France road trip with a puppy, Part 2: Poitiers

This post is about the second stop in our 2-week drive across France. With all our travel experience to more exotic and remote locations, this trip should be a piece of cake. But I am worried, as this is the first with our new dog, a 2.5 month old Golden Retriever puppy. Everything is suddenly so much more complicated. The reservations (hotels must accept dogs), the program (no museums and cool or fancy restaurants for us) and definitely the packing! We have gone through something similar when our daughter was a baby, except now, instead of a stroller we are lugging a crate and a dog carrier, instead of diapers it's packs of indoor potty pads, instead of baby food and bottles it's puppy food and bowls. With our daughter the trips went well. Let's see how we do with the puppy.

Date: late October / early November 2012
Day 3: Poitiers (en route from Tours to La Rochelle)

Woken up at our Tours hotel at 6 am by puppy, who by now seems to have forgotten everything there is to know about potty training. After cleaning up a couple of messes and alternating at breakfast (no dogs there), we set out for La Rochelle, with a stop in Poitiers.

The weather is grey and foggy, I guess the scientific designation for it would be "yucky". So the drive through the countryside is not as enjoyable as it should be. By the time we get to Poitiers it's raining. Three historic battles were fought around this town, but we are not sure exactly where, and we are not about to drive around looking for them. So we focus on the town itself instead.

We park in an under ground garage next to Eglise Notre Dame la Grande, a relatively small but interesting church on place Charles de Gaulle. After seeing the elaborate facade, the interior is surprisingly somber and (by church standards) simple. The main decoration are the painted columns, which I find very pretty. Their colorful geometric patterns are such a cheerful contrast to the otherwise somber feel of the place. I like it in here.

Notre Dame la Grande, Poitiers

Interior of Notre Dame la Grande, Poitiers

Place Charles de Gaulle, Poitiers

We stop by the tourist office nearby to get postcards, and to ask for directions to the next site on our list, Cathedrale St. Pierre. The cathedral is much bigger than Notre Dame la Grande, but in my opinion is much less interesting. It's quite cold and impersonal. There are a couple of historically significant components to look at though, like the 13th century carved choir stalls, which are the oldest in France, the beautiful organ, and of course the 12th century stained glass window picturing the Crucifixion.

Cathedrale St Pierre, Poitiers

A football stuck on one of the gargoyles of Cathedrale St Pierre, Poitiers

Interior of Cathedrale St Pierre, Poitiers

12th century stained glass window of Crucifixion, Cathedrale St Pierre, Poitiers

We take a short walk to the 4th century Baptistere St Jean. It is closed, but even standing outside of the polygonal building, one feels like we have just touched history. It is one of the oldest Christian buildings in France, the venue of some of the earliest baptisms in the country. Even our 9 year old daughter is impressed by how old it is. For the rest of the trip, every time we see an old structure (which is quite often), she will pose the question: "Is this even older than the really old one we saw?" (meaning the Baptistere St Jean). And most of the time the answer will be "no".

Baptistere St Jean, Poitiers

It's back to place Charles de Gaulle for lunch in a simple but friendly couscous place. We have tired puppy out, so she sleeps through our entire meal, which is nice. Business is slow, so the restaurant owner sits by one of the tables, organizing her stamp collection. My husband collects stamps as well, so soon a lively discussion develops on the topic. We leave with an envelope filled with the lady's doubles, and with her address so that we can mail her some of ours.

We walk over to the grand looking Palais de Justice, which is said to be the scene of Joan of Arc's interrogation in the 15th century. We have already seen a commemorative plaque for this event on our way to the cathedral, and I assume it was on the back side of the Palais de Justice, though my sense of direction is not good enough to be certain.