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.
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.
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.
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.
Today the jet lag won, so we slept in very late. After we were finally going we had a nice lunch. As we were getting ready to head into town to see the sights in Sens, we met our neighbors who were a nice Australian couple Peter and Robyn who had rented a RV from French Motor Home Hire. After some introductions we realized that they were on the last day of their motorhome trip, and were trying to get rid of some stuff before they turned their RV in. As a result we received some things to stock our vehicle with. Their agenda for the day matched ours so we decided to walk into town together.
We visited the cathedral in Sens which adds to our list of magnificent cathedrals in France. The size and the intricacy of the construction is really awe inspiring. The special thing about the cathedral in Sens is the stained glass windows. They have examples from the 12th century thru to the 18th century. Sens cathedral is also where Thomas Beckett from England spent his years in exile, before returning to England to be executed by King Henry II.
The exterior of the cathedral in Sens.And the interior.
After spending some time in the cathedral we decided to try to find a store to get a French mobile phone. After some issues we decided that it would be good to get a local phone. There was supposed to be an Orange store in downtown Sens, but when we got there it was out of business. We also decided to make a final stock run to Auchan and Lidl for more food. Now our refrigerator is really stuffed.
We had separated from Peter and Robyn to take care of the phone, but when we returned we ended up joining them for a beer and to exchange stories and information about places to go. One beer led to a couple, and we ended up at a Pizza place across from the aire. It was a great night and we hope we run into them again in the future in our travels.
Today we picked up François the motorhome at France Motorhome Hire. Sally and Simon did a great job walking us thru the paperwork and showing us around the motorhome. It was a pretty easy to learn how to operate as we bought the same motorhome that we had rented in the spring.
When we bought the motorhome we did add three things; one is an inverter so we can have access to the power points when we are not plugged in, we also added a solar panel and a second battery to give us the power to stay off the grid for a few days if necessary. In addition we added a safe for obvious reasons. The last thing we added was a propane system that allows us to fill the tanks at LPG gas pumps in gas stations. This should allow us to avoid the issue of incompatible bottles and regulators from country to country in Europe.
Our first stop after unpacking was to head over to fill the LP system. Ron was a little worried as Propane dispensing in the US is not something that is done self-service, but when all was said and done it went pretty smoothly. Since the gas filling station was next to a grocery we made our first stop for groceries. After that we headed to the Aire (For those of you who did not follow us on our rental adventure in France an Aire is an overnight spot for RV parking that is not a campground, usually a parking lot designated for overnight stays, very common in France.) The Aire here is quite nice as it used to be the municipal campground. It is conveniently located next to a Lidl grocery, and is walking distance to downtown.
All things must end. Last night there was a heck of a storm that woke us both up. For the second time we had a thunderstorm in France with a pretty healthy dumping of rain, even possibly some hail. We spent the morning packing up and cleaning François so that we can have a quick and easy turn around tomorrow before heading to Paris.
We left Merry around 11 am with about 80km’s to cover to the Aire we spent our first night in. The GPS finally decided to cooperate and kept us on good 2 lane D roads, and even decided to by-pass a couple of towns rather than send us thru the middle of them. As a result we made really good time getting to St. Julien.
The wine has been fantastic in France so I thought we would include a picture of the plant that has added a lot of fun to the trip for us.
We needed to fill up the fuel, and after that we had some time to kill. As it is Sunday nearly everything but restaurants are closed. Across from the gas station was a McDonalds, and we thought why not? This was the most high tech McDonalds I have ever seen. You ordered your food at a 4 foot touch screen. One interesting thing is that we had heard that we might run into trouble with our American credit cards here, and for the entire trip we had never had a problem paying with our credit cards until today at McDonalds. The giant screen rejected all three of our chip cards, so we had to take our little slip up to the one cashier on duty and pay for our 2 coffees and fries with cash!
