Back in Burgundy, but this time by campervan

Chalon sur Saone, Chateau de Pierre de Bresse, Castello de La Rochepot

To save time, me and my daughter sleep in the camper parked in front of the house and, very early, Max engages the gear and we set off for France. When I wake up we're already near the Mont Blanc tunnel. We pay the toll by buying a round-trip ticket that allows us to save almost 50% compared to 2 separate tolls. Shortly after 11:00 we're already at the first town on our itinerary: Chalon sur Saone. The town is nice but not more than that. We visit the historic center with some half-timbered houses and a nice little square where, that day, a market of typical products is set up. We take advantage since it's lunchtime and buy some Quiches that we'll eat near our camper, parked by the river. We then set off again and visit the first castle of this trip: Chateau de Pierre de Bresse. The castle is surrounded by a moat. We find the castle more interesting on the outside than on the inside.

The visit of the interiors, in fact, is rather disappointing since it houses an Ecomusee (museum of rural art). We would have done better to save the ticket money and visit only the park and the courtyard, which are, among other things, free. We hope the second castle is better: Castello de La Rochepot. It's a castle completely different from the previous one since it's a defensive, fortified castle, located on a hill, with a drawbridge and all. To reach the castle entrance you have to walk a stretch of road, uphill, but, once you arrive, you'll be rewarded for the effort since the castle is worth it. We are particularly struck by the beautiful inner courtyard. The guided tour of the interiors (few rooms, though) is also rather interesting and the guide is pleasant and quite quick.

A peculiarity of the place is that, when you arrive at the entrance door, you have to announce yourself with 3 knocks of the knocker. Trust me: sooner or later someone will open for you. We then go toward Beaune, a very beautiful town that however we don't visit since we already saw it during our previous trip to Burgundy. Here, we read from our guide to Camper Areas in Europe (not very useful by the way, better to connect to the website) there should be a suitable area. Unfortunately, once we arrive at the place, we discover that to access the services of the camper area you have to use an automatic cashier that accepts only and exclusively credit cards (even though the amount to pay is just a few euros). We insert our credit cards; it even asks us for the PIN, but, despite this, both our credit cards are rejected.

Unfortunately, to our disadvantage, we'll discover that all the paid camper parking areas in the area use these infernal contraptions. We have no choice but to find a free camper stopover area nearby. The closest is about 15 minutes away: Nuits St. Georges, indicated by the website with the relevant GPS coordinates. We arrive at the place and, fortunately, we find everything we need. We load water and dump black water. Then however we realize that we don't like the place to camp. So, for the overnight stay, we decide to go back to the Beaune stopover area. We have dinner at a Self Service located in a shopping center right next to the Beaune stopover area. Then, tired, we retire to our camper for our first night of vacation.

Castello di Commarin, Chateauneuf en Auxois, Chateauneuf en Auxois, Tournus

The first stop of the day is the Chateau de Commarin. The castle is surrounded by a wide moat. Around it, plenty of greenery and a bucolic landscape with grazing horses. We take the guided tour of the interiors even though, as with all the castles we visit on this trip, you always only see a limited part of the building. On the way out, just for a change, it's raining. We then go, following the guidebook's recommendation, to Chateauneuf en Auxois. The castle should be closed since Monday is the closing day. However, the medieval village is charming and we take a short stroll. We then continue to Arnay Le Duc, which, however, we do not recommend, since there is absolutely nothing interesting here. In fact, the town is rather sad and desolate: skip it. We finally head towards the last stop of the day, where we will spend the night: Tournus.

This medium-to-large town is very, very interesting. The riverside area, where we will park the camper for the night, is very pleasant. We walk towards the nearby historic center. Here we visit the beautiful Abbey with its adjoining cloister with a small well. We then move on to the nearby Hotel-Dieu, a 17th-century hospital with furnishings and equipment from the period and a beautiful pharmacy. In Burgundy there are also other Hotel-Dieu, including the very beautiful one in Beaune, which we visited last time and which we recommend. We have dinner in one of the restaurants in the center, La Boheme, specializing in mussels (Moule et Frites), where they offer standard fixed-price menus. After dinner we retire to our camper because it is pouring rain and we even turn on the heating because it is cold for our, alas, last night of vacation.

