France – Page 3 – RV Travels in Europe and North America

September 30, 2018 Blaye FR

We had an early start to the day. The weather continues to be great, highs in the low 70’s and lows in the low 50’s. We headed into Bordeaux which is the home of Cabernet Sauvignon, the area we wanted to visit produces some of the most expensive wines in France.

Our Dutch App that we use to locate places to stay recommended we stay at a winery called the Marquis de Vauban. It was free so we punched it in as we left Rochefort, after a nice relaxing Sunday drive of about 110Km’s we arrived. Our expectation was a spot in a parking lot. We were very pleasantly surprised to find we are parked right in the vineyard of the winery with electricity, and water provided. We went into the tasting room and signed up for the 4pm English tour.

We had a few hours to kill so we walked into the town of Blaye to see the fortifications there which is a UNESCO world heritage site. This is another fort designed by the French designer Vauban, (the same guy our winery is named after). It was designed in 1660 on the site of a medieval fort on the River Gironde. The Gironde is the largest River estuary in Europe and it is about 3 miles wide here. The purpose of the fort was to protect Bordeaux from ships coming up the Gironde. It is an immense fort and was put to the test in 1814 when the British besieged it. The fort withstood the siege and kept the British from getting down the Gironde. It was decommissioned after WWII and turned over to the town.

Looking across the Gironde River towards the town of Paulliac. Goats have taken over one of the outer parts of the fort.

An inland entrance to the fort with a bridge over the dry moat facing the town.

We took our winery tour and tasting with a couple from Wales. After the tour we took a nice horse carriage ride into town to top off the night. While we were relaxing there was a knock on the door of the RV and it was the guide from the horse carriage wanting to know if we wanted an aperitif for the night, of course we did. The aperitif was poured from a used Evian water bottle. After everyone from the campground got their glass he asked what it was, we had no idea, but felt better when none of the other guests knew either. It turned out it was blackberry currant mixed with red wine. It was delicious. After that we returned to the RV to have our dinner, and call home.

This black swan was out looking for dinner outside the RV.

September 29, 2018 Rochefort FR

Today we reluctantly left Brittany and decided to take a big bite out of our trip to Spain. We covered over 350km today to the city of Rochefort. The roads were generally good and for almost half of the way were limited access free ways with no tolls.

Rochefort is an interesting town. It was founded in 1666 to support a naval yard that was placed here by one of the kings. Unlike any French city we have ever visited it is actually laid out in a grid. The town itself had a kind of Mediterranean/California vibe. Ton thought it was kind of boring, but Ron was comfortable in a town he could navigate in without getting lost!

Even thought the roads were straight there was still a nice old gate in Rochefort.

We made another attempt at getting a French phone. The guy at the Orange store (the biggest French mobile phone company), was really nice, but basically told us that there were no good solutions to our problem. We could either get a standard French mobile plan and pay the monthly cost, or get a sim card that only works in France and nowhere else in Europe. We are going to keep trying, there must be a way to make this work.

We went down to the old naval yard. It was a major producer of vessels for the French Navy from 1660 to the 1920’s. In addition to building French Ships of the Line (really big sailing battle ships) and Frigates like the USS Constitution, it also built France’s first submarine (named the Plunger). Unfortunately the location was not good for larger modern ships and it was abandoned.

The French Frigate Hermione reconstructed.

Today they have a replica of the French Frigate Hermione. This ship is famous here for being the ship that took Lafayette to the US during the revolution. It is really well done.

After that we took a look around the ropery which was a large factory used to make all of the ropes used in the French Navy. By the end of the walk we headed to an aire for the night and relaxed.

The ropery building at the French Maritime Museum.

September 28, 2018 Dinan FR

Today we enjoyed Brittany. We had to make a decision, who said there is no stress on these trips. We are really enjoying Brittany and the weather is great. But to really explore Brittany is going to take another 3 or 4 days, and we will still be 3 or 4 days from Spain. We are now on the 11th day of the trip, and we are no closer to Spain than when we arrived. France is addictive. So we had to decide whether we spend time here in Brittany, or head south towards Spain. After much talk and discussion we decided today was going to be the only day in Brittany and we were going to head to Spain.