Our night in the parking lot at Flavigny was uneventful, except after the warm nights in Provence it was quite chilly back in Burgundy. When we woke up and got going Ton decided that the candy tins at the factory here in Flavigny would be great gifts so we needed to kill time until it opened at 930.
Ton remembered there were some spectacular canola fields as we came into town. We decided to take a short walk up to get a closer look. It was a nice walk and we enjoyed being out in the quiet French countryside.
Ton in front of a huge field of Canola. This is the last canola photo, we promise.
After completing our purchase at the candy factory we headed over to the town of Vezeley. It is another one of the most beautiful villages in France. We were back on D roads of Burgundy. The countryside in Burgundy is definitely much quieter than the countryside in Provence, so the drives are a lot more enjoyable and the scenery is terrific.
A town in Burgundy. The roads in Burgundy are much quieter than in Provence.
Several people we had met on the trip said that Vezalay was a town not to miss. It is another of the most beautiful villages in France, and as you drive towards the town it is quite striking. The weather has taken a turn for the worst with temperatures in the 50’s and on again, off again rain. But we caught a gap while we walked up the hill to Vezeley’s Cathedral. The town was interesting and pretty but once again felt touristy, especially compared to Flavigny. While we were in the cathedral a mass started with about 15 nuns coming out to join the mass.
The Cathedral in Vezeley. It is a very striking white color, and interesting because it has less art in place than other Cathedral’s we have visited.
The last stop of the day was at Merry-Sur-Yonne which has a nice ring to it. The campground here is first class, and the bridge into the small village over the river Yonne is quite pretty. Ton has declared it the nicest campground she has been in, though we both did grumble a little about paying €19 after several nights of free or nearly free camping. However, the warm reception from the British owner, warm unlimited showers and the electricity have reduced the grumbling. At the end of the day we walked down to the Yonne River and had a quiet end to our day.
The bridge over the Yonne River near our campground.
Today we had to bite the bullet and do some freeway travel. We needed to get north so we can be in position to turn François in on Monday. So we put 300km’s under our belt in one long leap. We choose the town of Flavigny-Sur-Ozerain as it was the site where one of Ton’s favorite movies was filmed, Chocolat with Johnny Depp and Juliette Binoche. It is also on the list of one of the most beautiful villages in France.
A street scene from Flavigny, one of the most beautiful villages in France.
The trip north on the Autoroute was uneventful even though the GPS insisted on routing us right thru the heart of Lyon (France’s second biggest city) instead of taking the bypass that all of the trucks did. However, traffic was not too bad so Ron forgave her and we did get to see Lyon at 70kph.
Since we last left Burgundy the canola has really grown.
We arrived in Flavigny around 2pm and found it quite peaceful. Our first stop was a candy factory in an old Abby that has been producing Anis based candies since 1591. After some sampling of the wares again we purchased some tins of the candy.
A cool Renault RV with the logo of the candy factory we visited today.
All of the other most beautiful villages felt a little commercial, Flavigny most definitely did not. We spent about 20 minutes looking for the tourist information office when we realized we had walked past it twice before noticing the sign in the window saying it was closed until July. We wanted the tourist information office to see if it would be all right to spend the night in their parking lot. After walking around the town for a couple of hours and enjoying an afternoon coffee and beer, we finally decided on our own that it was ok to park as there was no police in the town to ask. Right now we have finished our dinner and are enjoying some wine in a very peaceful and serene parking lot, with birds chirping in the background.
Ron at one of the medieval gates to the city of Flavigny.
Last night we decided to head south for the trip. It took us up to now to finalize our plans, though we are going to make daily plans so how far we move each day is up to debate. The problem is we keep finding things to do so we are not covering much distance. In fact after 6 days we are sill in Burgundy and are only 175 miles from our starting point.
