We visited the Vézelay basilica 20 years after Solivagant, but my wife and I had already done it 15 years earlier, hitchhiking.

At that time, the common thread of our trip was Romanesque architecture in Burgundy and Provence, the guide La France romane published by Guide Arthaud in one pocket and a few coins in the other... and we can say like Solivagant that there are other religious buildings that are just as good elsewhere in Burgundy.

But Vézelay has assets that other cities perhaps don't have? I must admit that the capitals of the Vézelay basilica are among the most beautiful in France. This is a personal point of view, of course. Vézelay is also the starting point of one of the four routes to Santiago de Compostela in France, the place where Bernard of Clairvaux preached the 2nd Crusade in the presence of the royal couple in 1146 AD, and finally, it contains the relics of the controversial Sainte-Marie-Madeleine since the 8th century, which was moved there from Provence because of the Islamic threat. And so the church is not only an abbey church but also a basilica. That's a lot.

In 2023, we went back there in memory of our bohemian days and camped with Wilson the mobile home at the municipal campsite. On the official UNESCO website, the listed area is divided into two: there is a part below the hill next to the campsite and the other which includes the village. From what I understand on Wikipedia, the area below would be the place of Bernard of Clairvaux's sermon, a free meadow where, according to legend, 100,000 pilgrims gathered. Walking back up the path that leads to the farm along this area in the evening, the view of the hill and the basilica is magnificent.

We cycled up the hill and then up the main street to the famous carved portal. The advantage is that you don't have any parking problems (see F. Dawson) and then you discover the site with delight after the effort and you forget the essentially touristy character of the village that Els talks about, but that's not a problem, I imagine that has always been the case since the time of the medieval pilgrims.

Although enjoying a refreshing drink in the sun on the terrace of a café in front of the portal is not unpleasant, there is still a trap... because the exterior portal is the one designed by Viollet-le-Duc and has nothing Romanesque about it since it dates from 1840-1859 PC. To admire the authentic Romanesque portal you have to enter the narthex. Personally, I am not a huge fan of Viollet-le-Duc's interventions which are also controversial because of his idealized vision of the Middle Ages. He is said to have built the new facade to save the old tympanum in very poor condition... As it is said in the Arthaud Guide, the main Romanesque tympanum has a universal character that the neo-Romanesque portal does not have because it is the choice of sculpted registers, in turn biblical, the labors of the months and the signs of the zodiac.

As F. Dawson says, the renovation was finished and the basilica was open to the public in its entirety, including the crypt. It is essential to have with you a description of what the capitals tell, because it is like a 3D comic book, and you have to go around it completely to understand it. The advantage is that they are not too high and therefore you do not need binoculars to admire them. Some contain two different stories.

Walking around the old abbey is also nice: there are beautiful views of the surrounding countryside and Asquins, where we also went by bike, which is listed as a WHS site for the Ways of St. James in France, but which is nothing exceptional, apart from historical, except for the view from the hill (the introductory photo).