The first thing we encountered at Vezelay was the long queue at parking meter, foreigners seemed to have problem with it and locals seemed to be happy with the situation. I turned out to be a hero who successfully got the parking receipt and had to demonstrate the whole process for everyone to follow! Then we walked into the old town of Vezelay, the town, to be honest, nothing special, just a row of restaurants and souvenir shops, except that along the way I noticed metal shells attached on the street, the symbol of Route of Santiago de Compostela signified that the main road of Vezelay is part of the pilgrimage route and a World Heritage Site. The main road leads us to the sole highlight of Vezelay, the Basilica Sainte Marie Madeleine de Vezelay.

The recent restoration really made this ancient building looks amazingly clean and new, hard to believe its old age. I had no idea what Burgundian Romanesque style is but one thing for sure, this basilica is really special piece of art especially from all those statues and motif that adorned inside. The most stunning object probably the statues and details that adorned the main interior gate. I heard some American tourists mentioned that they came here because of Dan Brown’s Davinci Code, I don’t think there is a mention of Vezelay on such novel or film, but probably the story of Saint Mary Magdalene intrigues them enough to visit this place. While I sat and enjoyed looking on those craving on each pillar and portal, my friends joined those Americans discussed the accuracy of Dan Brown’s work!  

After enjoying this architectural and art masterpiece for an hour, we walked back to our car before continued our trip to Fontenay. In our opinion, the Basilica itself was impressive, and I really appreciated this French World Heritage Site. I got the same feeling when I visited Bourges Cathedral and Saint Savin sur Gartempe Church, that there is no doubt on art quality on French selection. However apart from Basilica, the whole town was quite disappointing, those small hill towns in Italy are far more enjoyable and there are nicer French towns and villages; for example, Semur en Auxois. So, for Vezelay, Church and Hill, I am OK only with Church but not Hill.