VEZELAY, Druyes Les belles fountaines, Castello di St. Fargeau, Briare Ponte Canale, Rogny le sept é

We set off for Vezelay, a small village characterized by the Basilica and by the uphill little street that leads to it. The main street is lined with typical shops and old dwellings. The whole is pleasant even if the basilica isn't a big deal: rather bare, I'd say. After Vezelay, Druyes Les belles fountaines awaits us. Already the name is all a program and lets you foresee something beautiful. Of this tiny village in Burgundy there's no trace in any tourist guide. We found it almost by chance leafing through a photography book of Burgundy, purchased during our previous trip. So there are no tourists. We are completely alone in this pleasant setting made of canals, little waterfalls and lots of greenery. Everything would be more perfect if the sun were out.

Instead it's drizzling but we stop anyway to eat our lunch bought at the boulangerie in Vezelay and to take an endless number of photos because we like the place so much. In fact. I'll tell you more: once the trip is over this place will be one of the stops we'll remember with the most pleasure. After lunch we have the visit of our daily chateau: Castle of St. Fargeau. We take the guided tour of the interiors as well as some rooms with free visit characterized by some rooms with mannequins dressed as characters of the era that make the settings themselves more alive. The castle park has a large and panoramic lake and lots of greenery. The whole is very pleasant. The next stop is also very interesting. But how many beautiful things do we see in this day! We go to Briare, the farthest stop of our trip, where the Canal Bridge is located.

It's a true work of engineering: a bridge over the river, not intended for motor vehicles, but instead filled with water and turned into a canal to let the boats themselves pass. We witness exactly the crossing of a boat and the thing fascinates us. The surrounding landscape, rich in water, is very beautiful. We also notice boats that do cruises on the canal bridge. Unfortunately the next boat trip is scheduled for the following day and we won't be there. Too bad: it would have been really nice. If we had known we would have organized ourselves in time to be there at the right time for the cruise. For the night we decided to stay at the Rogny le sept ecluse camper area. As the name itself says it's a place with canals with well 7 consecutive locks that create a waterfall effect. Unfortunately the locks are closed, so they're visible but completely dry.

The area is still beautiful and we park the camper in a panoramic and romantic position along the canal. The camper area, fortunately, has everything needed and so we can do all the daily maintenance operations on our camper. We notice however with regret that there aren't many alternatives for dinner. Fortunately we spot a baker about to close. We rush inside and the "crazy" baker woman gives us all the leftovers of the shop at a super discounted price. We'll thus have food supplies until the next day and we have dinner at the picnic tables placed along the canal. Nice! When it gets dark, Max takes the opportunity to take night photos of the lock area.

Lezinnes, Argenteuil sur Armancon, Cry sur Armacon, Chateau de Bussy-Rabutin, Poully en Auxois

From a brochure found during our previous trip to Burgundy we discovered a fabulous itinerary among the washhouses of Burgundy (Lavoir) in the area around Ancy Le Franc. These structures are a characteristic element of this area. There are a great many of them and they are always very picturesque. Unfortunately, the time at our disposal is very limited and we can only visit 3 or 4 of them, so that is what we do. We come across the first washhouse almost by chance, just after leaving the rest area where we spent the night. The second washhouse should be located in the village of Lezinnes. I say "should" because the washhouse exists but it is locked (you have to go to the Tourist Office to get the key). Near the washhouse, however, there is a restored mill and we settle for seeing that. The third washhouse is the most fantastic of all and is in Argenteuil sur Armancon.

