Month: April 2020

June 22, 2019 Epernay FR

We picked Epernay as a destination as it was about 60% of the way to Sens, had a decent place to stay, and looked like an interesting place to spend the afternoon.  When we arrived we were worried about whether there would be room in the campground as there was a youth Rugby tournament taking place at the athletic fields surrounding the campgrounds.  Actually we have begun to notice that things are getting more crowded as we go, the aires and campgrounds have been filling up nearly everyday by 5 pm.  We got lucky and did get a spot, but by 5 pm they were also full.

There were about 30 youth rugby teams in the tournament taking place at the campground.

We spent the afternoon relaxing and when we were bored venturing out to watch the youth Rugby.  Ton and I took a walk around 1pm, but in France even youth Rugby tournaments  take a two hour break for a proper lunch.  We enjoyed watching the families lay out a large lunch spread including wine for the adults.  The French surely have their priorities aligned when it comes to food.

Lunch being prepared at the Rugby Tournament.

Epernay is one of the largest producers of champagne, and Moet which is an upscale brand is based there.  Our original plan was to walk into town and poke around, but it was quite hot.  When we checked in they told us there was a wine tour at 5:15 pm for a reasonable price, so we signed up to avoid the walk.  On the tour we were joined by a German couple with a cute Labradoodle named Murphy, and a couple of Dutch guys who were on a weekend trip to stock up with champagne for the year.  The winery was kind of a bust as the owner did not speak much English, and none of us spoke French.  But we made the best of it and ended up enjoying the company of the other people on the tour.

A demonstration of the capping process at our champagne cellar tour.

When we returned Ton made a huge dinner as we are trying hard to eat all of the food in the refrigerator.  Feeling stuffed we decided to take an after dinner stroll when we ran into the Dutch guys again.  As we were exchanging stories Ton told them about the Dutch couple we were parked next to in Bruges, he had told us that he was one of the original surfers in the Netherlands.  When she was explaining the part about the surfer dude from Holland the two guys started speaking excitedly in Dutch, and asked her to describe him in more detail.  They had a little more  conversation in Dutch and then told us we had met Jan van de Berg who apparently is more than just a surfer dude in the Netherlands, but a big deal.   He was an Olympic hero in the 80’s for winning the Netherlands first medal in surfing, also he was apparently a hotty as all of the girls in the Netherlands had posters of him in their bedrooms.  Our street cred with the Dutch guys went up enormously.   Later Ton did some research and we think we met the parents of Jan, and not Jan himself.

May 3, 2019 Essoyes FR

The main goal for us today was to visit the village of Essoyes.  Essoyes is famous as the summer home of Renoir.  He did a lot of his later paintings there, as he spent a lot of senior age years there.  

Last night we parked up on a winery in the area owned by the Lameroux’s.  It was a nice parking spot for up to six campers including water, and a dump.  We walked down to the winery when we arrived to check if it was ok to park.  The wife of the owner met us and she did not speak any English, we managed to mime that we were in the camper aire, and she said good.  We decided against a tasting and she looked relieved.  This morning as we were pulling out her husband happened to be pulling into work.  He stopped and thanked us for staying and invited us back if we were ever in the area, and you could tell it was heartfelt.  Our experience in Les Riceys was really exceptional, and if an area ever motivated me to learn French it was here, as the people were fantastic.

The road from Les Riceys to Essoyes is on the Champagne tourist route.

The drive over to Essoyes was short, and we parked up next to a new museum for Renoir.  In fact it was so new that the main exhibitions were not open yet. The museum included a video presentation about Renoir’s life in Essoyes.  It was quite well done and helped us understand the rest of the tour.  We followed the walking tour thru the village, and as we approached his home we realized we were going to run into lunch.  We went in and did a quick tour, but decided to come back for a more extensive tour after lunch. We saw one of the curators and tried to ask in broken French if we could return after lunch, and he smiled and with a proper English accent said of course.  Later we learned he was from the south of England.

The River Ounce as it cuts thru Essoyes.
The same view as painted by Renoir.

The home Renoir lived in was exceptionally well restored and supported by one of Renoir’s great granddaughters so a lot of the furniture is family heirlooms.  Essoyes is a beautiful village, and if you like impressionists and particularly Renoir it is worth seeking out.

The living room in Renoir’s home.
The bed that Renoir used, he preferred simple country style furnishings.
Another Renoir to finish the day.

