Thursday, March 23, 2000
Day Trip To Provins
Last Sunday P. drove us out to Provins for the afternoon, as it was beautifully sunny and almost warm. It has a perfectly preserved medieval fortress. The original town centre is extremely old and most of the houses have a plaque indicating their historic interest. Joan of Arc attended mass in the cathedral there! The primary and intermediate schools are right in the middle of the old quarter - how lovely to be able to go to school surrounded by so much history!
The children were fascinated by the stocks (or pillory?) in the old town square, comprising a narrow, black cage-like structure atop a seemingly bottomless well. There was also a posse of Harley Davidson motorbikes and their leather-clad riders parked in the centre. P. admired them very much and says he would like to get a motorbike licence. I think he's half, or even three-quarters serious!
In the summer Provins will be crawling with tourists, as they hold costume parades and jousting tournaments, eagle and falconry shows, etc. it's very famous. It was a 45 minute drive there, through some very pretty green farmland. On the way we passed a village called Lourpe, which I think sounds like a tremendous burp! Before going home we walked a little way along the ramparts for a spectacular view, but I didn't really see that much, as it was very high up and I was trying to stop those nimble and over-excited little children of mine from jumping over the safety barriers.
The children were fascinated by the stocks (or pillory?) in the old town square, comprising a narrow, black cage-like structure atop a seemingly bottomless well. There was also a posse of Harley Davidson motorbikes and their leather-clad riders parked in the centre. P. admired them very much and says he would like to get a motorbike licence. I think he's half, or even three-quarters serious!
In the summer Provins will be crawling with tourists, as they hold costume parades and jousting tournaments, eagle and falconry shows, etc. it's very famous. It was a 45 minute drive there, through some very pretty green farmland. On the way we passed a village called Lourpe, which I think sounds like a tremendous burp! Before going home we walked a little way along the ramparts for a spectacular view, but I didn't really see that much, as it was very high up and I was trying to stop those nimble and over-excited little children of mine from jumping over the safety barriers.
# posted by Antipodeesse @ 5:36 pm 
