A not entirely restful rest day

It was nice not to be setting sail at crack of dawn – a bit of a lie-in before getting ourselves set to play the tourist. We walked to the station close by to find we had missed the bus – the next would be an hour or so. We went in and found an oldish couple chatting at the ticket counter – not buying tickets. Eventually we cautiously intervened to ask about taxis – there were none outside – to find that the old guy was a retired taxi driver and would be delighted to take us up to the town himself. This he did in his smart Kia SUV – telling us about his visits to the Ford plant at Dagenham, and Land Rover at Solihull.  Then he refused a fare. Very welcoming.

Our first attempted visit was the church of St Martin. But it was closed. An impressive tower, though:

So on up the attractive main street:

To Diderot square:

Apart from being an attractive fortified town dating back to Roman times, Langres, later fortified by the ubiquitous Vauban under Louis XIV, has as its main claim to fame the 18^th century Enlightenment philosopher Diderot. He pervades the place. But before checking out the Enlightenment museum, we looked into the cathedral:

Pleasant and impressive gothic architecture, apparently some fine tapestries, but they were covered up, and this 14^th century sculpture:

Diana commented that depictions of near-naked Christ figures like this always seem somewhat homoerotic. However the sign on the wall did not mention this aspect, deeming it rather: “A masterpiece of exceptional earliness.”

On we went, passing this agreeable wall niche, before we reached the museum:

Then lots of early books etc.  Didactic in an impressive French way. Here’s the famous Encyclopedia Diderot helped edit.

We had a good lunch in the Grand Hotel of Europe (actually not so grand), starting with a local speciality called Ouyette, which is a kind of pasty made with apples and goose confit, and was delicious. Apparently it is a dish resurrected from the middle ages. Diana then had snails and I had an andouillette, which was very nice. We finished up with delicious local Langres cheeses. I don’t think much supper will be required!

Back to the boat by taxi – paying this time – to spend the rest of a rather hot afternoon relaxing on the quayside on deck chairs in the shade of trees. Here is a view of the countryside from the ramparts:

Tomorrow off early to Chaumont: one of the few sections of manual locks on the canal. Should be interesting.