Finally on the open road again, tensions of chavs-mont seeping
away. Oh, the relief! The countryside is changing. The hills are becoming more
severe, Onzo is still zooming though, charging past the fields of sunflowers
that stretch as far as the eye can see. Charles de Gaulle memorial monument
stands proud against the sky.
We have left the Champagne region and entered Burgundy. Shamefully
it took us a while to work out that Burgundy is the same as Bourgogne. No wonder
we keep getting lost! Manage to get to Langres. Langres is spot on. Public loos
are a blessing (daren’t use ours ‘cos of poo fail!), and town itself provides a
welcome shot of civilisation after Chaumont. It’s another ancient hill top town
(sensing a theme) with more gates and towers than people, how fortified can one
place be??
Croissants somewhat less steroid fed than in Mesnil, but delicious
and satisfying nonetheless. Finished mother’s gooseberry jam; this is a sad
moment. But on the upside Noush says the budget now allows butter. This is
EXCELLENT news.
Decide to head on towards Dijon, find somewhere to stay on the
way, hit Dijon tomorrow. This is a plan that’s going very very well until we
pass through Longeau. ONZO STOP!!
There’s a bar with free wifi.
Bring back old France – well we just found it. So keen were we to
get in this bar the Van was parked mostly on pavement and not in the parking
space. (No ticket on return either, take note parking Nazis from Brown’s
Britain). Matters not here sir, this is the forgotten France of Mitterrand,
Gauloises and 2cv’s of yesteryear knocking a hundred down the autoroute, bottle of Pastis in hand.
Picture the scene if you will: 12.30, proper French café, cold
beer, excellent food and full. Not just full, but the clientele were workmen
coming in for some lunchtime refreshment. Can you imagine a bar in the UK with
the workforce of Balfor Beaty having a couple of beers over lunch and then
finishing off with a glass of wine before going back to work? The hum of the
bar was like a taking a step back in time. Does the world really still exist
like this? If we could have stayed we would, but we would have definitely
needed the Gendarmerie from Mesnil (see Vodka yarn). The bar was called Café De
l’esperances. Big shout out to a wonderful, thriving bar.
Dijon City Centre:
On reaching Dijon we dined in the scenic splendour of the Carefour
car park overlooking probably the biggest shopping centre in NATO. We stocked
up in the food section of the shop, which whilst only a small part of the whole
centre was so big some of the staff went round on roller blades!
As is par for the course we got lost on the way into Dijon with
another diversion and road closure for good measure. However, the pain was
worth it. Dijon is a magnificent place. The buildings, the atmosphere the whole
feel for the place was spot on. There’s a really cosmopolitan, young feel to
the place and it feels vibey and fun. Drivers are all relentlessly mental
though as we observed when we stopped at the (extremely awesome) Café Berthom.
Epic lost on leaving too. Route barre, route barre, why oh why??!
A lack of a will to live results in a total fail to be bothered to turn around
and retrace steps to find the correct exit. This ends up in a gentle and scenic
hill climb on a small insignificant road that, in turn, leads to the discovery
of a perfect layby in which to spend the night. Viewing point, Bourgogne spread
at our feet, peaceful, wooded, secluded and… peculiarly full of single men,
solitary in their expensive saloons, perhaps hoping to indulge in a little cinq
a sept al fresco? This does not deter us, Moo will see them off. Lovely
evening, off to bed, mezza luna to hand (soyez vigilante!), full moon watching
over us.
Survived night in sketchy layby, single men still arriving over
breakfast, what does go on here?!
Convinced we saw George Michael.
Today we’re off to Beaune…(irony somewhere in that me thinks)