Today we had two stops in mind, a cheese factory outside Dijon and the Cluny Abbey. The first stop was a factory that specializes in soft cheese manufacture. We did the self guided tour. This involved peering thru windows at workers who tried to look unimpressed and watching videos of the process. It was interesting if a little impersonal. The fun began at the end where we were given five cheeses to taste and of course some bread and wine to go with them. Ton really liked the cheeses as she likes softer cheeses. Ron is a cheddar fan which makes him pretty much a charlatan, at least in Burgundy.
Some of the workers in the plant performing one of the three cleanings each cheese gets.
Our long drive of about 60 miles began after that. On the way to Cluny we came to the town of Cormatin it was pretty well developed and we where trying to figure out why, when we saw an interesting Chateau on the river. We were already by it when we decided to go back and check it out. The signs said open, but the door to the ticket office was locked and the tourist office was also closed for lunch. So we had to settle for some photos over the fence before moving on to Cluny.
Looks like it would have been an interesting walk but we could not find anyone to take our 6 euros.
Our destination for today was the Abby of Cluny. At one time the largest building in Christendom before the building of St. Peters in Rome. On arrival in town we were looking for the town aire. After much circling around including one trip into the heart of the town down narrow one way streets we found a parking lot kind of in the right part of town. It had four or five RV’s parked up so we decided why not join them.
The original church went from the point of this photo to the spire below. That spire is one of the three that were in place in the church.
We headed into town to take the Abby tour. The Abby is now mostly in ruins with only 10% of the original buildings still standing. What is there is really impressive and it does not take much imagination to see the beauty of the remainder. The rest was lost because the order that originally built it ran out of money to maintain it and they ended up selling it to the town. The town then dismantled the church and sold the stone locally and in Paris. If it was standing today in it’s finished state it would surely be one of the biggest attractions in Burgundy if not France.
A view of the town of Cluny from the tower of Fromagges next to the Abby.
When we returned to our parking lot there were only two other RV’s left so Ron came to the conclusion that this was not the aire. After some googling he got a map to the aire. When we arrived it was clearly an aire. The problem was that instead of being free as advertised it cost 10euro, and you had to call the town police to pay up, and failure to call in a timely manner increased the cost to 22euro. Eventually we found a nice lady who made the call for us. So tonight we are watching a parade of horses go by to the local stables in the town Hippodrome next door.
Today we planned on spending the day exploring Dijon. The jet lag is finally wearing off and we woke up at a pretty normal time after sleeping thru the night.
Yesterday we had purchased a walking guide of Dijon from the Tourist Office. It is called The Owls Trail. On the main church in Dijon sometime in the 16th century someone (no one is sure who) added an owl on one of the side walls. The legend is that if you touch it with your left hand (the one closest to your heart) and make a wish it will come true.
The lucky owl on the side of the Church of Notre Dame. Notice how worn it is from all of the people looking for good luck.
They have embedded little owl plaques in the sidewalks thru out downtown and all you have to do is follow them in a loop to see most of the main sites in town. It really is a nice system and a fun way to make your way around town.
A sample of the cute owl embedded in the sidewalk.
Because today was market day we decided to start our Owls Tour at the market. The market building is a cast iron building built in 1875. The market was primarily meat and cheese, with the cheese places having the longest lines of locals. We did not end up buying anything but enjoyed window shopping.
Chickens prepared for cooking.
Following the owl around town we were overwhelmed with churches, old mansions, old shops, and palaces. To see so much first rate medieval and renaissance architecture in such a small area was impressive to Ron as it is his first visit to continental Europe.
Ron liked this building a lot.
Having spent a couple of hours wandering around Dijon we decided it was time for a break and some lunch. We went to a restaurant the winery had recommended yesterday and each had the Plat du Jour. The main course was a stuffed chicken with sauce and noodles. The desert was small plates including a pudding, a creme brulee, and an espresso. It was a good deal at 14 euro’s.
We did some window shopping in some of the modern stores, and a department store before deciding to head back to François (Ton decided that the RV was too classy for a name like Frenchy). Ron missed the turn heading out of town despite having done the exact same roundtrip yesterday, and led Ton on a 1/2 hour wander thru Dijon before finally getting back on track.
