This is the statue of St. Margaret that St. Joan of Arc prayed in front of when she was a little girl...awesome, right?
2012 was the 600th anniversary of her birth in Domremy-la-Pucelle.
We later found out that the replica of her house was closed for Christmas, but we saw the outside, and later found out that what we were standing in was actually her house:
Then we hiked over (ok, we drove because of the rain) to the Basilique du Bois Chenu--built on the site where St. Jeanne first heard the voices:
This last picture is of the sweet restaurant/pilgrim welcome center where we had lunch. Ok, Domremy is a small town, and given our collective Parisian, Roman, and general American attitudes, we spent so much time in the parish church that we had forgotten that restaurants close at 2pm around here. At about 2:30pm we arrived at this restaurant and were relieved to discover that they were open until 3pm. So we knocked. It was locked and there was no one in sight. Going around the back we found someone to let us in... and yes, we were the only people in the restaurant.
They gave us a menu with just sandwiches and cold drinks...ham or cheese or ham and cheese...that sort of thing. Mary and I were about ready to accept whatever food we could get, but Jonathan spoke up and asked the lady for their menu--which they didn't have because they stopped serving lunch at 2 (like everyone else!) He must have looked really crestfallen because she took pity on us and offered us some roast chicken, salad and fried potatoes. It was the best, most amazing country meal that we had ever had! So warm, so delectable--quite the respite from the rain and the cold! Besides, they had mayonnaise with mustard in it which was super tasty. All five of us followed up the chicken with some warm mirabelle tart--the likes of which you've never had before!
It was a fine day!
Then, of course, we tried stopping at another small shrine which the sister told us was closed for Christmas...whatevs! We drank the spring water, took pictures in the rain and went back to Verdun to eat a simple meal of sausage, bread, cheese and wine and to play Euchre until the wee hours of the morning--yes, we are all fanatics about that game...the wine didn't help either... It was really quite splendid.
Cheers!
