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Wednesday, May 29th - social visits in Migennes
Yesterday in Auxerre, we stopped at the tourist information office and picked up a brochure on the attractions in this region of France. Almost every town shown has multiple attractions or events, every town, that is, except Migennes. In a country where every small village has historic buildings and fine restaurants, Migennes has none. To take pictures here is a waste of film. The buildings are modern and drab, lower class industrial housing and the type of formless one-level retail strips one can find in most small Canadian towns. The only memorable feature, other than a canal that passes by the town (without paying it any mind, it seems) is that there are speakers on the telephone poles piping out disco music which I find bizarre and amusing.
I sneak into the bathroom before Mike or Christian stir. By the time I emerge Christian is doing last night's dishes in the kitchen. We rouse Mike, share a continental breakfast of rolls and jam and then hit the road by car to Auxerre. Christian shows us many of the attractions we have already seen yesterday, as well as a few more, before returning to Migennes to have lunch at his father's house. His father lets us sample several of his fine wines, aperitifs and liqueurs which he has made himself, while Christian buys groceries for dinner.
Christian returns and takes us to Annie's 5-room snail packing plant where we get to
see how they are cleaned, stuffed and packed. We tour every room but the freezer. It's interesting, and definitely different from looking at yet another cathedral.
Next, we visit the home of his mother and her lover, who drinking with his two brothers and a sister-in-law, each of whom offer us beer. People here don't seem to work much, but then I neither do I at the moment. In the early evening, we stop in to meet his other brother Sylvan and his family where we are offered more food and drinks. I spend most of the visit trying to catch what is being said while stroking the family's pet rat. Back at Christian's, he makes us another bedtime dinner, consisting mostly of escargots. Enough already with the escargots, my insides are telling me. It's our third dinner of them in four days. After dinner, Mike wants to watch a video from Christian's collection of movies, a stupid French sit-com called "Rabbi Jacob Goes to Paris", which he remembers from his childhood. It is mildly funny at points, but it keeps us up past midnight when we need to be out the door by 7:30am tomorrow.
PHOTO 1: Auxerre riverscape
PHOTO 2: an art installation in Auxerre that spins around
PHOTO 3: Mike and Christian with Auxerre behind
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