Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Portal du Clos des Augustins, Cremieu, France

The Portal du Clos des Augustins is the entrance to garden of the Augustinian convent in Cremieu. Nearby is an old fountain. My exchange student warned me not to drink from it!

As usual, I used Google to translate the village's page.



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Thursday, January 24, 2008

Porte de la Loi, Cremieu, France

The Porte de la Loi is Cremieu's second city gate. Built before 1392, it is made of local limestone.

As usual, I used Google to translate the village's page.

Look at my picture and notice the defensive openings at the top.


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Sunday, January 20, 2008

Porte de Quirieu, Cremieu, France

The porte de Quirieu is on the site of Cremieu's oldest gate. The current structure was build in 1535 and restored in 1930. The gate stands at the end of the road that leads to Chateau Delphinal.

In my picture, notice the drain to channel ground water out of the old city.

The village's page (translated by Google) shows the red limestone on the face and says that is the result of the burning of an adjacent house.


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Friday, January 18, 2008

Chateau Delphinal, Cremieu, France

On the hill St. Laurent overlooking Cremieu is Chateau Delphinal, a 12th century castle. Today it is privately owned so you can't visit it. We drove up the driveway and I snapped some pictures.

Again, I used Google to translate the castle's page from French.


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Sunday, January 13, 2008

La Halle, Cremieu, France

In the heart of Cremieu stands La Halle, an imposing 15th century marketplace. During this period, Cremieu was the center of grain trade between France, Switzerland, and Italy.

Again, I had to get Google to translate the best page I could find on it.

Remember I noted that Cremieu was a center of grain trade. In La Halle are the original stone measures of grain. The way they worked is they would plug the hole with wood and fill the basin with grain level with the top. The buyer's container would be placed at the foot of the basin and the plug removed. The unit of measure was "bichet."

Scroll to the East and you'll see La Halle's relationship to Tour de l'Horloge.


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Thursday, January 10, 2008

Tour de l'Horloge, Cremieu, France

My former exchange student took me on a walking tour of the old village of Cremieu. I'd been there briefly in the early 1990's but hadn't had the chance to walk it like the two of us did.

We climbed up a steep foot-trail to Tour de l'Horloge. I couldn't find much on it in English so I had Google translate this page.

From this viewpoint, you can see all across Cremieu. My pictures from Tour de l'Horloge begin here.


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Saturday, January 05, 2008

Chemin du Marais, Villemoirieu, France

When I left Warsaw, I flew to Lyon to visit my friends just outside Cremieu. They live on this bucolic little lane in the countryside. What a nice place to live and drink French wine.

My pictures begin here.


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