Tag: Burgundy

April 7, 2018 Vincelles FR

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.


April 6, 2018 St. Julien de Sault FR

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.

Also, wanted to say Happy Birthday to Ton.