Advent postcards, Souvigny Allier

Advent postcard, Souvigny, Allier

Advent day thirteen

Today’s cycling advent-ures postcard is from Souvigny in the Allier department, a lunchtime rest stop for us as we cycled from Moulins back to Noyant-d’Allier. I can’t tell you much about Souvigny, but I couldn’t miss it out from my advent postcards as it truly was picture postcard perfect.

 

The sun was shining, we wandered deserted cobbled streets with creamy stone buildings and took in what is left of the château, before finding a shady bench to have our picnic lunch. Luckily for us, this gave us views of the impressive façade of the church as well as the shops with their ancient painted fronts, all under a blue sky. Souvigny was central to the Bourbon family and is also an important religious town thanks to the discovery of not one but two saints tombs. Saint Mayeul and Saint Odilon were both abbots at the monastery at Cluny over a thousand years ago. It isn’t quite on the direct Vézelay pilgrimage route, but many pilgrims make a detour here and I have to say, I’m in agreement with them. Souvigny is 100% worth a detour.