A pilgrimage to Arcy-Sur-Cure

We set out for our 'pilgrimage' after seeing a fine view of a hot air balloon at 8am in the morning hanging low over the canal at Mailley le Ville

I've been a bit obsessed by reading books about walking recently.  It started off with Patrick Leigh Fermors travel writing (wow!) then of course I had to read the follow up 80 years after of the epic walk from the Hook of Holland to Constantinople by Nick Somebodyorother.  I've so far managed to avoid Robert Mc Farlaine's books as they are about UK walking and I always feel I want something a little more exotic. I've read a few about the walks to Santiago de la Compostella, prompted by our visits to Northern Spains Paradors a few years ago and just now I am reading a book about a man on a lesser known route from Canterbury to Rome.

Hand

Anyhow, in a small way, I wanted to do a longish walk through some of these empty Burgundy hills following the course of the River Cure. We set of by bike to the village of Sery on the banks of the Nivernais Canal, parked and chained the bikes by the church and followed the 'Voie Anciene de Aggrippa' a straight (ish) path through woods and fields to the Village of Arcy sure Cure and from there to the Grottes d'Arcy, where I had heard there were cave paintings that were 28 000 years old.

Elephant

It took us most of the day about 18km in all, with a few set backs when we tried a short cut to caves and found ourselves on a cliff!  In Arcy sur Cure we had views of two splendid chateaux. One with crumbling medieval vine covered turrets set back on a wooded hill, the other a Renaissance building behind high walls at the edge of the village. Unfortunately I forgot to charge my phone so no photos.

Thankfully we had taken a picnic as, of course, there were no shops or cafes open en-route.  Even the caves only had a few cans of fizzy drinks at the back of a fridge (we bought the last bottle of Badoit) horror of horrors no tea! not even herbal, and only Expresso coffee in egg cup sized plastic cups!

Lovely countryside 

The tour guide at the caves was a young girl, absolutely lovely, very enthusiastic and she spoke so fast that I did not understand a single word.  Like most French tour guides, she went on a bit longer that necessary.  Very kindly she flung in a few words of English after every 15 minutes or so of furiously fast French. Julian did not hear the English either, so he had it third hand whispered loudly in his ear by me, and no doubt most of the salient facts were lost in translation.  A lovely spot, great walk, feet tired by the end.



Arcy-sur-Cure, remains of château de la Cobarde followed by Chastenay Château in the village