Friday 26 August 2011

France Diary: Cote d’Azur to Chalon-sur-Saône


Thursday. We left early. 7.30 am. Sad to leave the Med, but anxious about traffic. Traffic was heavy, especially through Lyon, as expected, but only about 30 mins delay. Nothing like the nightmare we witnessed from the other side of the road, coming down. Other than Lyon, today’s move has been a doddle. It’s interesting to see that the weather stayed hot – Mediterranean climate – until Lyon. Then it turned into a warm but English climate within a few miles. No obvious gradient. You can almost draw a line on the map.
     We stopped at an Aire de something for a sandwich lunch, then decided to have something cooked when, delighted, we saw a notice in the buffet lunch section advertising Assiette Vegeterianne. Vegetarian plate? I am now pretty cocky about my French – almost a native speaker. This was a thoroughly safe bet. Whatever this veggie dish might turn out to be, we could not go wrong. Could we? 12 Euros later we found ourselves holding a bowl of chips each. Crappy chips. And they were, as near as damn-it, cold chips. I should have taken them back. I should have argued but I don’t know enough French words to argue. More wasted Euros.
     So we stuffed down some of our cold chips then hit the road again.
We arrived at our two-night stopover site (Chateau de L’Eperviere) before four. Pretty good going, I’d say.
     First impressions of the site: looked good. Nice duck pond. Good shop. Two small, but clean, pools. Free Internet/WiFi in the bar. In fact, this site seems to tick every box with a little gold star next to every tick.

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