The site\nitself was surrounded by and on the edge of several tranquil and pretty lakes\nfull of carp, lilies and dragon flies – \nthe site was full of British couples in their dotage, their pitches full\nof deck chairs, sun loungers, pot plants and gnomes! We had a grassy double pitch with easy access\nand we used the few days here to settle back into our gypsy style life again.\nWe caught up on booking ahead for our next few stops and some shopping, as well\nas enjoying the peace and quiet that comes with the return of school term \u2013 no\nnoisy children! <\/p>\n\n\n\n We\ndiscovered that the actual village we were in, called Seraucourt Le Grand, had\na cemetery full of First World War soldiers that had died in the surrounding\nareas and whose graves had been relocated here as a gesture of\nremembrance. It was a beautiful setting\non the top of a quiet, flat hill, surrounded by fields of corn and hay, with\nbeautifully well maintained flowers and shrubs dotted amongst the 1830\nheadstones. The majority of the graves\nwere of riflemen, cavalry or airmen, the average age at death was early 20\u2019s\nand lots were from the north of England, they were in regiments from\nLancashire, Yorkshire and Scotland. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Troyes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n We headed further south to Troyes, a beautiful medieval town that we have stopped at last year, and an odd thing happened \u2013 David adamantly denied ever having been there before!! Last year when we returned to the UK to MOT the truck, we stopped here overnight (on a Saturday night as Sunday morning was an issue finding a caf\u00e9 open for breakfast!) in a small guest house at one end of the town, this time we booked into a campsite at the opposite end of town. And, another odd thing…..it rained! Only for the day!! <\/p>\n\n\n\n When we\nwalked from the municipal campsite into the old part of the city, we came\nacross the Cathedral first, which was closed when we visited last year. I clearly remembered the square, but he\ndidn\u2019t. I remembered a fascinating old\nwine shop on the corner of the square, which was closed last year, he\ndidn\u2019t. I showed him the cathedral\ngardens where we watched a young girl wearing no shoes playing in the fountains\nwith a big Alsatian dog, he didn\u2019t. It\nwasn\u2019t until I took him to the restaurant that we had dinner in, and then into\nthe main square with the Town Hall, that he remembered! I was beginning to doubt myself at one\npoint!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n We walked\naround the town, discovering more tiny passageways between the tall wooden houses,\nadmiring the partly wooden properties that are leaning away or bowing over, fascinated\nat how they have survived time, weather and woodworm! <\/p>\n\n\n\n We visited the Saint Pierre Cathedral and went into Saint Madeleine church, and marveled at the ornate wooden organs in both. Saint Madeleine is unique with its gothic internal bridge, <\/p>\n\n\n\n Auxonne & Dole (near Dijon)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n We arrived\nat our next site late on Sunday morning, a riverside park that is under new\nownership and certainly needing a bit of TLC. \nHowever, we had a huge area all to ourselves (apart from 2 tents, we were\nthe only ones here!) with full water and drainage and despite the fact that\nnone of the new owners spoke English, we found a good sunny area and settled in\nfor 2 nights. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the\nafternoon we took a drive 15kms away to Dole, to escape the noise of a\ntriathlon that was being held in the town, the cyclists and their supporters took\nover the one way streets and police blocked off routes into the town so we\nheaded out away from the hustle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Dole<\/strong> was a lovely town on a limestone ridge beside\nthe River Doubs, home to Holy Emperors and several Counts of Burgundy. A mix of one way circular roads led up to the\nBasilica and the market hall and the nearby attraction of Louis Pasteur house\nof birth, born in 1822. His father run a\ntannery beside the Canal du Rhone an Rhin which also dissects the town and his\nhome as well as the tannery now form a museum on the street named after\nhim. The town is full of tall stone\nproperties dating back to the 16th<\/sup> century, either heading up to the\ncathedral or down to the canal and river mixed in with tight jumbled stairways,\npassages, underground fountains and narrow roads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We also\nfound a natural spring originating from under the rocky cathedral supports,\nharvested in a trough dating back to 1274 or possibly earlier, it is called the\nFontaine aux Lepreux and it was found off Rue Pasteur. The water used to be\ndrunk by locals who thought it had healing qualities, whilst the lepers were\nrefused entry into the city, a leprosy hospital was founded beside its source\nsome miles away. In the 1600s it was used by local washer women to do their\nlaundry, until they were fined for polluting the water. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We admired\nthe Notre Dame Collegiate, built in the 1500s and a blend of Gothic and\nRenaissance style, and at the time no expense was spared on the rich\ninterior. It was built as a Church and\nbecame a Basilica in 1951 and has the highest church Tower in the region, 73m\nhigh, the Bell Ringer used to live in the top of the Tower. Several areas were restored in 2009 including\nplasterwork, paintings and the stained glass windows. We admired its organ, which was built in\n1754, with 3500 pipes!! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Auxonne<\/strong> is a town on the River Saone where Napoleon Bonaparte was a student at the artillery school, he then returned again to stay whilst he was a 2nd<\/sup> Lieutenant in the Regiment de la Fere from 1788 to 1791. A statue of Bonaparte stands in the main square outside the Notre Dame Church. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Once again,\nthe church is a Gothic stone building but with a twisted spire, something very\nunusual in this part of the world! The\noriginal church was built at the end of the 12th<\/sup> century, extended\nin the 13th<\/sup> and 14th<\/sup> centuries and an ornate porch was\nadded in 1516 \u2013 1520. The spire was added in 1843 and is 33m high but the\nweathervane is at a height of 70m! <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/20190904_180542-1024x585.jpg\")
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