The next trick was getting diesel. Suddenly our credit cards have stopped working at gas stations. We have had no problems with our cards until now. A quick call to one of our credit cards confirmed we were good, and they did not even see the attempt to charge that was rejected. After a couple of attempts today we found a fuel station that would take one of our cards, we were under a quarter tank so it was expensive to fill up.

Leaving our campground we saw a nice windmill near the road so we swung in.

While we were there the French Army decided to stage a paradrop for us, Ron was thrilled. These guys landed right next to Mont St. Michel.

Having made the decision, Brittany is making it hard to leave. We started the day at St. Malo which is a port town. St. Malo was pretty much leveled during WWII as the German garrison would not surrender. After a substantial siege the Allies finally took it. So except for the city walls the city has pretty much been rebuilt since WWII. But they did a great job of rebuilding the old city within the walls of the fort.

We spent most of our time in St. Malo walking the battlements of the fort. St. Malo was a fortified port for 500 years. Some of the forts were built by the man who is considered by many to be the greatest fort builder in the western world, Vauban. They are indeed impressive, and were even able to pretty much withstand 20th century weapons during WWII. In addition the natural setting on the Bay of St. Malo is really beautiful. We really enjoyed St. Malo.

One of the forts designed by Vaubin. The bird in the foreground seemed very happy to have his photo taken.

Brittany was originally settled by Celts, and St. Malo has a strong connection to Wales. Ron believes his family name is originally Breton so it is a special place for him. They are famous for a cake called Kouign Amann. That is a good celtic word and we could not master how to pronounce it, but it tasted good. It tasted a little like an apple fritter.

We had the smallest Kouign Amann. A prize for anyone who can pronounce this.

Our last stop for the day was Dinan which unlike St. Malo was bypassed during WWII and has a lot of its original buildings. It is also a fortified town, but here we focused on the town and enjoyed walking down the narrow streets within the fort and enjoying the timbered buildings.

Some of these wooden houses date from the 1500’s.

September 27, 2018 Mont St. Michel FR

There are two iconic images of France for tourism. One is the Eiffel Tower and the other is Mont. St. Michel. Since we were close by and it is off season we decided to head there and cross it off the bucket list.

Before we left the campground in Bayeux Ron had a touching conversation with an English lady. She came up to Ron and said that she recognized him from yesterday at the American Cemetery. She told him how moved she was by the sites there and the sacrifice of the young men who came to another continent to help. I told her that they were honored to do it, and explained to her that the families had the choice of burying them here or having the body transported home for burial. She teared up and said that she was honored that so many chose to be buried here. I am bad with tears and did not know what to say, but thanked her for her kind thoughts.

The Garmin had been choosing pretty easy routes on nice wide roads, but decided to test us today by sending us off on small D Roads for the first 30 km, including one that turned out to be closed for construction. After some wandering around on back roads we came out to a pretty major road and the next thing we knew we were on a nice freeway for the last 60km.

Mont St. Michel is a spectacular site and that is why it is an icon. We had a pretty good walk to the free shuttle to the island. The bus was packed, and the initial impression was of a big crowded tourist site, but it won us over. The site on the outcropping surrounded by mud flats is right out of any movie. The abby is both beautiful and a marvel of construction. Expecting something sterile and packaged we came away impressed.

A shot across the Knights Hall which was the dinner place for the Knights.

On the way back we had a nice snack of mussels with some Normandy Cider. We guessed that it was about a Kilo of mussels. The coffee style cups are for the cider.

We wanted to cap the night off with some pictures of the Mont at night. We walked down to the river to the bridge as we thought it would be a nice shot. Tonight is warm and there is not a breath of wind, and we are basically in a big swamp so the mosquitos were swarming. We fought them for about 30 minutes waiting for the lights to come on, but the mosquitos won and we headed back to François for the night with no pictures.

Not the shot with the Mont lit up like we wanted, but the mosquitos drove us home.

September 26, 2018 Coleville FR

We are still on the Normandy peninsula basically moving from the area of Utah Beach to Omaha Beach. We got a late start as we decided to take care of some housekeeping chores in the morning. After Ton paid some bills and we knocked out a load of laundry we headed out for Omaha Beach.

When we arrived at the center of Omaha Beach it was quite crowded with several bus loads of Americans taking their lunch break al fresco around the memorial. We poked around for a while and mourned with a fellow Oregonian about the football teams loss on Saturday to Stanford.

