Provins

Provins is a town east of Paris which was once an important centre for medieval trade fairs. I read a little post praising its charms on a website describing day trips from Paris, and when I went myself I was pleasantly surprised. 

It's located around a hill with an upper and lower town, the lower town crossed by a canal. The town is full of lovely stone and half-timbered buildings, all covered in old red roof tiles. At times, grass paths and stone steps cut between houses, and a few streets at the edges of the old town are lined with stone garden walls. There are some interesting old churches, while up the hill are ramparts and the Tour César, a curious defensive tower built by the region's historic rulers, the Counts of Champagne. 

As you can see, I took a lot of photos. I quite liked Provins; I think it gave me something I'd been missing so far in and around Paris, which was the picturesque quality of a sizeable medieval hill town like those I fondly remember from Italy. Paris is beautiful, but I guess I have a stronger preference for a fine-scaled and particular architecture over rational, structures built to the size of kings' ambitions. 

The Hostellerie de la Croix d'Or, founded in 1270 and one of France's oldest such establishments still operating.

The Église Saint-Quiriace, first built in the 12th Century. A fire required its reconstruction in the 17th Century, which was never entirely finished.

The Tour César, apparently the only octagonal medieval tower built on a square base.

"YOUR MOTHER WAS A HAMSTER, AND YOUR FATHER SMELLED OF ELDERBERRIES!!!"