Moving north

Moving north to Saône-et-Loire, we spent a night at a 'Cool Camping' featured site, Camping Terre Ferme, at Le Petit Condal. This is a beautiful rustic site, developed and run by a Dutch couple, as many are across wider "Europe". (Charge Emplacement x1 Personnes x2  = €17)

Here one can chill in the rural surroundings with hens pecking around and there's a constructed pond in which to swim or boat, although the latter isn't exactly challenging.

It was a one night reconnaissance for Charlie who would visit a week or so later. The site passed with flying colours in spite of an evening music feature, which didn't begin until 21:30 and finished at 23:30. This was the local brass band giving a regular performance. The timing wqas a little curious considering the number of young kids staying!



We continued our leisurely journey north, roughly following the Rhône river and driving mainly on D-roads, so it was scenic, sedate and with occasional surprises. Coffee stops are usually taken on a side road and it is an interesting gamble to just turn down one and see what opportunity turns-up.

This morning we took a right, drove into a little village, past the school and ended-up right next to the river and some spectacular houses. Typically there are no signs, they aren't tourist spots and just seem to be 'normal'.

There are warning signs about the strength of the river and not to venture into it. With it flowing in typical Rhône style no-one in their right mind would do so. However a small information board had some old ("Victorian") photos showing that in those times it was a main thoroughfare, although then not affected by upstream barrages which do swiftly change the water level.

Arriving in the north of Burgundy, we established ourselves for what would be a week, at the municipal campsite at Ligny-le-Châtel, next door to the town of Chablis and close to Auxèrre. This is in the Yonne department and as we would soon discover, in a heatwave, the Yonne is known to be a hotspot.

First stop on Sunday morning was a large market at Chablis. This is mainly produce but with some crafts too. There's plenty of opportunity to sample the processed foods, such as cheeses, olive oil and meats plus in-season fruit and veg such as cherries, apricots, melons, nectarines and so on.

At the first cheese counter, we hovered enough for the seller to call us in closer and in a flash he had shaved a couple of samples of Tomme and offered them. The conversation in French was something like,

"That's nice"

and we were offered another to taste

"yes that's even better"

"Do you want some?"

"Yes we will"

"How much - like this?"

"No, a bit less"

So a small portion was cut and wrapped and popped onto the scales.

"€15"

"How much? No sorry that's too expensive"

"This is the price"

"Yes but what are you charging per kilo?, where's the label?"

A previously unseen label was then provided and at €60 /Kg it was too expensive (at least x3) as it was normal cheese from the Pyrénées. So we refused and he was cross and we were cross with him and with ourselves, as we should have checked but didn't and 'he saw us coming'. Anyway our French is good enough to be as polite as possible but not good enough to understand what he was saying to us when we said no and we moved on...

We were much more comfortable buying fruit and veg and we did so willingly as the cherry samples were perfect, as were the apricots and cantaloupe melons and the olives and so the bag got full.

Next we went to another local village, Joulges, where it was the monthly local area Vide Grenier which literally translates as 'empty attic' and is a table sale. This was the biggest we have ever seen and what was nice about it is that the tables were set-up along the side of the roads in a small village, in front of all the  houses. Cars are banned and Joulges was one big pedestrian zone for the day.

What made this different to the UK weekly Sunday 'car boots' is that there appears to be a just a few over the summer, hosted in turn by each village in the area. There's a huge range of goods on sale and in true French style, simple food is provided, cooked by volunteers and served in a central village location and it was amazingly well supported. The local sapeurs-pompiers were in charge of the bbq and tables were set-up up under big gazebos to facilitate a huge number of people, all sitting down to eat. Yes that was a big difference, in France it's normal to sit down with a knife and fork whereas in the UK it seems to be normal to walk around eating with fingers.

So to the campsite at Ligny. This is a municipal site (click) , so it is owned and operated by the town, with a Guardian appointed to run it. The man in charge here is Nicolas and he is on the job 24/7 from April to September, living in a small cabin house at the entrance. He is totally dedicated to his work and as a result the site is marvellous. It costs €10 per night for the two of us, there's a small terrace bar run by Nicolas too (to boost his income) and a lovely little river, Le Serein running alongside.

We settled down here in order to meet Charlie and family but for the first night we shared some cherries with a couple of kids from the next camper van and chatted with 'bikers from Holland.

People travel around in all sorts of vehicles and in their case it was a couple of retro-bikes and a bike trailer. I think these are Yamaha, a Blackstar and a Whitestar but I can't find any details. I do know that they are 1,600cc and 1,100cc respectively and turn heads as they blast into life!