Langres

Langres. I like this town…this walled city of medieval and classical history…..even the hill I could not cycle…..not with my luggage and possibly not ever. Most of all I love our pitch, our tent dwarfed by the Navarre Tour hundreds of years old and anywhere else, fenced off, it’s barred windows definitely not used to lock bamboo bicycles, not to lock bikes of any kind.
We are the only tent in this camp ground and the few camper vans are away from the ramparts and buffeting winds. Why miss the excitement. We did briefly wonder if our tent would still be where we left it as the sky turned moody and black, but maybe the wind would dry anything left behind and new delights were waiting.
This is the birth place of Denis Diderot, founder of the encyclopaedia. I am pleased by his description of the inhabitants, and the weather that appears no different 300 years to the present.
“The inhabitants of this country are full of spirit, too much vitality, an inconsistence like that of a wind vane…..the craziness of the atmosphere which within 24hours passes from cold to heat, from peace to thunder, from open sky to rainy. The head if a Langres inhabitant head on its shoulder is like a church-cock on top of a clock tower”.
The weather is so changeable that standing outside the mammoth Cathedral Mammie I chose to take a photo where Hobbitty Middle Earth like shadows stretch out towards Li, sitting on a bench enjoying another beer. Shadows come and go 5 times as I look through view finder to take photograph. I give up I run back as sun comes, seconds literally seconds weather changes. Oh well give up better things to do…..like drink beer.
We are also so changeable….spending another day….sitting in my padded bike shorts as we planned to move on, but the weather was temporarily promising dry socks…..4.30pm we are still in Langres.
And I’m dreaming of Diderot, his life, this city, his letters , amorous and philosophical……Diderot…..and a day dry and not caring, I love this town that was once a city.

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