The rental car had to be returned today so Pam found us a different way to drive to St Etienne. There was a light mist filling the valleys as we left.
On the way a stone chipped the windscreen and we were glad we took out zero excess insurance. Even so they charged us 35Euro admin. fee for making a claim. We wandered around the town but found little of interest near the station. We avoided a street where a fatality had just occurred and police were all around. The train back to Le Puy en Verlay went through another section of the Loire valley which is not accessible to cars so the scenery was good.
The town of Le Puy is much larger than La Chaise Dieu and has an interesting history. It is claimed that thousands of Jewish children were hidden here during WWII. It was crowded with tourists and it had plenty to justify this.
The dome on this building caught our eye and it drew attention to the famous alcoholic (55%) drink made here with secret ingredients - Verveine. A number of towns we have been to use the signs TOUTES DIRECTIONS to provide a common exit to the centre of the town leading to specific directional signs further away. Seems a good idea. We climbed the hill to Notre Dame Cathedral which dominated the centre of the town below.
We walked to the bottom of the steps to climb up to the statue of Mary nursing Jesus made from 200+ canons melted down but decided not to pay for tickets. The whole thing was covered in scaffolding, but you could still climb up inside it. It was billed as France's Statue of Liberty. We heard later that the designer committed suicide after being lambasted for putting Jesus on the wrong arm of Mary. Mother and son would be horrified by that no doubt. The third monument in the town was the other Mont Saint Michel. A church dedicated to the archangel Michael sitting on top of a tall volcanic plug to deter Hagar the Horrible and the like.
This time we paid the small fee and climbed the many steps for a great view of the city. The church was quite small inside but highly regarded.
As we came back down into the town looking for a cafe we stumbled on a shop where a large machine was making lace ribbon. This lady was demonstrating the traditional skill which made the region famous.
She could hold a conversation, looking you in the eye, while following a complex pattern. The only bus left at 6.20 and being a railway bus took us home in 70 minutes on the flash of our Eurail Pass.
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