At the end of the day including Ron’s wandering around lost we posted over 10 miles on the Fitbit. Not bad for a couple of old people.
The jet lag is starting to wear off a bit and we were both up and moving around a little earlier. We were undecided about the day as it is supposed to rain this afternoon, and it was spitting a little this morning to give us a taste.
We did want to visit a winery and after much research Ton decided on Bernard Rion Sarl in the village of Vosnee Romanee. It was a great choice. We were met by the owners wife as we pulled up in front. She assigned us to Bastien who gave us a personal tour of the winery and poured about 8 or 9 wines for us to taste. During the pouring the wife came down and offered us some truffles and bread to go with the tasting from their kitchen. A little later the owner Bernard came in and said hello, and offered us some tips on where to find good beer in the area. We decided to buy only two bottles as we do not have a lot of room. Ron was very tempted by the Grand Cru but at 90 Euro a bottle it seemed a little extravagant for anything we could whip up in the RV. We instead settled for a couple of lessor wines that were still very good, and one we will save for a special night before we leave.
Ron pretending he is a tasting room worker in France.
As we are learning the system here we needed some more supplies so we popped in to another grocery store for some more stuff. After tasting some great wine, Ton was fascinated with the wine selection in the grocery and decided to buy a 1.99 Euro bottle to compare with what we had just tasted. We are drinking it as we write this and it is quite enjoyable, though not up to the standard of Bernard Rion Sarl.
Bird along the Canal De Bourgogne. Not a species we are familiar with.
When we arrived at Dijon the weather was not very threatening so we decided to head into town. It was about a mile and half walk mostly along the river to the old part of town. Tomorrow we are going to explore the town seriously, but today we visited the Musee Del Bel Artes in the old Duke of Bourgogne’s palace. It was a very impressive museum with great medieval art and armaments. The palace itself is massive and reflects the power the Duchy of Bourgogne had during the early Renaissance period. It was under construction so there will be more to see in the future.
The square outside the Duke of Bourgogne’s palace.
We decided to head back a little early as the sky was starting to threaten rain. We made it back just in time before a really large thunderstorm moved thru the area complete with lightning and a real gully washer of rain that would have competed with any thunderstorm in the mid-west.
We are still fighting a bit of jet lag so we had another slow start to the day. We finally hit the road about 1030 for the 120 km trip to Beaune. We told the GPS to avoid tolls so we found ourselves driving thru some really beautiful country on roads that ranged from two good lanes with passing zones every few miles to 11/2 lane roads thru small villages. We probably only averaged about 40mph but it was worth it for the view.
This stretch of road is typical with fields and small villages. This stretch was not particularly narrow.
We arrived in Beaune around lunch time with the intent of checking out the free aire, but we missed the sign going thru town despite the really light traffic. We saw the sign for the municipal campground and decided to go ahead and pay up for the night.
After a nice lunch prepared by Ton we headed into Beaune. It is a well preserved medieval city. Our primary stop for the day was going to be the Hospices De Beaune. On the walk there, and as we were entering the downtown “tourist” core suddenly there were sirens converging on the area in mass. Unfortunately in these times we were worried that something really bad was happening. As it turned out Beaune is hosting a “Police Film Festival” this weekend, and what we heard were a bunch of guys whose hobby is to fix up cars and dress like foreign police. So when we got down town we were treated to the site of a bunch of American Police cars including two NYPD, one California Highway Patrol and one LAPD cruiser. There was also a 1950’s Cadillac painted as an Oklahoma Highway Patrol Car. While the theme was definitely American there were a couple of antique French Police Cars, and a group of guys dressed up like Italian Carabiniere (national police) complete with a Maserati.
One of several “American” Police cars we came across in Beaune.
The Hospice De Beaune was built in 1443 and was active as a Hospital until 1972. The thought that went into it is quite impressive for its time and allowed it to function for over 500 years. But this being France it was partially endowed by the production of wine on site, and the wine from the Hospice is still very sought after.
