27 January 2015

Montréal en Bourgogne

« ...ce petit bourg compte parmi les plus caractéristiques de Bourgogne » — "...this little town is one of the most distinctively Burgundian villages in character." That's from the Michelin guide. The name is Montréal, and it doesn't have much to do with the city in Canada except the coincidence of its name. The village was known as « mont régalis » — the royal mountain — as early as the 1100s.


The royal personage connected to this Montréal was the Burgundian queen named Brunehaut a.k.a. Brunehilde, who reigned in the 6th century. She was a Visigoth princess born in Spain who became a Frankish queen when she married king Sigebert 1er, a direct descendent of the great king Clovis, in 566. She lived to be nearly 70 years old and died by execution in the year 613. One thing I read said that Brunehaut was not popular and that she has not been treated kindly by historians.


Anyway, all that is ancient history. Brunehaut supposedly loved the place now called Montréal. So did we. As you will see from my photos, between Époisses and Montréal the clouds suddenly cleared off and we had a sunny, fairly warm afternoon. Callie finally got to spend some time out of the car.


We parked down below the old town, in front of the post office. We took a few photos and had a look at the Monument aux Morts before walking through what is called La Porte d'En-Bas (the lower gate) up into the older part of the town. This was last October 23.


As the Michelin guide says, « ...l'ensemble du village est parfaitement entretenu. » — the whole village is beautifully maintained. A church is located at the top of the town, and there are fine views over very green fields and hills from up there. More to come...

16 comments:

  1. Montreal does look very nice. I am curious about the post office agency doubling as a tourist bureau. I wonder how an English speaking tourist would be received wanting some tourism information?

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    1. He/she would be sent back to his/her country of origin special delivery, I guess!

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    2. So many more people in France speak English now than in past decades... But it's always better to be able to speak French. How would a French-speaking tourist fare in Australia or the U.S.?

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    3. Bonjour

      Avec un billet d'avion "sec" :-)

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    4. A French only speaker in my Australian city would be quickly bolting for http://www.afmelbourne.com.au/ , which sends me an advertisement for French language classes every time I use google translate for a French word or sentence. A French only speaker in Australia should look for an old Vietnamese person, or one of our many Mauritian born.

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  2. Replies
    1. Everything was so pretty that afternoon when the sun came out from behind the clouds.

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  3. Brunehaut feud with Frédégonde is well known to French school children. Two lovely ladies!

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    1. Yes, I read about that. Brunehaut was tortured and then executed. Whatever happened to Frédégonde? And those names....

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    2. Those "old" names were a mouthful when you are a child learning about L'Histoire . As far as the two ladies ( I guess one was not a lady) , here is a nice article:
      http://www.liberation.fr/cahier-special/2008/07/26/fredegonde-brunehaut-et-ta-belle-soeur_77068

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    3. Thanks, Beaver. I'll enjoy reading that.

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  4. Great names :) My students always love Ingebourg (Philippe Auguste's wife for a while, sister of the Danish King)... and, then, there's Berengaria, Richard the Lionhearted's wife.

    Montréal looks lovely!

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    1. I'm really glad we decided to drive to Montréal. It wasn't much of a plan, just a spur-of-the-minute thing.

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  5. beautiful! and i love seeing the sunshine.
    :-)

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    1. I remember that afternoon as exceptionally sunny and nice.

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  6. http://www.montreal-en-bourgogne.com/

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