Standing on Omaha Beach in front of the Sculpture to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the battle.

Done with Omaha we headed over to the American Cemetery in Coleville. This cemetery is maintained by the US Battlefield Memorial Commission and is the final resting place for over 9000 soldiers and sailors from the battles around Normandy. After the war the families of the fallen were given a choice to have the bodies shipped home or buried in place, so this does not represent all of the Americans killed in the battle.

The view towards the memorial and reflecting pool.

The visitor center and the grounds are inspiring and a true honor to the young men who are there. The visitor center has an excellent display about WWII and D-Day. After you walk thru the visitor center you enter the grave sites, and the location overlooks Omaha Beach and the Atlantic. The site is immaculate and clearly lovingly taken care of by the French staff.

When we completed the tour at the cemetery we headed into Bayeux which is about the only major city that was not leveled during the invasion. It is also famous for the Bayeux Tapestry which is a famous medieval artwork. As we entered the city we made a quick stop at a Carrefour Market to re-stuff the refrigerator. We headed into the city but just missed our opportunity to see the tapestry as the museum was closing. We took a quick walk to look at the Norman style Cathedral, and then headed back to François for the night.

A gargoyle on the Cathedral at Bayeux. They are not only an interesting feature but actually serve as the drains for the gutters when it rains.

September 25, 2018 St. Mere-Egliese

Today we covered the most distance we have covered in one day on the trip, about 200 miles. We got up a little early, and the trip was pretty easy as the roads were frequently 4 lanes wide, and we did not have very many small villages to pass thru.

Our target for the day was Utah Beach from the Normandy invasion in 1944. Our first stop of our D-Day tour was at the Airborne Museum at St. Mere-Eglise. St. Mere-Eglise was the initial focus of the 82nd Airborne Division during the invasion. It is said to be the first town in France to be liberated by Americans during WWII. The museum itself is well done, focusing on the issues of the airborne forces during the invasion. It mostly covers the 82nd Airborne, but does also give information about the 101st Airborne. It is an interesting collection of equipment, weapons, and stories. One of the most interesting exhibits attempts to give you the feel of doing a night drop from a C-47 transport plane. It is quite interesting and gets your attention.

A US Sherman tank on Utah beach, this one is painted in the colors of the French LeClerc Division which landed here, and passed thru St. Mere-Eglise.

We also visited the church in town which is famous for the story of one paratrooper John Steel who had the misfortune of getting hung up on the steeple of the church where he was shot in the foot by a German, and played dead for several hours hanging in the air above the center of town. If you have seen “The Longest Day” movie about D-Day you will probably remember this story as it is featured in the movie.

The church at St. Mere-Eglise, note the replica of the parachutist hanging from the church.

We ended the day at Utah Beach to see the monuments there, and to walk on the beach. The monuments and displays we saw today were really touching, and shows the deep respect and thanks the French have for the Americans who landed here.

Ron standing on Utah Beach, evaluating the suitability of the beach for an amphibious landing.

Nothing to do with D-day, we saw this horse and rider driving thru the surf. We have no idea why.

September 24, 2018 Chartres FR

Our plan when we arrived was to head towards Spain, so of course we drove north today to Chartres. Along the way we decided to visit Normandy and Brittany on our way to Spain, so we had to divert north to get to Normandy.

We decided to visit Chartres primarily to see its Gothic Cathedral. We visited Sens Cathedral the other day which is billed as the first Gothic Cathedral, and Chartres is supposed to be the best example of a Gothic Cathedral. Chartres still has its’ original stained glass as during both wars they removed it and stored it safely. During WWII the cathedral was in danger as the allies moved towards Paris, but an American Colonel successfully negotiated with a German General to declare Chartres open, so there was no battle fought in the city.

The exterior of the Chartres Cathedral. Note the contrast between the recently cleaned upper part, and the uncleaned lower part. The maintenance of these buildings is daunting.