It was still pretty early when we were done so we decided to keep heading east.  We picked out the town of Contrexeville in the Vosges as it was generally in the right direction and had a couple of parking options.  The GPS said it was 130km so we figured about 2 hours.  The GPS had lately been picking pretty good roads where the speed between towns is about 80kph (50 mph), and most towns were bypassed.  Today she decided to send us down little D roads where top speed is about 65kph (40mph), but there are lots of little villages where you are creeping thru at 30kph.  Our two hour drive turned into 3 hours.  We did not mind that much as the countryside was really beautiful, and the roads were nearly empty.

A typical view on our drive today.

Contrexeville is a spa town with a small Casino.  They are trying to develop some tourism, but the Vosges do not seem to be attracting a lot of tourism.  The campground tonight is really nice and an incredible bargain at €11.

Ton likes sheep almost as much as she likes cows.  When we crossed over to look at them they were a couple hundred yards away, they all came trotting over to check us out. The Rue de September 11 commemorates the day the town was liberated from the Germans in WWII.

May 2, 2019 Les Riceys FR

We are still a bit jet lagged so we find we are falling asleep late and then sleeping in.  This morning we were not up until 9am.  The plan for the day was to return to the little village we stopped in yesterday.

Les Riceys is actually a combination of three villages that were at one point the border fortresses for 3 different principalities.  In the distant past before France was a country there was a Riceys in the Duchy of Sens, another in the Duchy of Burgundy, and a third in Champagne.  Each of the Riceys have their own fortified church.  They are now happily together as Les Riceys.  

The wine in the area is Champagne, though it has only been allowed to be called Champagne recently due to the strict French rules about these things.  It was restricted because some of the vineyards are in Burgundy, so it was not purely from Champagne.  Now they are allowed to call it champagne as the village mostly resides in Champagne.

An interesting store front in Les Riceys.

Today we stopped at two wineries.  At the first winery Pascal Walczak the owner welcomed us with open arms, but he did not speak English.  Luckily for us there were two other visitors from Luxembourg who took us under their wing and translated for us.  We learned a lot about Champagne.  We were also able to get some tips about places to go in Luxembourg and Germany from our impromptu translators.  It was a nice stop.

The weather called for hard rain in the afternoon so we rushed over to the Tourist Information to try to find another place to visit before the rain set in.  The office recommended a place called Morize Pere & Fils.  She called ahead and said that they were beginning a tour shortly and we needed to  head straight over.  When we go there it was a tour in French, with no helpful Luxembourgers along to help with the translation.  The tour guide was one of the sons, though he was our age.  The tasting was also nice, and the champagne was good.  The problem is neither Ton or I are big fans of champagne, and while we recognized it was good wine, it still was not to our taste.  

The sign board for the winery Champagne Morize Per and Fils.
Rose de Riceys, a very interesting wine unique to the area.

Les Riceys is a nice little village with a well kept feel, and a lot of wineries specializing in Champagne.  If you are a fan we highly recommend you try it.  Right after the second tour the hard rain arrived, so we hunkered down in François for the remainder of the day.

May 1, 2019 Troyes FR

Today is labor day in France so we knew we were going to be limited in our sites as most everything was closed.  Since we are in the Champagne region we decided we should go to some wineries. Ton did some research and while Chateau-Thierry is in the heart of the high end champagne country she decided we should go to southern Champagne as it has smaller family run wineries vs the big world wineries like Dom Perignon.  We aimed for a town called Riceys as it has a lot of family run wineries.  

After an uneventful run over very quiet roads due to the holiday (no trucks) we got to Riceys and found two free aires on winery sites.  But it is a small town and as it was a holiday everything was closed.  After a little poking around Ton suggested we head to Troyes which was only about 45 minutes away.  

Ton made a great call, as Troyes was a beautiful town to walk in, even though almost everything was closed.  Troyes has one of the best collections of half timbered homes in France and most of the city center still contained these wood timbered building.  While many of them have been modernized and turned into name brand businesses they still bring a great feel to the town.

A sample of the wood timbered homes in Troyes.
The cathedral in Troyes.

We also toured the cathedral as it was open.  As our first cathedral of the trip it did again impress us.  It was interesting as it has a lot of 20th and 21st century religious art on the inside.

The three wise women inside the cathedral in Troyes.  A modern interpretation of the three wise men, we think, the sign was only in French.
A gargoyle on one of the churches in Troyes.
Troyes is also the home of the founder of the Knights Templar and the local tourism office uses the knights  to help you on the walking tour of the town.

As we continue to find; often times the best days on these trips are ones you did not plan on.  

April 30, 2019 Chateau-Thierry FR

We slept in a bit as we are still fighting jet lag, but around 9am we decided to get up and get going.  We had a quick last chat with Thom and Kathy before they took off, we hope our paths cross again on our tours.

