Sunday 28th September
119 miles
Arrived in France backwards as the Eurotunnel train was hauled through the chunnel by the rear locomotive which felt more odd than it should have done. Why is travelling backwards through a tunnel more disturbing than travelling backwards above ground?
What started as a misty autumn day cleared to be a glorious warm afternoon. We parked the van at the aire in Bavay and Jackie collected us. It was great to see everyone and catch up with family stuff. We paid a quick visit to Belgium to drop Anna off at Mons station to catch the Brussels train, which she made with just moments to spare. Then we had a short stroll around the older part of the city. Lots of renovation work going on as it prepares to be European City of Culture next year.
Afterwards we chatted in the garden over a beer, then had dinner with Jackie and Edmond and Stephan. Gill commented, this is probably the last time we are going to be in a house for almost three months. An odd thought indeed.
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| Parked-up in the Bavey aire, Ok, but the service point is not working, |
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| Drinks on the terrace, a lovely autumn afternoon. |
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| A quick visit to Mons |
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| The city's old quarter was unexpectedly pretty. |
Day 5, 29th September,
Bavay to Froncles - 196 miles
Stopped off at Auchan, Mauberge, and singularly failed to buy a SIM card for the Moto phone.Somewhat superior sales staff informed us that data orientated sims for unlocked phones were 'not possible' in France without purchasing a 'mifi dongle'. Bollocks! We've seen them advertised on the web, Just a case of ill- informed sales assistants methinks.. We'll persevere elsewhere.
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| Eastern France at its un-picturesque best, concrete car-park, endless flat wheat fields... |
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| As Gill noted, in terms of interior design, the French have never quite got over 'The Jetsons'. |
Weather - fine drizzle, so we pressed on, stopping finally at a very pleasant canal-side aire at Froncles, just south of Joinville - €6 with electricity - and a nice spot.
The tow path is more a small, metalled road - great for cycling; if you were staying longer than one day though, you might decide to use the local campsite, which is only €11 per night.
A couple of days ago, while mulling over the peculiarities of the Greenwich parakeet flock, Gill commented, "You know, I've never seen a kingfisher in the wild". Just now, as we crossed the little bridge over the Marne walking back to the aire, a quick flash of blue, and two kingfishers darted across the river and disappeared into the trees overhanging the bank. Magic!
The bread van calls at the 'halte nautique, around 8.30am. The croissants were deeply unsatisfactory - doughy with a lack of differentiation between the layers, to lapse into 'Bake-off-ese'. Paul and Mary would be shocked, not to mention Michel Roux junior!
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| The aire at Lugny's 'Halte Maritime', very nice spot with good facilities. |
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| chilling-out |
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| 'Village fleurie' |
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| Restored for the WWI centenary? Not sure about the paint job, it makes the statue look like a giant plastic toy soldier. |
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| From rusting street signs it appears that Froncles used to have foundry, abandoned now, and used as a wood yard. |
Day 6, 30th September
Froncles to Lugny
174 miles
The upper Marne valley is a very satisfying landscape of low hills and patchwork fields. The roads are good, with little traffi, and not too many straggling villages to impede our steady 50mph progress southwards.
We've set the satnav to km. It makes working out the ever changing speed limits easier. Some villages have a 30kph limit for vehicles over 3.5 tons, that includes Maisy, I guess. I had just noticed this, and adjusted our speed accordingly, when I was overtaken by the local Gendarmerie. I felt smugly law abiding as I trundled along at a careful 28kph.
We've bowled through this area of France on many an Easter holiday heading for the Med. It does deserve a better look, I think. Even today we only had time to admire Langres' spectacular hill-top ramparts as we passed-by, and really they probably are worth a proper visit. Anyway, we think we managed to sort the 3G internet access for the Moto at the Orange shop in the big mall at Dijon nord. That took much longer than we expected and it was mid afternoon before we stopped for lunch.
Then it was a trip down the Route de Cru trundling through world famous Côte d'Or wine villages - Gevry Chambertin, Nuits St. George. We used the autoroute briefly to avoid driving through Beaune and Chalon sur Saone, but carried on down the Hugh Johnson highway towards Macon. Moving through the area which is world famous for white wine, we skirted the eponymous wine village of Chardonnay. Our overnight stop at Lugny took a bit of finding and involved negotiating narrow roads through farm buildings and a steep hill. The result - we are parked- up on the edge an escarpment with the Maconnais vineyards stretched out below and the hills on the far side of the Saone valley just visible in the misty distance. We're on our own at the moment, even though the N roads are swarming with motorhomes. Maybe this aire is just a little too far off the beaten track to attract a crowd. At the foot of the hill is Lugny's Cave Cooperative; the farm house across the road advertises 'Vignoble Experimental, Lugny St. Pierre - what kind of experiment, one wonders? Blue wine - that would be different, or pyramidal bottles; maybe we need to pay the cave cooperative a visit tomorrow.
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| The aire at Lugny is situated high in the hills of the Maconaiss, amongst vineyards. |
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| Evening light on some very famous vines |
We have just missed the grape harvest by a week or two, but the presses in the Cave Cooperative down in the valley were chuntering away well after we went to bed, it must be a frantically busy time for people around here. The locals clearly value having the aire, as the few that past us all gave a friendly wave.
Day 7, 1st October, Lugny to St-Laurent du Pape.
188 miles
Glorious dawn from the aire high above the vineyards. 21 degrees by 9.00 am. We stopped- off at the Cave Cooperative and bought a white, red and cremant (€18.40), but refused the kind offer to taste a selection first; it was only 9.30am.
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| Morning mist in the valley |
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| Sunlight and mist on the vines |
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| Free aire...time to repay the locals! |
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| You can find wines here that you will never come across on a supermarket shelf. |
The drive through the hills around Macon was very beautiful, but once we hit the N6 the further south we drove the busier the roads became. We used the free autoroute to skirt Lyon. Because Maisy is most comfortable at 50mph and trucks can do 60mph legally on the motorway, we were constantly buffeted by big artics as they trundled past us.
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| Needs must....MacDonald's coffee in pursuit of open access wifi! |
We are planning to stop at the campsite in St-Laurent for a couple of days to chill out and relax. One week, 901 miles - travelling every day, too much, time to slow up.
Just to keep our records straight - we ran out of the € we brought with us - Gill held up the local ATM for €200; we are trying to use cash to buy everyday items rather than plastic in an attempt to monitor our spending.
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