Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
There's little to do here other than appreciate the setting (best from the grassy ramparts),
have lunch, and try the little
anis
(anise) candies.
Chocolat
Sights
Loversofthemoviewillhavetobesatisfied withafewofthebuildingfacades featured in
the film; there are no souvenirs or posters to be found, and nary a chocolate shop (locals,
who prefer their homemade
anis
candies, weren't wowed by the movie). There are five
buildings that fans should recognize. The evocative 13th-century
Church of St. Genest
is
the only one you can enter. The church is named after St. Gene, who was decapitated by
theRomansforaskingtobebaptizedbeforeChristianitywasacceptedasthestatereligion.
Stand where the preacher did and feel the heat of the congregation's angst, then find the
upstairs seating (daily 10:30-12:00 & 14:00-18:30). The movie's
chocolaterie
lies across
the square from the church entry, below La Grange restaurant, on Rue du Four (marked
with a small sign, look for the arched window with the brown frame). The
count's home
is today's
mairie
(city hall), next to the church entry.The
coiffure
(hairdresser) is one door
down from the TI—look for the white shutters. And what was the
Café de la République
isthreedoorsupfromtheTI,withanausterefacadeandmetalshutters.JohnnyDeppnev-
ervisited Flavigny (hisloss),andthere isnoriver here (the river scenes were filmed inthe
Dordogne, near Beynac).
The Dying Gauls
In52
B.C.
,GeneralJuliusCaesarandhis60,000soldierssurroundedAlésia(today's
Alise Ste-Reine), hoping to finally end the uprising of free Gaul and establish Ro-
man civilization in central and northern France (they had long controlled south-
ern France). Holed up inside the hilltop fortress were 80,000 die-hard (long-haired,
tattooed) Gauls under their rebel chief, Vercingétorix (pronounced something like
“verse-an-zhet-or-eex”). Having harassed Caesar for months with guerrilla-war at-
tacks, they now called on their fellow Gauls to converge on Alésia to wipe out the
Romans.
Ratherthanattackthefierce-fightingGauls,Caesar'ssoldierspatientlycamped
at the base of the hill and began building a wall. In six weeks, they completed a
12-foot-tall, stone-and-earth wall all the way around Alésia (11 miles around—blue
line on the orientation table at the hilltop site), and then a second, larger one (13
miles around—red line on the orientation table), trapping the rebel leaders with the
