We woke up early with only two things in mind for the day. Head over to the Valrhona Chocolate company, and then jump in François and do a marathon drive on the Autoroute to Sens.
Both missions were accomplished, when we went out for our walk to the chocolate company we were surprised to see two river cruise ships tied up to the docks right next to the campground. The fog was dense and you could barely see them but they loomed in the dark. We think all of the passengers had already taken off for their day trips as the crew of one of the ships were engaged in a vigorous snow ball fight on the top deck, which is usually used for the passengers to enjoy the sun and the views.
We arrived at the factory and Ton did some sampling and shopping while I sampled and tried to figure out why our internet was out of order. Ton was much more successful than I was. After much sampling and comparison we departed Valrhona with a kilo of chocolate to take home to Oregon.
We quickly packed up and headed to the autoroute. At the entrance I was distracted going up to the gate where you get the ticket to enter. In France they have a Telepass system where you put a transponder in the car and do not need to stop at the toll gates. As I drove up to one of the two entrance gates I was not paying attention, so when I pulled up to the machine that usually dispenses the ticket you need, nothing happened, and then after a few seconds a recording began lecturing me in French about the fact that I had entered the Telepass gate, after about 20 seconds of being scolded in French, and having a picture taken of our plate (there was a flash at the rear of François which I presume was a camera going off), the machine dispensed the ticket we needed, the barrier went up and we were on our way. I fear there may be a fine in our future.
The rest of the day consisted of us navigating the 430 km’s on the autoroute, and paying a huge toll at the end. Before heading back to the aire in Gron which is our normal beginning and end of trip stop, we also filled up a thirsty François to the tune of €120. The days when we see the least are often the most expensive.