from … Monday May 10

We decide to cut short our stay in wet Pontaubert, both because of the weather and because we feel that the run down to Annecy is somewhat longer than CS should be contemplating as one day's.

Where to stop overnight, then …? Hmmm … Bourg-en-Bresse would divide the journey almost exactly in half …

Anyone who has visited our “Heaven and other Places” site may recall that we’ve been there, and were not impressed. So why would we consider it again …? — well, because we figure we’ll splurge, and stay in a 5-star hotel, at the other end of town. That way, we’ll be laughing …

Alas ! — Bourg-en-Bresse and we two were never meant for one another: fate has decreed otherwise ...

The reason can really be boiled down to the lack of quality accommodation there, for the town itself ain’t bad. It has quite a lot of 16 th century buildings still standing; and, although that’s not exactly mediæval, it’s fairly commendable; and the northern end of town is very pleasant.

But ! — a large town like this one, smack in the middle of major routes to all manner of places, should be possessed of more than three 3-star (and fading rapidly) hotels at the pinnacle of its hospitality offerings; I can only think that Bourg-en-Bresse doesn’t place a great deal of value on the passing vacationer.

And, I must add, our consumption of the fabled Bresse chicken does not give us reason to utter ecstatic cries …