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Troyes, France, Spring 2006
This is a tiny alleyway in the old medieval center of town. I had forgotten about this until I started going through this photoset, but it is actually the inspiration for the setting of the first R/M scene in Fortune's Wheel:
Robin pulled her into the shade between two houses, in an alley so narrow that stones had been placed flush along the houses for pedestrians to jump up out of the way of horses. He pulled Marian to him and kissed her, and she smiled against his lips.
Troyes has a beautifully-preserved medieval core, full of timbered buildings. I found it interesting that cities like this tended to be affluent during the middle ages, when they built lots of lovely buildings, but then declined after that, so they never replaced the old buildings with newer ones. So maybe there are some hidden benefits to economic downturns ; )
I like this picture because it shows how quirky and crammed and tiny the city center is. Church on the left, tiny square, random streets, everything shoved up close. The hotel I stayed in was an old timbered building as well, with toile (?) on the walls that had scenes from Sleeping Beauty.
(all of these images are resized in html because I am lazy, so if you want to see them in better resolution you should be able to just right click view image)
The medieval center was just so gorgeous. Here's more timbered buildings because they're pretty. I didn't get many front-on pictures because the streets were so narrow. There was even a timbered synagogue! (I am rather disappointed that the Wiki page on Troyes doesn't talk about the thriving medieval Jewish community, that produced people like, er, Rashi. And probably my BFF Chrétien.)
