Parcourant les routes secondaire de France/Travelling the back roads of France

French countryside

Le matin que nous sommes parti à Ladoix-Serrigny il pleuvait.  Nous avons décidé à prendre les routes secondaires ou les routes D et N alors que nous pouvions voir la campagne de France.  Quelque des chemins étaient très étroits.  Pas amusant quand on rencontrait un autre voiture sur un chemin qui est le même largeur à la voiture ou, plus mal, un camion.  Le cote de chemin etait le seul place aller.  Les rendezvous avec les voitures et les camions faisaient le voyage plus intéressant. La campagne est magnifique. 

Chateau at Semur-en-Auxois - not crack in Tower

It was raining when we left for Sancerre.  We had decided to take the back roads - the main reason being that they would be more interesting than sitting on a motorway charging along at 130kph.  The roads we took varied considerably including one lane roads when meeting a car or truck approaching from the other direction meant slowing down (or at least I did) and moving on to the grass verge.  Given the tyre tracks in the grass it was evident that we were not the only ones to do that. 

Old monastry at Vézelay

The GPS sent us on some very weird roads, despite me having selected the eco route (good on fuel).  This sometimes meant going down very narrow lanes when a more sensible way would have been to take the slightly longer but easier way.  Nonetheless it made for a fun and interesting trip.  Occasionally I chose to defy Michelle (the GPS voice) and pick a slightly different route to get to the same place.

Main street

The countryside is magnificent - quite different to that of NZ and even more so to that in Australia.  From Beaune our first stop was Chablis with its rolling hills often with copses of trees on them.  There was thick lush green grass and to make it even more spectacular, fields of rape - a magnificent yellow colour which added to the contrast. 

There were many surprises. For example, a town called Semur-en-Auxois where surprisingly there was a medieval castle that was the centrepiece of the town. At the same time it was clearly in need of restoration as there was a big crack down one tower. 

Where we had a coffee

We had lunch in Chablis and then went to have a look at a wine shop, but in true French fashion it was closed.   

Our next stop was Vézelay, which is regarded as one of the prettier villages in France and one of those places on the tourist route.  As we were off -season it was not too busy.  Bev really loved it, as it was old and different.  It was apparently one of the pilgrim stops on the St James Way and the monks who first lived there obviously built a very large church to accommodate the pilgrims’ spiritual needs.  There are still monks and nuns living there.  We had a coffee in the a little shop where this enthusiastic woman told us she had grandchildren living in Gosford and had been to Wellington.  I did not get much more because she began serving another customer.

Our final destination was Sancerre and we arrived there just as the cloud cleared away.  Sancerre is in the eastern part of the Loire valley, almost on the border of the Cote d’Or or Burgundy.  It is an old village perched on the top of a hill with a commanding view of the surrounding countryside.

We stayed in the old part of the village.  It was an interesting place with a large bedroom up some very narrow stairs and with the usual need to watch above me in case I knocked myself out on a low beam.   Dany (our host) was very hospitable and we spoke with a mix of French and English. 

Apparently there had been a public holiday the previous weekend so most of the restaurants  (except hotel restaurants) were shut.  We did however find one open and it proved to be very good value for money, with the food being the best of simple French cooking.

Old viaduct next to Saint-Setur which below Sancerre

Bev in front of some of the old buildings in Sancerre