Mercure Dijon

... hours.
I got to Dijon at about 1840. My guidebook said the tourist office would be open until 1900 so I could get a map but it closed at 1830. Luckily I had copied down the directions to the hostel from the internet just in case. I had to take two buses. However, the second bus' monitor wasn't working and it was only by chance that I turned to look at the name of the next stop which I thought was mine, and so got out. Lucky I did though because I found that the bus ...

... bike (500kg ?) on the back of a camper leaving the site. A quick double-take showed the rack (looking just like ours) had a small road wheel centrally placed. I am dubious and need an engineer, chris, to tell me that this is a sensible idea. If so, we may be swapping the Innova for the Bonneville!.
More torrential rain, thunder and spectacular sheet lightning during the night.

26th July 09, Poinchy, Chablis 47.49'21"N 3.46'32"E
Our first ...

Today we left Paris and headed for Burgundy. Our first stop was the historic project Le Chateau Guedelon. It is a medieval castle, built using medieval tools and tradesmen, but started in 1997. It is an active construction site as stone masons, rope markers, carpenters, tile makers, and laboureres all work to build this castle. It was fascinating. Our guide explained the different techniques in building an ...

... slipped behind the wheel caressing the gearstick lovingly and cooing words of enouragement
to the little pooper. With a softness usually only reserved for these special moments in the
shower, he took hold of the gearstick engaged first and proceeded to kick the ***** out of
four gears with the cry of Corporal Jones "They don't like it up'em". With a strong tail
wind, three bodies lent forward, and on a down slope the old girl knockered out ...

... from Troyes to Dijon and just beyond to Beaune seemed, as I'd feared it would, to go on forever. There was some dramatic weather with torrential rain just north of Dijon, which at least took the heat out of the day for a while - it had been very very hot in the depths of the afternoon... But at last we pulled into Beaune and soon spotted a 'Camping' sign; it was easy to track the site down. 'Cent Vignes' is municipally ...

... turned foul. Having had a few days of warm and calm, it was now windy,extremely steep, windy, rainy, windy, soaking wet, cold. Yay. But on a more positive note, the countryside was gorgeous. We rode through lush forests, rolling pasturelands of cattle, wheat fields and charming lively towns. Unfortunately, the farmstands, became less frequent. At one farm, we rode down the hill to their vending stand having seen a Produce sign, to find that the only produce they ...

... it! i guess over the summer Sarah worked in the Champagne region of France making champagne of course. technically, true champagne is only from the Champagne region of France, otherwise it is just supposed to be called sparkling wine. Sarah took us to La Grand Cafe and we had Kir, which is white wine and a liquor called Cassis. it is really good and i guess very popular in France. i also tried Kir Royal, which is champagne and Cassis. Sarah told ...

... too much and trying to take in as much of the countryside as possible. It is absolutely beautiful here. So much history. After 2 days here we are off to Avignon today and on to Nice tomorrow. The pace is very leisurely. I haven't managed to work out how to insert photos yet but will get around to it.

... day trip on the bike for them - maybe two as they seemed to be covering quite a lot of ground. We were going to venture into town for Pizza, but news soon came back that nothing except an expensive restaurant was open. All not wanting to fork out vast amounts for small amounts of food, I suggested we pool all the food we did have, (of which they didn't have much) and see if a meal for four can be rustled up. Since I had the stove and ...

... Ohhh and I still have a cold atchoooo so I'll better relax a bit. So a little bit TV, some oranges, some ugly drawing in my diary and hop to sleep! (+ writing a little text about Marie, since I'm still thinking about her and well, wondering about how is her life going?... I won't transcribe that thought here!) --------------------------------------- --------------------------------------- ----------- September 13 We got waken up by the cleaning lady but the door of ...