We decided to hit the Lidl on the way out of town now that we had taken stock of everything we had left behind, we had a few more food items we needed.  We also stopped at the €2 store for a USB splitter for our cigarette lighter, Ton was skeptical but so far it is working great.

Our plans for today was a place that I have wanted to visit since we started visiting France.  Belleau Wood is one of the most famous battles that the Marine Corps has participated in.  The battlefield is located near Chateau-Thierry.  During the battle the Marine Brigade which was attached to the Army 2nd Infantry Division was assigned to first stop a German advance on Paris and then regain some of the ground that had been  lost including a hill top forest/hunting preserve called Belleau Wood.  At the end of the 15 day battle the Marines had over 6000 casualties including 1060 dead.  They fought so ferociously the Germans said it was like fighting Teufel Hunden, which got translated as Devil Dogs, a nick name the Marine Corps carries until today.  The French were so impressed with the valor of the Marines that they renamed the wood, and when you enter the memorial the entrance says Belleau Wood in English, and Bois de la Brigade de Marine (The Wood of the Marine Brigade) in French, as it was renamed.

Ron standing next to a French 75 gun in Belleau Wood, this was also the main artillery piece for the American Forces in WW1.

For a place with such a violent history the wood today is a quiet park, there are some remnants of the trenches that were hastily dug during the battle, and some impact craters from artillery rounds.  Other than that it is an amazingly quiet place with beautiful vistas of the countryside including a wheat field that the Marines had to advance several hundred yards thru under machine gun fire to reach the wood.  The story is that when they were faltering in the wheat field Sergeant Major Dan Daly rallied them by shouting “Come on you sons of bitches, do you want to live forever!”

Next to the wood is the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery which has 2289 graves of Americans killed in Belleau Wood and Chateau-Thierry including 3 sets of brothers.

The graves are simple Crosses and Stars of David with the name of the man, his unit, and his home state on them.  They tell a very simple story quite movingly.  The most haunting are those that say here lies an American Soldier known only to god, for those who could not be identified.
The chapel on site on the side of Belleau Wood overlooks the grave sites.  Inside is a simple chapel with the names of over 1060 soldiers, sailors, and Marines, who are missing from the battles in this area.  

The final stop for us on the day was the Chateau-Thierry monument which is on a hill overlooking the city.  It was built after the war to commemorate the Americans and French who fought together.

It is a relatively simple monument listing the battles and the major units of the American Expeditionary Force in World War 1.  It was designed by a French-American architect Paul Cretics who served in the French Army during the war.  After the war he returned to the US and designed a war memorial for the state of Pennsylvania before designing this one.

As with every one of the American Cemeteries we have visited in France they are immaculately maintained, and the French staff obviously takes great pride in their work.  Everyone on site that we spoke to including the security guards immediately switch to English when they realize you are American.  They bend over backwards to help you with your questions.  It is really a moving experience.  Tonight we are parked in an aire in Chateau-Thierry but the monument is visible on the hill above town.

Champagne

In the spring of 2019 we took our first trip to the Champagne Region.  As well as tasting some good wine, and trying to develop a taste for sparkling wine, we visited some American WWI battlefields.  The highlight for me was Belleau Wood.


May 27, 2025 Troyes FR

May 27, 2025 No Comments

We needed to stop by François’ hometown to check on our mail, and see if we could schedule an appointment for some minor repairs to

Read More »

May 9, 2019 Strasbourg FR

Today was a day of rest for François but not us.  The weather is starting to wear us out a little.  We shut in yesterday to let the heavy rain pass thru.  Yesterday the weather app was saying it would be better today.  They were wrong, today was just as miserable, we had periods of very heavy rain mixed with showers, and the temperatures were in the low 50’s.  

Our Stellplatz (German for Aire) is located a few hundred yards from the Rhine, so we decided to head down there to start the day.  The river was flowing pretty fast and there was a large river cruise boat parked there.  It was a nice park, but after talking about it we decided to go ahead and head in to town for the day despite the bad weather forecast.

A German Post mail bicycle.  We followed the mail lady down the road for a while on the way to the Tram.

As we stepped off the tram in the center of Strasbourg we saw a “Free” tour going buy so we decided to join in.  It was a good tour though I think everyone’s motivation dropped when the rain and wind really started kicking in.  Strasbourg looks like it has a lot to offer.  It is an interesting blend of French and German architecture.  

The old town of Strasbourg is built on an island in the Ill River.  
Another view of the Ill River.