On our way out of Chinon we decided we wanted to visit a winery, we drove thru the countryside only to find it was closed. Disappointed again, we wrote off getting a taste of any Chinon wine, but on our way out of town Ton spotted the new tasting room for the winery we had driven out into the country to see. Pierre and Bertrand Couly had opened a new tasting room on the highway to Chartres, Chinon Red wines are what we call Cabernet Franc in the US. We spoke to the wife of the owner and she did a great job explaining the wines of the area. She was aware of Oregon wines as her husband had spent some time at Sokol Blosser winery in Oregon in the 1980’s.

The very fine winery Pierre & Bertrand Couly. As the owner said you do not have to have an old facility to make traditional wines.

The three hour drive to Chartres was uneventful as the “N” road that we used most of the way was quite good. We parked in a free overnight spot, and walked about a mile into town to see the cathedral. The cathedral was indeed impressive, and the interior stain glass windows were among the best we have seen in France. The cathedral was constructed in the early 1200’s after the previous Romanesque Cathedral had burned. The cathedral is deservedly a UNESCO world heritage site. Besides admiring the beauty of the building we also again discussed the maintenance of these immense buildings. Just keeping the exterior clean is a full time job.

One of the stain glass “Roses” at Chartres, this one dates from around 1210 and is the original glass.

After touring the cathedral we decided not to wait for the light show, so we walked back to François. Frankly we were a little peeved with one of the attendants who would not let us take the last crypt tour, and did it in a way that seemed unnecessarily officious to us while simultaneously refusing to speak English, even though we had just heard him giving an explanation of the tour in perfect English to another person. I hope he was just having a bad day. We had a light dinner and a relatively early night as we have a long drive to Normandy tomorrow.

Some of the art work inside the Cathedral.

September 23, 2018 Chinon FR

We woke up to another blustery day. The weather forecast called for rain most of the day and they were right. We are trying to get back into the rythym of France, and we forgot that Sundays are really a day of rest.

Our plans were to drive to two towns to visit wineries and walk around the towns. Most of the drive today was on a road which is on top of a levee for the Loire River, it was quite pretty, and would have been even better if it was not raining most of the way.

This was about the only blue sky we saw today.

The first town we stopped at was Bourgueil. It seemed like a nice enough town and there were a bunch of wineries that looked interesting but everything was closed up. We took a quick stroll thru town and then it started to rain so we headed back to François.

The Abby in Bourgueil. Built around 1150.

We had decided to treat ourselves to a proper campground with showers and indoor plumbing so we are parked in the municipal campground looking at the Fort of Chinon. When we arrived it was raining quite hard so Ton made a nice lunch, and prepared dinner while Ron lounged around in bed until the rain stopped.

The Fort of Chinon, with the town below it behind the trees.

The castle at Chinon is another medieval fort that is partly in ruins but dominates the area. It is quite a climb to the top so we decided to take a look at it from the bottom of the hill, and head to a winery that google said was open. We had a walk thru the town which also has some examples of half timbered homes which are common in the area. It was a nice walk and it did not rain which was a good thing because the winery was not open. Finally learning that Sunday is indeed a day of rest (despite what google might think) we headed back to François had dinner, a long hot shower, and listened to the rain on the roof.

The French often refer to the retail part of a winery as the Cave, it is the French equivalent of cellar. In this case it really is a cave.

September 22, 2018 Chateau de Chambord FR

Well, plans change. We had originally planned to go to Orleans for the day, but last night we discussed spending a few days in the Loire Valley. When we woke up it was spitting rain and a little windy, The Weather Channel said it was going to improve as the day went on so we decided to skip Orleans, and head to Chateau de Chambord.

Ron plugged a GPS coordinate into the Garmin which was supposed to be for the motorhome parking at the Chateau and we took off. The Garmin said it was only a 68km drive, and the roads were good. Right at the end we started to think something was amiss as we suddenly started to get on smaller and smaller roads and this is maybe the largest tourist attraction in the Loire Valley. At the end the GPS proudly announced we had arrived, but we were looking at a field next to a little village. Either Ron inputed the coordinates wrong or the coordinates were wrong in the app we use to find places to stay. Anyway after a little more research we were on our way to the Chateau.

Thirty minutes later we arrived and what a first impression. The chateau is magnificent in scale. As we walked up to the entrance Ton said that this must cost a fortune to maintain. This would become a theme of the day.

The first view of the Chateau, it really is immense.