The roof of the Hospice de Beaune is done in a traditional Burgundian style with colored tiles.
The original plan for today was to visit Auxerre which is an interesting looking medieval town. We are both fighting jet lag so after some conversation at 130 am we both finally fell asleep until after 9am. So the day got off to a late start. The first stop was another grocery store to pick up the things we missed yesterday.
After that we headed into Auxerre to find a place to park. The first choice was going to be the Aire but it was closed. We then decided to bite the bullet and go to the municipal campground, when we arrived the office was staffed, but it turns out it was also closed. They recommended a place in Vincelles and after some wandering around admiring the countryside we ended up in a nice campground, the receptionist informed me that we were the first Americans he had ever checked in, at first he could not find the US in the database in his computer and asked if we minded being listed as British, but a few seconds later he proudly informed us that he had found the US and we would be listed properly in their database.
After a quick lunch we headed to the Bailley Lapierre Caves. The caves were originally an under ground stone quarry to supply building in Paris and operated from the middle ages till the 1920’s. It was converted to a wine production facility in 1972. The scale is impressive as we drove the RV (Ton is calling it Frenchy) into the cave for parking. The entire facility is underground in the caves leftover from the quarry. The tour was pretty interesting though we both regretted our lack of French. We tasted some brut at the end and while we are generally not big fans of sparkling wine we enjoyed this one.
In addition to the wine there is some nice art work along the way.
We finished the day with a nice walk along the canal and River Yonne. The mustard is in full flower and the yellow fields lined the river. It was quite nice.
Mustard field with old church whose bells we have been listening to all day.
Today was going to be one of the most stressful travel days for us as we had to make our way from Charles de Gaulle airport to Paris and then on by train to a town called Sens where we would be picked up to go to the depot to pick up our RV.
After much consulting of web sites Ron decided the best way to accomplish the first leg of the trip CDG (Airport code) to Gare de Lyon station was by metro. It looked pretty straight forward The B train from CDG to a stop in Paris and then transfer to the A train for one stop to Gare de Lyon. Everything was going swimmingly until it came to the transfer. The train was packed when it was time to get off and of course we had not just ourselves to get off but two very large bags. We were definitely two salmon swimming up stream and it did not look like we were going to make it off the train, when suddenly two very large, young French gentlemen decided to take our side. Whatever they shouted at the people around us and coming onto the train worked wonders and suddenly a clear lane to the door opened up and we popped out on to the platform. We did not have a chance to thank them as the rush to board the train restarted as soon as we were off, but they have some good karma coming.
The next stop was Gare de Lyon station where our first linguistic adventure began. We had to get from the metro to the main train station and purchase tickets for the train. We saw an information kiosk so I decided to ask how to get to the station and purchase a ticket to Sens. Quickly I was presented with two tickets and asked for 14 Euro. This didn’t seem right as I had read it would cost us 40 Euro to get to Sens but paid anyway. I asked how to get to the platform and was given a map of Paris with a stop circled. After some further discussion and the intervention of someone in line it became clear that the tickets were not what I needed, we needed to move on to another part of the station and our money was refunded. When we found ourselves in the right place Ron decided to not take a chance on any further linguistic issues and bought the tickets from a machine.
We arrived in Sens during lunch and decided on another kebab place. We know we are in France but we both really like kebab, and it is the cheapest food being offered. We were gathered up by Alice from the RV company along with a British group. We were smoothly processed by Alice and her husband Mario who are Portuguese and world travelers themselves.
After our first shopping in France at a very large and new Auchan (grocery chain)it was getting late so we headed over to the campground Ron had picked out. It was close and we thought we would indulge in electricity for the first night. When we got there though we were met by a closed gate and the owner who explained to us they were closed though we did not quite understand the why. So instead we ended up in the town aire which is free and looks pleasant.