We ended the tour in a windy downpour, so we dived into the Tourist Information Office with about 100 other Americans.  We were debating whether to call it a day, but decided to spring for a boat tour as the weather app said the rain was going to let up a bit later in the day.  The boat trip would have been great except for the pounding rain but at least we were inside.  We went by the European Parliament which is quite an impressive modern building.  We did not get any pictures due to the heavy rain.

Our last stop for the day was the Cathedral.  It is another very beautiful building.  The highlight of this cathedral for us was the astronomical clock.  The gold hands on the clock represent the solar time, and the silver hands the local time.  It also figures that rotate around at certain times of the day representing the different phases of life parading past a figure representing death.  

The astronomical clock in the Strasbourg Cathedral.
A modern version of the last supper from the interior of the Cathedral.
The exterior of the Cathedral.

After the Cathedral we called it a day heading back on the tram to Kehl.  We had a short sun break where I leant a young group of Belgians our water can so they could fill their RV with water, one of the guys told me that he had recently hitchhiked from Miami to Houston, (never got the reason why) and could not believe how generous the people were on that trip.  Shortly after that  another band of rain drove us into François for the night.

May 8, 2019 Strasbourg FR

Today we left France for the day.  We are parked up in Kehl Germany as it was the best option to visit Strasbourg France.  The problem was that when we woke up the weather report had gotten much worst.  They were now calling for heavy rain and high winds due to a “Bomb Cyclone’ that was hitting southern France.  I think a bomb cyclone is a new more dramatic way to say cold front, but it certainly gets your attention.

As we learned yesterday Colmar was the home of Frederic Bartholdi, the sculptor of the Statue of Liberty.  All of the guide books said there was a replica of the statue in Colmar, but we never found it.  As we were leaving Colmar on a four lane road thru an industrial park, there was the statue in the middle of a traffic circle, so we circled around a couple of times so Ton could get a good picture.

A replica of the Statue of Liberty in Colmar, the home of the sculptor.

We had a quick drive over to Kehl as the roads were mostly freeways, and arrived before the effects of the bomb cyclone.  We decided on a quick trip into the town  to see what was there.  Like many border towns the center seemed to cater mostly to day trip shoppers from France looking for bargains.

Downtown Kehl, mostly consisting of shopping aimed at French day trip visitors.

We did get to visit a Woolworths Department Store which while they became extinct in the US about 25 years ago are still going strong in Mexico, France, and Germany. After a quick walk thru downtown Kehl, and our first visit to a German grocery store, the rain was starting to set in so we hustled back to François.

Some days we tour exotic medieval cities, and some days we hunker down in the back of François.  This afternoon we hunkered down and watched a good Netflix Movie with Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson.  

After a lot of time looking for a good French beer we have now discovered one.  We have tried two different types of Fischer Beers and they are both excellent.

The Fischer Three Alsatian Hops Blonde, a really good beer.


May 7, 2019 Colmar FR

Colmar is by far the largest city we have stayed in so far on this trip while it is only 65,000 people most of the places we have been staying have populations less than 2,000 so it felt quite big.  The camp site we are staying at is about 2km’s from the center of the city so we even wimped out and bought day bus passes.  It turned out to be a good idea as by the end of the day we had walked 10 miles despite taking the bus into town.

We really enjoyed Colmar as it had a lot to see and do in a pretty compact area.  We started at the tourist office and picked up a map for the walking tour of the town.  Colmar is the home town of Frederic Bartholdi who is the artist who sculpted the Statue of Liberty.  

The metal pointers used to guide you as you follow the walking tour of Colmar.

Colmar also had a great selection of half timbered buildings but on a little grander scale than the smaller villages we have been visiting.  After a week of touring towns and villages of these half timbered towns we are still enjoying them.

Some more of the beautiful architecture of Alsace.  They do a nice job of decorating them also.

Colmar also has a section called little Venice with some small canals with homes built on the canals.  It is a pleasant area that they maximize the tourist value of the canals.

Some photos of the little Venice area of Colmar.

Up to now on the trip we had not eaten out except for our Chinese the first night.  There were two Alsace dishes we wanted to try.  The first was Bretzel, which is a pretzel with toppings.  For our mid-morning snack we had Bretzel with Munster Cheese which is a local cheese.  It was very reasonable at €1.50 and made for a nice snack.

Many variations of Bretzels on display.  We recommend the Munster.

The other dish is called Tarte-Flambeê in French or Flammakueche in Alsatian, we decided to go with the French as we could pronounce it.  It is flat bread covered with cream, onions, and other toppings.  It is very similar to pizza but quite a bit lighter.  We decided to split one for lunch and choose a simple one of cream, onions, cheese, and ham.  We were both very happy with our Tarte-Flambeê.  Ton says Trader Joes has frozen ones at home so we will be looking for them in the future.