The Chateau was originally constructed from 1519 to 1547 by King François I. It is built in the Renaissance style and has 11 towers on the roof that are supposed to look like Istanbul.

The rear of the chateau from the immense gardens.

While it is really something to look at it is indeed difficult to maintain. When you watch the movie of the history of the Chateau it goes something like this, François builds it, and then loses interest in it and it deteriorates, another king gives it to someone who spends a fortune on it and then loses interest and it deteriorates, it passes to another owner who spends a fortune etc. In fact it may be the greatest white elephant in France.

The ceiling on the third floor, the salamander was the symbol of François I.

It is now maintained by the French National Park Service and they are clearly spending a fortune to restore and maintain it. Hopefully they will succeed as it is worth keeping.

These gardens were just restored last year.

September 21, 2018 Orleans FR

It was time to get moving. Last night with some encouragement from Robyn we decided to head to Normandy. Orleans seemed like a good first leg for the trip. The first few days of the trip the weather had been perfect, but when we woke this morning it was just starting to rain. It pretty much rained the whole way to Orleans though the roads were good and pretty stress free.

Our first stop was the aire which is about 5km from the city center. When we got there the weather was still pretty unsettled so we decided that Orleans could wait for tomorrow and settled in. The one thing interesting was the aire shared its space with the local pétanque club which is the French version of Bocci. Unlike other pétanque games we had watched this group was really good.

In the evening we decided to take a stroll on the footpath along the River Loire. Not expecting much we were surprised when around a bend in the river about 200 yards from the campground there was a really nice church. Exploring a little further we came into a little village with a park on the grounds of an old Chateau. It was an unexpected find for us.

September 20, 2018 Sens FR

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.

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.

September 19, 2018 Sens FR

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.

Our new to us RV François in the Aire at Sens.

September 17-18, 2018 Sens FR

Another easy travel day with everything working as it should courtesy of United Airlines. Both of our flights actually departed a little early, and with an early departure we arrived in Paris an hour early.

As we had 4 bags this time between our clothes and stuff to equip François the motorhome, we decided to hire a car for the drive to Sens. This was a little pricey but we have no regrets given the logistics, and we certainly saved more in bringing the two bags worth of stuff over from the US than we spent hiring the car.

We arrived at the Ibis hotel in Sens before 1pm on Tuesday with no problems or adventures, we took a nap. After the nap we headed over to the Auchan Grocery near our hotel to do a little shopping. That done we headed back to the hotel and went to bed.

May 4, 2018 Paris FR

The flight home was uneventful but long. The only hitch was that American Airlines couldn’t be bothered to transfer our bags to Alaska Airline in Chicago, and just threw them on their next flight to Portland. Apparently this is a pretty common occurrence, because as soon as we said we were coming in from Chicago the Alaska agent new what had happened. Fortunately the American flight was only about 30 minutes behind our Alaska flight.

We really enjoyed the trip to France, and are looking forward to the next trip to Europe. For the trip we covered about 2000 miles in 27 days, primarily in Burgundy and Provence. Even though we did not venture that far, we still could have probably spent another two weeks just in those areas. There is still a lot of France to see, and a whole lot of other countries.

François gave us no problems, and after this trip we are sold on using a European RV instead of shipping Scout. We are now in the process of lining up a slightly used RV over there.

Ron and François enjoying the countryside.

From a cost point of view, operating costs per day (excluding rental costs) were actually lower in France than our last two trips in North America. Fuel and camping costs per day were lower than we spent in Alaska and our western swing. While fuel is nearly 21/2 times higher in France than here, things are much closer together. We were also traveling during shoulder season so when we did stay in campgrounds they were generally cheaper than their counterparts here. As we got used to things we started gravitating towards Aires, and they are much cheaper than campgrounds. Food was higher in Europe, but not as much as we expected.

May 3, 2018 Paris FR

Today we planned to spend at the Louvre. Of all of the places in Paris Ron wanted to spend some extra time there as he had never been.

It is an overwhelming place in many ways. The building is huge, but the vast majority of people are there to see the two or three must see things, the Mona Lisa, David, and the Italian art. Those things are clustered in one area of the museum, and that area is packed. We did see all of those things, but the crowds were a little too much for Ron. The other wings of the building are nearly empty and there is a lot of good art.

This is not the crowded part of the Louvre.

