After leaving Lyon where the Rhone river marries the Saône, we sailed up that river until we came to  Macon in the Burgundy Region, best known today, of course, for its robust wines.  A thousand years ago the region was the site of the influential Benedictine Abbey of Cluny which had been founded in 910 A.D. by William the First, Duke of Aquitaine.  Only remnants of the Abbey remain today, but it was once the biggest building in the world.  The great Monastery was deliberately built large to emphasize in the Catholic world that the Abbot of Cluny was for a time in direct competition with the Pope, the Bishop of Rome, for administrative power in the church.  When St. Peter’s was being designed, the Pope sent architects to Cluny to get exact measurements so the church in Rome could be bigger.  The competition with Rome ended a long time ago, but not before the Benedictines at Cluny Abbey gave Gregorian Chants to the world.  After the French Revolution the stones of the great Abbey were hauled away and used for building projects in the area. Even today the Area is more than wine.

On a visit to a goat farm that produces some of the best cheeses in the world, a special goat, No. 20037 and I took a liking to each other.  First a donkey and now a nanny goat… Perhaps I should have been a farmer.  Oh, almost forgot to say that when I first met Nanny, she was eating hay.  I unwrapped a piece of candy, the chewy kind, and gave it to her.  She chewed and enjoyed.  When I tuned to leave she stood on her hind legs and leaned over a rail to get close to me.  She nuzzled me.  It was delightful.