avallon (fr)

in France, in Burgundy, Morvan-region
there is a little town called Avallon...

chance finds of coins and pottery fragments...
and a fine head of Minerva...

 

are reminders of the Roman settlement
carrying the Celtic name Aballo
'apple / fruit town'

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of course I am not suggesting that this little town
was Avalon - the heavenly fruit garden or paradise
Arthur went to after his death...

I just mention it to prove that there were other places in Gaul
with this name too, and that it again meant 'apple place'
or 'fruit tree village'.. something like that...
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a 'mutatio' or post old Aballo was
where fresh horses could be obtained

two pink marble columns in the church of St-Martin du Bourg
have been reused from an unknown temple

the Roman citadel on a rocky spur overlooking the Vallée du Cousin
has been christianized as Montmartre, 'Mount of the Martyrs'...

Avallon / Aballo was in the Middle Ages the seat
of a viscounty dependent on the duchy of Burgundy

on the death of Charles the Bold in 1477
it passed under the royal authority

the castle...
mentioned as early as the seventh century
has utterly disappeared

~wikipedia~