From Beaune to Avignon

Beaune eventually came up trumps with the weather and we had a superb day cycling on a ‘voie verte’ through the vineyards and little Burgundy towns.  One evening we strolled into town and it was very prettily lit up – not floodlighting, but subtle lights on balconies and at windows of the public buildings.  We came across an extraordinary band – about 25 musicians, mainly brass instruments, playing big band numbers, dressed in colourful net ra-ra skirts and mad glasses frames – and that was just the men!

We travelled down through the Beaujolais area and into the Rhone valley in two days, spending both nights at France Passion sites – a scheme where you can stay overnight on a private farm for free, in exchange for looking round their shop.  Some are better than others, but we struck gold with these two. The first was a vineyard with wonderful views and some jolly nice red, and white, Beaujolais. It was owned by an old (71) chap who was working 12 hour days to keep things going while his son was in hospital. We were befriended by the old farm dog; he made himself comfortable sitting between our chairs in the shade under our awning and just seemed pleased to have company.

 

The second site was a chocolate and nougat producer, and almond grower, who spoke excellent French (meaning she could slow it down enough so we could understand).  Here we were encouraged to help ourselves from the cherry tree in the garden.

 

 

We then came to Avignon by way of Orange.  If we had done more history and less science at school, we would probably have known that Orange is where King William and all those Orangemen came from, before they went to Holland.  It is also worth a visit for the astonishing Roman amphitheatre, one of only three in the world with the stage wall still standing, and the immense triumphal arch at the city gate.  It is incredible that these buildings have survived, even partially restored, for over 2000 years.

Avignon has been a lovely stop – we arrived on Pentecost Sunday, which is a big holiday here, at a big busy campsite, quite a shock after our previous two nights in peace and quiet.  But as soon as the Pentecost fair or whatever was going on over the wall died down, it has been fine and is so close to the town centre it couldn’t be better.  It is also very shady – gloomy we thought at first, but now it is over 30C we are grateful for the enormous plane trees!   The campsite is on an island in the Rhone and there is a free shuttle boat to the town side – how good is that?  The main attraction apart from ‘the pont’ is the Popes’  Palace, an enormous complex where the Popes resided  in the 14^th century during a local difficulty with Rome.  The pont is picturesque but a slight disappointment as it doesn’t cross the river any more and you have to pay to get on it – so we just photographed it instead. Today we have been to Villeneuve Les Avignon, built to rival Avignon proper, on the opposite bank of the river and apparently where the Popes took their holidays!  

Beaune dry

Bit too soon with the shorts - 24 hours of torrential rain at Vincelles brought the temperature down so we are back to long sleeves and legs.  Forecast was so bad that we sat out a day, but moved on yesterday and are now in Beaune. It should have been a pretty drive but much of the time we were in low cloud!  Our motorhoming friends, also in France, south and west of us, have been soggy too, so nothing to be done. Enough of the weather, we enjoyed a trip to the caves at d'Arcy-en-cure - the usual thing with stalactites and stalagmites but also pre-historic cave paintings, which we had not seen before.  They are strangely moving, being so old I suppose, especially the outline of a child's hand.  Beaune is a very pretty little town which we have explored on foot today.  Of course it is in the centre of the Burgundy wine region, so much evidence of wine making and selling, we have even tried some! We are hoping to go on a cycle trip tomorrow through the vineyards and then moving on south again.   

Still raining!

Everything going well so far - now just south of Auxerre, en route to Beaune.  Managed to pass through the Champagne region without seeing any champagne, partly through an impulse decision to visit Chalons en Champagne instead of Epernay, which sounded good but no bubbly in sight!  Still haven't come out from under the clouds but every hour further south it is at least getting warmer and we have broken out the shorts and T-shirts.  We are camping next to the river Yonne, which is lovely and has an excellent cycle path alongside so hoping for a bit of a ride if it stops drizzling.  Wildlife report - have seen grebes on the river catching fish and feeding their three young, heard baby owls begging for food, detected bats catching insects over the lake at Chalons (with my new bat detector) and last night were serenaded to sleep by frogs calling from a nearby pond. 

Getting ready for sun

Packing up to set off to France!  Weather here has been so grim we are really looking forward to driving south.  Plans to explore the Champagne and Burgundy regions may be put on hold as we now intend to keep driving till we come out from under the clouds.