to Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle, when the bishop Godescalc encouraged the pilgrimage in 951.  The main cathedral is home to one of the Black Madonnas, a 17th-century copy of an earlier statue.  The cathedral is connected to a 12th-century cloister with restored painted walls and amazing carved cornices.

East gallery of the cloister.  The crucifixion scene was painted in the first part of the 13th century and was restored in the 1950s.  The room is also known as the "chapel of the dead," and the tombstones of canons from 1339 to the French Revolution rest along the other walls.

The most distinctive feature of the town, though, is the three volcanic "necks" or outcroppings on which chapels and statues were constructed.  We did not go to the Sanctuary of St. Joseph, seen here in the distance:

Instead, we saved our energy for climbing the 268 steps to the Chapel of Saint Michel.  This chapel was built in 962, and has hand-painted frescos inside similar to those in the cloister.

Exterior of Chapel of St. Michel

The chapel is on top of that rock in the foreground.

The view from Chapel St. Michel.  The statue at the left, on that rock, is ...

... Notre-Dame de France.  757 meters high.  Built in 1856-1860 out of cannons melted after Napoleon III's victory at Sebastopol.

After climbing two of the three landmarks, it was time for some air conditioning. Le-Puy-en-Velay also has a nice interactive museum with a gallery for special exhibitions.  We had been told there were several Matisse paintings at the museum, but there were none.  Instead, there was a special collection of Madonna (Virgin Mary, not "Like a Virgin") paintings and sculptures on loan from the Louvre.

In the interactive wing of the museum ... a little American history. The Marquis de Lafayette was born in the Auvergne, and the museum recognizes his assistance with the American Revolution:

Only two weeks left in Clermont-Ferrand - there are still so many things to see!  Then I will catch up on my Paris sightseeing. Bonne journée!