Springtime in Paris: Ervy-le-Châtel and Chaource
Troyes was much more picturesque and interesting than I had anticipated but there wasn't enough there to keep us occupied for a whole day. Fortunately we had our car and ChatGPT, which I believe are sufficient supplies to fill in a schedule gap of any duration pretty much anywhere on the continent of Europe. I turned ChatGPT loose on the department of Aube and it came up with a list of towns and sights which I whittled down into a compact itinerary that probably wouldn't have shown up in any guidebook.
Before leaving Troyes we had a weekly market to visit in the residential suburb of Sainte-Savine, another event I probably wouldn't have discovered without the assistance of AI. Google Maps misdirected us slightly and we could have easily missed the market entirely but I was determined and found it a block away from where we started searching. There weren't very many stalls but we did find the all-important rotisserie and a baguette vendor to supplement the light seafood breakfast we had had at the covered market.
Cleo found a dairy truck and didn't want to wait for me to be done with the bread vendor, so I gave her some money and she bought her own yogurt. I don't think she used any French aside from possibly "merci" but I was still proud of her for accomplishing her mission independently. I can tell that she is thinking ahead to the time that she will begin traveling without us, although that's something Mei Ling and I aren't ready to ponder very deeply.
Montgueux is a tiny village just a few kilometers west of Troyes known for producing high-quality Chardonnay grapes. We drove around the village first which was rather nondescript with asphalt roads and a sixteenth-century church with uncovered masonry. The vineyards were on a hillside that we ascended nervously via dirt roads. ChatGPT had championed the view but the hill wasn't very tall and we were surrounded by acres of ordinary farmland. We could see the metropolis of Troyes but it was all blended together on the horizon.
We had to drive forty minutes south to reach Ervy-le-Châtel, a town distinguished by its preserved medieval structures. We parked outside of the historic core and walked in through the Porte Saint-Nicolas, the only surviving medieval gate in the Aube department. The original wooden drawbridge has been replaced by a stone bridge that crosses the ravine that once protected the walled city. The relatively modern houses on the inner side of the ravine had been built using remnants of the walls as their foundations. Inside the town center cars were parked in every available space but the streets were completely empty of people save for us.
The center consisted of two concentric circles and a few short alleys. There was a lot of variety in the residential buildings, from crumbling half-timbered multi-centenarians to sleekly designed homes that could have been constructed within the last year. We sought out any available passage and at one point stumbled into a tiny hidden park that was surrounded by a ring of tall houses. On the northern edge of the old town was another historic remnant, a circular market hall built in the early nineteenth century. The small, timber-framed structure had wattle-and-daub infill on the lower level and brick at the top. The market hall was closed up tight with boarded windows and apparently only opens for cultural events. Across the street people were eating at outdoor tables at a cafe, the first signs of life we had encountered since reaching the town.
The Notre Dame gate used to stand at the western side of the old town but it was demolished long ago. Just outside where the gate once stood there was a short path that led to the southern edge of the town, where the hillside dropped off and permitted expansive views of the countryside. Looking back towards the core we could see the steeple of the town's fifteenth century church, its lower parts shrouded by scaffolding. We walked back through the core one last time to reach the car, getting the chance to admire one impressive hôtel particulier we had missed on our first time through.
Our next stop was Chaource, famous throughout the region for its eponymous soft cheese. The town was about the same size as Ervy-le-Châtel but couldn't be described as peaceful because it was located at the intersection of all the major roads that passed through the area. The buildings were nice but the atmosphere suffered greatly from the wide roads and constant stream of cars that whizzed through the center. 
We figured we would probably find a cheese shop easily but all the shops on the main street were closed for the mid-afternoon pause. We immediately spotted the irregular stone masonry of the Saint-Jean-Baptiste church, whose full history is lost but is believed to date from the early thirteenth century. In the small plaza between the church and the tourist office there was an oversized chess game that the kids immediately gravitated towards. 
Mei Ling and I figured it was safe to leave the kids in the plaza for a few minutes while we walked around the church. On the side of the church there was a square containing a World War II monument, surrounded by attractive buildings including a museum of cheese. We were surprised to find that the side door of the church was open, although there was no one inside. The interior was quite beautiful and very different from the cavernous cathedrals we had visited earlier in the trip. I was particularly impressed by the elaborate carving of the wooden pulpit and the polychrome painting within a Marian side chapel.
There were a number of stunning artworks inside the church, including a limestone altarpiece depicting the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus in exquisite detail. There was also a modern woodcarving of the Nativity and a sculpture called La Mise au Tombeau that portrays a group of somber followers placing Jesus in his tomb. While the entombment of Jesus is a common sculptural theme throughout Christian iconography, this sixteenth century representation is considered one of the most remarkable and moving in France. The unknown artist who created it has come to be known as the master of Chaource.
When we came back out of the church a woman had emerged from the tourist office to watch the kids playing their chess game. She told me in perfect English that the best place for us to try Chaource cheese was at a shop on the outskirts of town where producers from all over the area brought their products to be sold. We drove in the direction she indicated and found the fromagerie in a shed-like building on a gravel lot with a retail space attached to a warehouse. Local wines, honey, and preserves were available in addition to the extensive selection of cheeses in a refrigerated counter. Of course we had no clue what to buy so I chose the smallest cylinder I could find, knowing that most of it was sure to be wasted. We bought a package of toasts and sat at the solitary table outside the building to sample the cheese. The Chaource had a simultaneously creamy and crumbly texture and seemed somewhat bland to us, as we tend to gravitate to foods with stronger flavors. As I expected everyone else got bored with it quickly and I was left to force down as much as I could to justify the purchase.
We made two more brief stops on the way back to Troyes. Isle-Aumont was another ChatGPT disappointment that had some historical and archaeological significance but not much to recommend it in the present day. The only thing we could find in the town of even minor interest was an old church atop a low hill. The grounds were locked so all we could do was take a photo through the gate and move onward. I didn't really mind having been led astray because I considered it evidence that we had exhausted all the towns of interest to us in that part of Aube. There was supposed to be a late afternoon market in nearby Bouilly, which we had a great deal of trouble locating despite the small size of the town. We eventually found it in a parking lot and there were only three vendors, including the spice truck we had seen in Vitry-le-François and Sainte-Savine. We bought some fruit just so that we wouldn't leave empty-handed and it proved to be very poor quality. 
We returned to Troyes with hopes of eating at one of the amazing restaurants we had spotted the night before on the Ruelle des Chats. Unfortunately Friday evening seemed to be a whole different ballgame from Thursday and all the best places turned us away. We came out onto the most touristy street in Le Bouchon and joined hordes of people who were browsing the medieval quarter. Even though great restaurants had seemed to be everywhere the first night, now they all looked to us like tourist traps and cheap ethnic spots. We ultimately picked a place that didn't particularly inspire us because we were worried about getting shut out entirely. The food turned out to be fairly good although it clearly wasn't on the level of Le Jardin from the previous night. I noted with amusement that virtually every table around us was filled with tourist families with kids, just like us. It seemed like we had finally found one of the restaurants we were supposed to be eating at all along. I forgot to take any pictures and then we headed home for an early night. Saturday would be our last full day in France and we wanted to make the most of it.
This featured blog entry was written by zzlangerhans from the blog On the Way to Everywhere.
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