Our Tarte-Flambeê/Flammakueche  lunch.

After covering our 10 miles we decided to head back to François for a little break.  Ron took a little nap, and Ton made a nice dinner of sausages potatoes, and Choucroute which is Alsatian sauerkraut.  Something we will be looking to stock up on before we leave France as it is quite good and now a super food that helps our digestion.

After dinner we went for a little walk and watched some canoes in the river next to our campsite.  It was a nice way to wrap up a good day here.

May 6, 2019 Eguisheim FR

Today we shifted a whopping 10km’s to Colmar.  We did make a side trip to another Alsatian town on the way to Colmar.  

We both woke up about 5 am smelling smoke.  I lay there wondering if something was burning when Ton also woke up and asked if we were on fire.  This motivated me to get up and check to see if anything was burning in François.  It turns out that we were not on fire, but the smoke from the wood fires in the town next to us had settled into the little valley the campground was in.  Once we determined we were safe we went back to sleep for a couple of hours.

We finally got on the road to our primary target for the day a town called Eguisheim.  In 2013 it was voted the most beautiful village in France.  I had punched in a free parking site on the soccer field, but when we got there the town had blocked access due to all of the rain, so we headed over to the municipal parking.  The parking was brand new and high tech with bar code readers, but the area designated for RV’s cost €6 for 4 hours.  It seemed excessive but I didn’t see any other options, so I gnashed my teeth and ponied up.

The most beautiful village in France in 2013 is full of wineries of course.

Eguisheim is indeed a lovely village.  Originally a double walled village.  It is built in a circle which is unusual in France.  We walked the space between the two original walls, over time when security became less of an issue the space between the two walls was built up with homes and work spaces.  These half timbered buildings are really well preserved.  The colorful paint is from the 20th century.  Up until then the buildings were earth toned.  We had a great walk enjoying the variety of buildings.

The road between the two walls .  The houses on the left are built into the old outer wall.  The houses on the right are between the outer and inner walls.
Another view of the circular road around town.

Many of the towns we have visited in the last few days still have Easter ornaments up.  Apparently the Easter Bunny is a big deal, and in addition to a lot of bunnies the French decorate trees and bushes with colored Easter eggs. The displays remind us of the Christmas and Halloween displays we see at home.

Easter bunnies overlooking the entrance to a winery.
Not an Easter theme, but a home with nice decorations, note the inebriated frog on the lower right side.

As we were wrapping up the walk thru town we came around a corner to finds a very imposing man dressed in medieval clothes and doing a vigorous sword dance.  It turns out he was the owner of a coffee shop who had no customers so he was filming himself in the ally.  We decided we would have a coffee.  He was an interesting character, originally from Germany, I asked him if it was a traditional dance, he said “nah, I just make it up as I go, maybe in 100 years it will become a traditional Alsatian sword dance.”

Our final stop for the day was at a nice winery recommended by the sword dancer.  

As we went to pull out of our expensive parking I inserted the barcode paper I was given when I purchased the ticket to the machine that controlled the gate.  It said reading and then did nothing, I repeated this several times without the gate opening.  Finally I got out and tried several more times figuring it might work if I was standing next to it looking irritated.  As I was about to give up and go looking for help, a guy in a parking attendants uniform walked up and took the paper, he tried a couple of times, then punched my code into his electronic device to make sure I was not trying to get away with something.  He finally started muttering about technology in French while he worked on getting the gate to open, it finally did and with a Voila and an apology we were on our way to Colmar.

May 5, 2019 Riquewihr FR

The weather had gotten a little better overnight after heavy rain as we fell asleep.  While it was still pretty cold and cloudy it was not raining.  Today we visited Riquewihr and Ribeauville.  They are both listed as must see villages in Alsace.  

The first stop was Riquewihr as we could walk there from our campground.  As we were walking into town Ton stopped me and pointed at what I thought was a wineshop. It turns out she had read about this excellent microbrewery in Ribeauville and we had found it.  We went in sampled their IPA and a Belgian Dark.  Both were excellent.  Refreshed, we headed into town.  The town was as beautiful as the guidebooks suggested, but very tourist oriented.  

The entry into Riquewihr.

As we were walking up and down the streets we saw a large group of Asian tourists and presumed they were Chinese.  It turns out they were Thai.  After spending a couple of hours in town Ton had killed the battery on her iPhone taking pictures so we decided to head back to François for lunch and to charge her phone.

