What you have here is your archtypical French small town hotel, pretty much as it was a century ago. Not that the facilities are totally out of date, particularly in the modern annex which is to be preferred they're just fine, but the atmosphere is that of an establishment intended for commercial travelers and farm families coming into town on market days. Those folks expect their money's worth and they get it here. A double room can be had for under seventy dollars for the night, on weekdays there is a rich, wholesome Auvergnat three course prix fixe for $20. Brioude is a bustling market town, if you get there on a market day it's great fun to check out the flea market; it's mostly junk of course, but the occasional treasure lurks in wait. The twelfth century Romanesque church is remarkable in that the interior has been repainted in the original, fierce, almost gaudy reds and blues instead of the sterile white that characterizes so many old churches. One gets a real feeling for what a medieval church interior looked and felt like. Some five miles from Brioude one can visit the twelfth century abbey of Lavaudieu which has splendid Romanesque frescoes.
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