Louhans

I realize that we forgot to report yesterday on the Menu des Grenouilles at Cuisery. Here they are: surprisingly complete frogs not just their legs. Quite a challenge, with lots of little bones and garlic, but delicately flavoured and worth the effort.

We also had a Menu de Perches – fish and chips – just in case.

A preliminary excursion into town revealed a fascinating old place. The town hall is good-looking.

But the most unusual feature is the Grande Rue, Main Street, boasting arcades on either side with a total of 157 arches.

Plenty of shops and cafés, including the turn-of-the-century Bar St Martin, which we patronized.

But our main focus this morning was the Hôtel Dieu, established in its present form in the 18^th century as a hospital for the poor and indigent. Amazingly it continued to operate up to 1977.

It contains a remarkable pharmacy, with an extraordinary collection of porcelain and glass jars and containers for medicines. Many show moorish work by North-African migrants who moved to the south of France after being expelled from Spain.

An early wheelchair was a reminder that many of the residents will have been elderly.

The two vast wards are 8 metres high: the idea being to ensure that the volume of air was healthy. This is the women’s ward. The men’s is just as big, and between them is a chapel that the great and good of Louhans would also attend.

These were not nuns sworn to poverty, and evidently many came from wealthy families, and they did themselves pretty well. During the revolution, they temporarily ceased to be Soeurs, and became Citoyennes. The Hôtel Dieu became the Hotel de Humanité. A mediaeval carved wood Pietá was buried in the garden and eventually found by gardeners a hundred years or so ago.

This photo shows one of the last nuns climbing the stairs to their sleeping quarters.

More unexpected treats from Louhans tomorrow.