A light hearted and (I hope) amusing record of some of our Campervan Trips.
It is mainly intended to inform friends and family where we are, plus, to keep our children updated on what is happening to their inheritance.
I do try to include details of Camp Sites and Aires, we visit. Checkout the "labels" listed in the right margin,
Please comment if you feel inclined, at least then I know I am not talking to myself (again).
Tuesday 29th September 2015 Sunny and 20C An easy cycling outing, after yesterdays 24 miles, we cycle to Fontaines, a mere 14 miles round trip. Then, lie about in the sun. Wednesday 30th September 2015 Another beautiful sunny day, with 22C by mid afternoon. First, a shopping trip to replenish our dwindling supplies of food and, more importantly, wine. Then, we drive the short (less than 30 miles) distance to Autun. I had joked with Kathleen that Autun was close enough to cycle to, it was meant as a joke, but, when we see the hills we would have had to cross, it is definitely a joke!
Autun is not really "on our way", but, we have been told it is worth a visit, and, since it is such a short distance, there seems little point in missing it, Autun has a Roman connection, with, we are told, many Roman remains, there is certainly an impressive Roman Gate, much of which is still standing, after 2000 years. Will Mssrs Wimpy, Bellway, Barrett etc be able to say the same I wonder? I am always impressed by some of the large structures civilisations, like the Romans, managed to construct, with little or no mechanical aids, and or course, no Computer Technology. The canals, we have spent our time cycling along, although of much more recent origin, are equally impressive to me. There an enormous amount of earth moving (manually achieved, presumably) to construct them. In addition, although I understand the relatively "low tech", but accurate, Theodolite was available to them, how on earth did they survey and plan a contour hugging structure over hundreds of miles? Today, we limit ourselves to finding our way from the campsite (Camping de la Porte d’Arroux) to the town, a little explore of available shops and places to eat drink, then, refreshments in the sun.
Monday 28th September 2015 Autumn is clearly here now. A cool start to the day, but, sunny. By lunch time it is a respectable 20C, and by mid afternoon, it is sun bathing weather. After a weekend of R and R (that is Rest and Recreation for me, Rest and Religion for Kathleen), we are up for some cycling. The Canal du Centre is just under a mile from the campsite, once there, there is a traffic free cycle track to Chalon-sur-Soane and beyond in one direction, and St Leger and beyon in the other direction. We have been told by another English couple we met, that the section towards Chalon-sur-Soane is the more attraction, so, that is the direction we take. At the Halt Nautique, about 1.5 miles from the campsite, the signpost tells us, Chalon-sur-Soane is 16Km (10 miles) away. Being fresh, after our "weekend off", we go for the whole distance. It is a beautiful day for cycling, sunny, but, not too hot. It is noticeably "downhill", in the direction of Chalon-sur-Soane and we pass several locks, I carefully do not mention this to Kathleen. Soon, we are passed Fragny, and into the outskirts of Chalon-sur-Soane. A brief rest and, we set off for the return, I assume we will be stopping off for "refreshments" along the way, but, Kathleen is in full "health and fitness mode" and decides she will settle for water to fortify her, for the return trip. So, we resist the temptation to turn off into one of the many villages, signposted en-route, and settle ourselves one one of the strategically placed canal side seats to rest and refresh ourselves. For those who know Kathleen, I promise, that is water, and not gin and tonic, in the bottle!. Soon after we set off again, after our brief stop, we come upon one of the large pleasure boats we passed on the way to Chalon-sur-Soane. It is just in the process of entering a lock, so, we linger to watch the process, it is quite a large boat, and completely fills the lock.
In the afternoon, as I mentioned, it is sunbathing weather. We need at least one "essential" bit of shopping, ie, Tonic, for Kathleen's Gin and Tonic. There is no way Kathleen is going to be prised out of her seat in the sun, after a 24 mile cycle ride this morning, so, I set off, armed with a shopping list, whilst Kathleen gets herself "browned off". We have checked out where the "Commercial Centre" is, so, I head straight there, and manage to buy all of the requirements in Lidl, except, the Tonic. So, I next go to Carrefour, which is next to Lidl, and select a bottle of Schweppes Tonic, sugar free, as instructed. As I go through the checkout, the "shoplifter" alarm goes off. No problem, I am quite happy to show the checkout operator and supervisor who appears on the scene, the contents of my backpack, ie, shopping from Lidl, complete with receipt. What puzzles me is, what set the alarm off? Do they security tag Bananas, Maltesers, Pasta, Bars of Chocolate ?
Surprisingly, I cannot convince Kathleen to go cycling today, you would have thought that, after two consecutive days of 20 miles plus, she would be "in the groove", so to speak. Yesterday, there was an invasion of Dutch caravans, today, they are leaving as quickly as they arrived, by 9:30, they have all gone. We decide we will move on too, just a short distance, to Chagny, a little over 50 miles away. The forecast is for a 23C sunny day, and, so it turns out. For some reason, as we cruise along the N80 (E607), we collect a first two, then three Motor Cycle Police riders, after a while, they are joined by a fourth, then they ride off. Don't know what that was all about, Kathleen's explanation is, "they must have mistaken us for someone important".
We are soon at Chagny and find the campsite, more or less no problem, although, it would have been wise to have used the ring road to approach, rather than the "town centre" route selected by the Sat-Nav. The "easier" approach is signposted, just, immediately after the roundabout after the Canal "Port" or Marina, but, our Sat-nav did not direct us that way, and, the signposting is not exactly prominent, as you can see below, at roughly 8:00 minutes to 9:30 minutes into the video.
Having missed the sign, we took the more difficult approach!
The campsite, Paquier Fane, is very pleasant. It is a rather odd name, I have no idea what it may mean. Chagny appears to be a reasonably lively place. Sunday 27th September 2015 Disaster! As Kathleen gets ready for the ritual of hair washing etc, she discovers, she has run out of shampoo. The full bottle of what she thought was shampoo, is, in fact, Conditioner. It is Sunday morning, in France, the small shops are closed, we have just arrived here yesterday, and have not yet found the Supermarket(s), which MAY be open on Sundays. Frantic searching in the various bags in which numerous hair care products are kept, unearths, a long forgotten, half empty bottle of shampoo. Phew! panic over. Back to more mundane matters, another bright sunny day, in the 20's Centigrade. Church for Kathleen, whilst I explore routes to the Cycle track along the canal, from the campsite. Then meet up with Kathleen to walk around the Sunday Market, which, true to form, takes over almost all of the streets in the town. After lunch is spent searching for the Carrefour and Lidl supermarkets, which are tantalisingly signposted at the entrance to the town, with no further indication of how to find them. After walking for almost three miles and taking numerous wrong turnings, we do find them, about 3/4 of a mile from the campsite. Kathleen takes credit for the discovery.
