Charles de Gaulle, Vezelay

We arrived around noon at Paris-CDG and headed to National to pick up the car that I had booked through AutoEurope.com. Picking up the keys was a breeze, and for once the car rental agents didn't try to rip us off with insurance etc. We fired up the Nuvi with our newly acquired France SD card and headed out onto the open road with our TDCI Ford Focus wagon. I was immediately impressed by the torquey engine, good brakes (as good as the subie or better) and decent handling. Why doesn't Ford sell car like this in the states? Oh yes, because Americans would prefer 8 mpg to 40 mpg.



we drove to Vezelay, checked into the Hotel Poste et Lion d'Or and explored the town a bit. Vezelay is perched on a hilltop from which you can see for miles. The voting posters were up on metal stands near the town hall with pictures of all of the candidates. They varied from the somber picture of Jose Bové in a crowd of people -- the sun setting somewhere off camera in front of him, to the model headhost of Segolene Royal, to LePen flipping off someone who had just taken his parking space
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The church was very... churchlike.
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Being the picture of decorum, I loudly clomped down the stone steps to the crypt and much to my embarrassment realized that there was a monk praying there!
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Outside of the church, there is a lovely "balcone" with flowering horse chestnuts and beautiful stone walls


and we wandered around until the sun began to set











We had an excellent meal and stumbled up to our suite. A busload of Japanese tourists was also staying in the hotel and one as I walked past the front desk, I saw the somewhat comical scene of a drunk japanese salaryman loudly and insistently trying to teach the confused desk clerk how to say goodnight in Japanese: "Oh YAAAH SOOO MEEEEE NAAA SAIII".