Louhans Wednesday 31/8/11

Today was our exploring day of Louhans, we were up sharp, had showers aboard, breakfast and then fed the ducks, before heading into town for 10am. First, we visited the Church of St. Pierre and lit 5 candles for loved ones. What stunning stained glass inside - it was absolutely amazing.
We then headed to the Hotel Dieu for a guided tour at 10.30am.
The Hotel Dieu located on Rue du Capitaine Vic was a hospital intended for poor people with incurable illnesses. Its only resources were from donations and bequests and the food for patients was dependant on founders (rich people or communes).
The guided tour was very interesting, all in french but with leaflets in English to read and we heard how the nuns arrived with their wardrobes full of clothes which were their dowries and which remained the property of the hospital after they died. We learned how the mens and womens rooms were seperated by wrought iron grille gates and on the ceiling in both rooms two trap doors opened in to ventilation shafts to drive out the 'miasmas' from the rooms. There was a beautiful little chapel, dining halls and the most amazing apothecary.
After our visit to Hotel Dieu, we had a light cafe lunch and then visited the printing factory of the Independant newspaper which was established in 1838. We toured the offices and factory still with the original printing presses in situ and Jim was in his element, re-living his youth!
We then headed back to Ginger Grouse for a rest (phew!) after lots of sightseeing, before heading to the Circus Triomphe at 6pm (a bit second rate, certainly not as good as Circus Medrano in Gueugnon) and dinner in the only restaurant (Otrio) that was open on a Wednesday night in Louhans! We weren't looking forward to dinner, as the restaurant's appearance wasn't appealing, but it ended up a really lovely meal, and a great end to a lovely day. I had a smoked duck salad with green apples to start and Jim had a green salad, Jim then had veal cutlets with morilles - very tasty, rich mushrooms and I had a dozen snails in garlic cream......yum, fruit fools to finish and a hot chocolate and brandy and so to bed........after a few games of dominoes, again Jim winning and taking 10 euros from me! This is a very costly pastime!