After lunch we headed over to Ribeauville.  It was a short drive over in François.  Ribeauville was supposed to be larger but less picturesque than Riquewihr according to both of our guidebooks.  Since it was Sunday the parking was easy.  Our first site on entering the town were two storks nesting on a large timber building.

Storks are a big thing in Alsace.  They build these stork nest platforms in towns and fields to keep the storks from nesting on chimneys and utility poles.

Storks are a big thing in Alsace.  They build these stork nest platforms in towns and fields to keep the storks from nesting on chimneys and utility poles.

Ribeauville is in a valley surrounded by vineyards with three castles overlooking it.  The combination of colorful timbered houses, the vineyards and the castles make for some great views.  

In fact despite the guidebooks Ton and I liked Ribeauville a little better.  It had more of the timbered homes, and it felt less like a tourist town and more like a real town that had great views.

A collection of half timbered buildings from Riquewihr and Ribeauville.

As we were walking thru town we came on a different group of Asian tourists, and much to our surprise they were also Thai.  It is a rare day when the only Asian tourists you meet in France, are Thai.  This time I could not resist and one of the Thai couples were taking turns turns taking pictures of each other so I asked them in Thai if they wanted me to take their picture.  They were pretty startled to have a pharang (white guy in Thai) speaking Thai to them.

This little guy was in the field next to where we parked François, who can resist a cute lamb.

May 4, 2019 Riquewihr FR

The weather has been pretty mediocre.  Nearly every day has had some showers and most days the highs have been in the 50’s and lows in the low 40’s so we have been using more gas than normal.  Today was supposed to be particularly bad with rain pretty much all day, highs in the low 40’s and lows around freezing.  When we woke up this morning the weather app had a pretty ominous warning in French about a chance of snow.  We got on the road early to cover about 120 km’s to Alsace before the worst of the weather set in.

Our Garmin did pretty good routing us for the first half of the trip until near the end she decided to take a short cut over a winding mountain road.  We were in the Vosges which are a pretty major mountain range and even the main roads were pretty twisty.  

Ton tried to talk me into ignoring her and stay on the main road, but I figured what the heck.  The road was a little narrow and steep and ultimately pretty but while it may have saved 10 km’s it came at the cost of about 20 km’s at 40 kph as we negotiated hairpin curves while going up and down various mountains, so we did not come out ahead.

Views from our “shortcut”, note the snow on the mountain in the background.

We are planning to spend the next few days in the Alsace wine region.  The Alsace is on the border with France and Germany and over the last 250 years has changed hands between the two countries 4 times.  It is an interesting mix of French and German cultures.  

After we settled in the temperature dropped the wind kicked up and the rain starting pounding.  Some days you just need to hunker down and wait out the weather.  In the evening we did get a little walk in to break the cabin fever. 

A view of Beblenheim the little village next to our campground.
Ton likes this because my coat matches the poppies.

November 17, 2019 Gron FR

Today was cleaning and packing day.  On Sundays what little that is open is open between 9am to Noon, so we headed out early to Auchan.  I asked to head to Leclerc because I wanted to try to get some LP gas so we could be toasty tonight.  Unfortunately the LP gas pumps were closed for Sunday, so I will cross my fingers that it does not get too cold tonight and I will set the thermostat a little lower than I wanted.  Bad planning on my part as I thought we would be fine for the rest of the trip.

At Leclerc we did find a very nice carwash that was better than the one we had used in the past.  So I spent a half hour pressure washing François while Ton worked on cleaning the interior.  The next stop was Auchan to buy some food for dinner, and to give Ton a last walk thru a grocery on this trip.  When we got there Ton told me to get lost for an hour so she could pack and I would just be in the way.

The Yellow Vests in Sens.

As we were leaving Auchan we saw the major traffic circle on the main road had been taken over by the Yellow Vests.  Today was the first anniversary of the Yellow Vest movement in France.  It has been covered lightly in the US.  It is a protest movement against some of the rationalization of the French economy that has been proposed by their President Macron.  The folks come out every Saturday and sit in the middle of the traffic circles that are all around France. They occasionally enter the circles and slow down traffic.  Unfortunately the protests today became violent in Paris, though the one we saw in Sens seemed very peaceful and was mostly people standing around a bonfire keeping warm.  On the way back to the aire we came across another group occupying a different traffic circle who were motorcyclists, we were not sure what they were protesting but one of the signs seemed to say that there were too many photo radars.  While we were waiting to get thru the circle one lady came barreling around the cars in line and tried to force here way thru the circle while shouting and getting shouted at by the motorcycles.