After about 4 hours we had enough and decided to get some lunch. Ton was interested in getting some Moroccan food, and we found a good restaurant. We had our most expensive meal in France, and the meal was good. After lunch we decided to head back to Montmartre, and grab a couple of last minute things we wanted to take back to Oregon with us.

I think we enjoyed walking around Montmartre nearly as much as we did the Louvre for the day. We made a couple of trips to grocery stores in the area, as well as taking one last stroll (Ton would say climb) to the cathedral. We had our final dinner at an African restaurant across from the hotel that Ton had her eye on since we checked in The meal was excellent and the spices were really interesting. Ton’s fish was delicious.

May 2, 2018 Paris FR

Today was our day to be tourists. You cannot go to Paris without seeing the Eiffel Tower, Champs Elysee, the Louvre, Notre Dame, etc. We decided the best way to accomplish this was by buying a hop on hop off bus ticket.

We accomplished the mission seeing all of the important places, but unlike all of the other cities we visited where we walked from point to point, this time we rode a bus with loads of other tourists. Ton appreciated the lack of steps, and it would have been a bit much to try to do everything on foot, but for Ron it felt a lot more sterile from the bus.

Paris is lovely, and though yesterday it looked like all hell had broke loose downtown, today you could not tell there had been a riot going on around here. We got wrapped up looking at stuff, and forgot to eat lunch. We did stop into a chocolate shop and had a nice chocolate sundae, and found a place for dinner later in the day.

May 1, 2018 Paris FR

Today is labor day in France. We decided to stay in Montmartre for the day as we were not sure what was going to be open in the center of the city. Also, there were some marches planned, and there was a rumor that some people were going to use the marches as a pretense to cause some problems.

Our hotel is very centrally located in Montmartre. We started the day by heading to the cathedral at the top of the hill. Montmartre is located on a pretty good sized hill, and it is a decent climb up to the cathedral. The views of the center of Paris from the cathedral are expansive.

The Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Montmartre.

Montmartre is famous for it’s cafe culture, so after spending about an hour deciding which cafe to eat in, we settled in for a lunch and to do what everyone else is doing, people watch. It is an interesting combination of tourists from all over the world, and locals. We enjoyed the lunch, though we had high expectations, and were a little disappointed with our food.

The streets of Montmartre full of tourists and locals.

After lunch we took another turn around the area, looking at the sites, and mostly the people. We did a little shopping and went back to the room to drop off our purchases, and take a siesta. Instead of a siesta, we were entertained by watching the riot that had broken out in the center of the city live on TV. A McDonalds was sacked and a it was not a good day to park your Mercedes downtown as it looks like the rioters specifically targeted them for burning.

After we got our fill of watching the TV, we decided to go back up to the cathedral for sunset, and dinner. At the cathedral we saw that we were not the only ones ignoring the riot going on a few miles away as there were several hundred people up enjoying the sunset.

Another thing Paris is famous for are pickpockets, and we noticed a gentleman suddenly confronting a younger man quite loudly. It turns out he noticed that the young guy was trying to get into a woman’s purse, and intervened to stop it. The young guy took off, and the lady rewarded the good samaritan with a couple of kisses on the cheek, and then sat down on top of her purse to finish watching sunset.

The Eiffel Tower from the Basilica of the Sacred Heart.

April 30, 2018 Paris FR

After an early start where we returned François to France Motor Home Hire. We had a quick meeting with the owners there and have a preliminary plan to buy a European based vehicle from them, instead of shipping Scout to Europe. We will post more as things develop along this line.

We arrived in the station at Sens, purchased our tickets and boarded an express for Paris within 10 minutes. Our timing could not have been better. After arriving at Gare deBercey station in Paris we took a taxi to our hotel in the Montmartre district of Paris. When we arrived it was really miserable. About 40 degrees, raining and really windy. Our motivation to go out and explore Paris was pretty low, so instead we hit a grocery store and settled in to our room for a rest. The weather is supposed to be better tomorrow, so Paris can wait.

The neighborhood near our hotel in Paris.

April 29, 2018 St. Julien de Sault FR

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!

April 28, 2018 Merry-sur-Yonne FR

Our night in the car park 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 Vezelay. 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 Vezelay’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 Vezelay. 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.