The washhouse is in an idyllic setting, surrounded by a small pond, a lock where the water flows strongly and even a small castle (not open for visits) reflected in the waters of the pond. To complete the picture, a majestic swan paddling here and there. We are still not satisfied; we want to see another washhouse and so we head towards Cry sur Armancon, where there should be as many as 2 washhouses. We only find one because we don't have time to look for the second. Nevertheless, the one we see pleases us. On our previous trip to Burgundy we also saw other fantastic washhouses (I remember with particular pleasure the Fosse in Tonnerre). I would almost like to plan another trip to Burgundy dedicated exclusively to the washhouse circuit. Who knows... maybe in a few years.

We are in a bit of a hurry because we absolutely have to visit the Chateau de Bussy-Rabutin in the morning, as it closes at 11:45. We make it, of course. The castle is very beautiful, surrounded by a lovely moat and lovely gardens. The interior visit is self-guided and doesn't take long. However, I believe the best part of the castle is the exterior and the beautiful gardens. The entrance ticket is still always necessary because, from outside the castle, you can't see anything at all. For 14:45 we have booked, by e-mail, a cruise departing from Poully en Auxois on the Burgundy canal. Unfortunately, the 2-hour mini-cruise will turn out to be a disappointment because, for almost the entire time, you travel through a tunnel (Voute) over 3 km long, both on the way there and on the way back. Practically for 3/4 of the cruise you are inside this tunnel seeing nothing.

During the brief period in the open air, however, you experience the thrill of having to pass through 2 locks, complete with attendants who open and close them manually. Oh well... had we known, we would have booked the cruise on the Pont Canal seen yesterday rather than this mediocre alternative. We would have organized the tour differently and it would certainly have been better. After the boat trip, our schedule for today is complete. Not finding any camper rest areas in the area, we decide to camp for the night in the parking lot of the marina from which the boat trip departed. Tonight too we sleep like this at the water's edge. We do, however, have to find a place to have dinner, so we go to the nearby center of Poully. Here we find a few restaurants, including a bar/restaurant with outdoor tables.

Max and I opt for grilled steak while Clarissa has the traditional Croque Monsieur (a toast completely covered in cheese. Very good). After dinner, a few nighttime photos of the marina.

castello di Les Flecheres e ritorno a casa

How sad: today we go home. What a shame: the trip went well but the weather, this time, was not as kind to us as in the past. Luckily this morning we wake up to sunshine so we can appreciate the riverside in the early morning with a different light from that of the previous day. Before starting our journey home, however, one last pleasant stop awaits us, already heading south: the Chateau de Les Flecheres. We arrive at the site a few minutes early and patiently wait for the 10 o'clock opening. Punctually, the gate is opened and the guide first invites us to visit the exterior, the moat, the park and the interesting basement kitchens on our own. After that, the guide accompanies us on the guided tour of the beautiful interiors, with simple, clear explanations that are not at all boring. Perhaps this is the best of the 6 castles we visited.

On the way out we set our faithful Tom Tom navigator towards home. We make a stop at a rest area for the last lunch on French soil, consisting of baguette and flan (a characteristic dessert of yellow custard, typically French. You find it in every baker's/boulangerie). We cross the Mont Blanc tunnel with no traffic and, by 6:00 PM, we are punctually home. In conclusion we can say: - the trip was extremely interesting and very pleasant; - what a shame that the weather was unfavorable; - camper life has its positive and negative aspects. We are not experienced campers and, every now and then, we encountered some difficulties. It is certainly not the easiest thing to manage everything (parking, camper rest areas, loading/unloading, etc.). However, camper life has its positive sides, such as deciding to camp in the most scenic and evocative places.

- Costs: traveling with only 3 people in a camper (a 6/7-seater camper) the costs are a bit excessive. Surely by staying in hotels we would have spent much less. The camper consumes a lot of fuel and, in this particular period, the costs of diesel and petrol are sky-high (even though the price in France is slightly lower than in Italy). The costs of French highways are also rather high. In short: it was certainly not a cheap vacation, but we wanted to repeat the camper experience again and Burgundy seemed to us the most suitable place to do it. Dani, Max and Clarissa.

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