October 4, 2019 Gron FR

Today we moved about 5km’s to our favorite aire at Gron.  Jet lag won the day and neither one of us were moving around until about 11:30 so we decided to take care of a couple of more things around our base in Sens before hitting the road tomorrow.

The biggest thing was to fill up the LP and top off the fuel in François.  It looks like we will have some cool nights so the heater is going to be running.  They have been having a drought around here so of course we show up and bring them three days of rain and cool weather.

One small adventure happened today.  E. Leclerc is one of our favorite grocery chains in France and the one in Sens has propane and relatively cheap fuel so we decided to head over there.  It is not pay at the pump so we had to circle thru the pay station twice to take care of our two different fuel needs.  

When we finished the fuel merry go round we headed over to the parking lot for the store, and they had installed height barriers restricting the parking lot to 2.3 meters (François is 2.9 meters).  We have shopped here on every trip so I thought they must have at least one part of their large parking lot open to Campers, and as we drove around the lot the last entrance had the height barriers open so we pulled in and parked.  After we finished our shopping we came out and while we were in the store they had closed the height barrier.  

An example of the height barrier used to keep RV’s like François out.

As I was trying to sort out how we were going to escape another Camper pulled up.  We had a short conversation in sign language and Franglish where he told me (and I am paraphrasing greatly) that his camper was 2.8m and he fit under the sign.  Meanwhile a couple of cars had pulled up behind us and were watching us figure this out, then a third car came up and began blowing his horn where upon we both gave him a big Gallic shrug, like what do you want.  The guy in the shorter camper went under the bar without hitting, and then got out to guide me thru.  Taking it slow we escaped under the barrier, and with a shake and a bon journey we were on our way to the aire to finish our day.

October 3, 2019 Sens FR

Started the day by going over to retrieve François from storage at Eurocamping Cars.  The next stop was Garage Alary to get some new tires installed on François.  The designated English speaker Abdelsem did a good job of making us feel welcome.  Two hours later we have new tires and were on our way to Sens for some grocery shopping.

I misread the gauge on the control panel and thought the battery was down on François so instead of going to the free aire in Gron we usually stay in we went to the pay aire in Sens as it provides electricity.  As it turns out we had electricity, not water.  So instead of staying in Gron for free with free water, the pay aire in Sens charges an extra 2 euro for 10 minutes of water.  My first mistake of the trip on the first day.  I tried to convince Ton it is better here because their is a Lidl across the street to shop in, but she knows better.

François parked in the aire in Sens.

We finished the day up with a short trip to Lidl and an early supper.  Tonight will be an early one as we are both quite jet lagged.

April 29, 2019 Gron FR

Today we slept in until a little after 9am, and then headed over to Veron.  Our first linguistic adventure of the day was with the front desk clerk.  Her English was very good and she had spent a year in the US as an exchange student.  We asked her for a taxi and she asked where we wanted to go I replied Veron, she did not understand, so I tried again and she did not understand, so I wrote it down and she giggled and said oh the village next to hers.  I was pronouncing it Ve-RON, and it  should have been VER-on.

We picked up François and settled up our storage bill for the winter.  Next stop was Auchan where we picked up a few groceries to get us started, with a promise from me to Ton to return tomorrow to finish up.  We moved over to the aire in Gron which is conveniently located to all of the shopping and Ton spent the afternoon setting up the van with minimal help from me, I mostly tried to stay out of the way.

François settling in with our American and French neighbors.

We were in the middle of our meal when a van similar to ours pulled in to the spot next to ours.  As they were backing in I heard the directions being given with a distinctive American accent so we stuck our heads out to say hello.  Thom and Karen Metcalf had picked up their new to them Knaus a few days earlier and were getting some last minute things taken care of.  We had a nice conversation with them and enjoyed their stories of traveling the world.  They had a cool portable washing machine that Ton is interested in hearing how well it works as finding places to wash clothes is her pet peeve.

April 28, 2019 Sens FR

The flights today were courtesy of Alaska and American Airlines.  Both flights were quite full, and the American flight had the tightest seats we have seen in quite a while.  Ton managed to get a little sleep while I was up the whole flight.  

To get from the airport in Paris to Sens is a fairly straightforward.  You catch a subway into Paris for about 40 minutes, you then transfer to another subway that takes you to the train station.  From Paris to Sens is about a one hour train ride, unfortunately it is not one of the cool high speed trains but just a little local.  The most difficult thing about the trip is lugging the suitcases thru the subway and on and off the trains.

We arrived in Sens about 2pm, checked into the hotel and slept for a couple of hours until supper.  We had a Chinese Buffet as it was the only option near the hotel besides McDonalds.  The Chinese was interesting as in every country the food is adapted to local tastes. In this case this means in addition to the usual suspects of fried rice, and noodles, fish, and calamari, there were “Chinese” frog legs, and snails.  The frog legs were quite good actually.

November 4, 2018 Gron FR

The weather is definitely going towards winter.  No frost this morning but very dense fog.  Over night we were joined by 4 other RV’s so it was not the quiet night we had expected.  

We had two main chores to accomplish today, wash our clothes and particularly the sheets and towels, and give François a bath inside and out.

Of the two chores the most dicey looked to be getting the laundry done.  We normally do our laundry at campgrounds as they usually have washers and dryers, but as the camping season is done, none of the campgrounds are open.  Last night we googled laundromats in Sens and only got one response and it is right in the middle of the old city.  We decided to head in there early to see if it did exist and if we could find a place to park reasonably close to the laundromat.  It did exist and after a small adventure down one way roads we found a place to park only 10 minutes away.  The first chore done, we headed over to Auchan and gave François a bath.  The next trip Ron is going to have to lay on some proper vehicle washing supplies.

Today is Sunday so by the time we finished those two chores everything was closed.  We headed back to Gron, and spent the afternoon cleaning up François’ interior and packing.  

Gron, the small village where we are spending the night.

In the evening we took a quick stroll around the park next to the aire.  The village has planted some apple trees in the park.  Each tree is a different variety, and they all still have fruit on them.  We were poking around looking at the apples when a couple from the village began encouraging us to eat them.  They were all delicious much to our surprise and you could really tell the differences in the varieties.

This fellow really encouraged us to take all we could.  Note the different varieties on the ground.
Ton’s favorite variety based on a taste test of the different apples.


November 3, 2018 Gron FR

We woke up to frost, another sign that it is time to probably be going.  In France most churches stop tolling there bells around 6 pm, but for some reason in Noyers they toll them all night, so I heard midnight counted off on the church bell.

The trip is pretty much in the maintenance phase at this point.  Today we headed towards Sens and began getting François ready to be put in the barn for the winter.  (in this case it literally is an old barn.)  After fueling up with diesel and propane our pockets were considerably lighter, due to a combination of expensive French diesel, and Ron letting the fuel gauge get into the red.  We stopped at Auchan to do some last minute gift shopping.  Ton had done an inventory of food and planned our last cooked meals, they are going to be large in order to get rid of all of the perishables.  

A village in Burgundy, one of many beautiful little villages tucked away in fields.

We have settled in in an aire in Gron and Ton is packing one of the suit cases.  This aire has this super high tech toilet unlike anything we have ever seen.  It is self cleaning, has a push button locking system, and dispenses soap, water, and air to dry out of a large fixture in the center.  Everyone who approaches it spends a few minutes studying how to operate the thing.

November 2, 2018 Noyers FR

As the trip is winding down we are less focused on seeing things and more focused on moving in the right direction.  Now we are not googling good places to visit, but where are laundromats, and car washes in Sens.  

Today though we decided to make a couple of stops, the first was Vezeley and the second was Noyers.  We miscalculated the time it would take to cover the 200km’s as the GPS after behaving itself for the whole trip decided to send us on a 80km adventure along one and one and a half lane D roads which slowed us down considerably.  Having said that the leaves are turning here and we did see some really beautiful countryside.  

One of the roads the GPS sent us down, luckily we did not run into anyone.

When we arrived at Vezaley we pulled up in the parking lot and both of us realized we had stopped here in the spring.  It is a beautiful place but it was getting late, so we decided to head to Noyers.  It was a good decision.

Fall colors.

We arrived in Noyers about 4pm and it made a good first impression.  We quickly got our warm clothes on as it is quite cold and spitting rain on and off.   The town is one of the best collections of half-timbered buildings we have seen in France, and has an air of pride and history that made us like it quite a lot. Ton saw a patisserie and decided she wanted an eclair, but after we bought it we realized it was something else, but never the less delicious.

A courtyard of half timbered buildings in various states of restoration.
Two more examples of half timbered buildings.
A nice window surrounded by vines.

We ended the day in the gothic church at sunset and the stained glass windows were perfectly illuminated by the setting sun.  We are really looking forward to a walk in the morning, and the sun is supposed to be out then.  Right now the church bells are pealing and it is drizzling on the roof of François.  Tonight we are going to give François’ heating system a test as it is supposed to get down to freezing here.  

Stained glass at sunset.