Hazbeanz on the road: Normandy to Burgundy "Fright night"

His Bit:

Our next stage was three days, getting from Normandy to Burgundy with a route that avoids Paris and the dreaded peri fique.

I have a sister (Elaine) and brother in law (Jean-Lou) to visit and house sit for, the plan was to never exceed four hours driving and to have a break to refill LPG, my stomach and get some rest. To make life easy we planned to use Toll roads and just live with the cost. As it turned out, the toll roads are beautiful, wide, smooth and the cost is worth it for the fuel economy and lack of stress.

Normandy to Burgundy

The first night we stopped at a service station and were shocked to find just the one remaining space we could fit in to, the place was full with lorries. Then the penny dropped, In France most lorries are not allowed to drive on a Sunday so they were parked up and it was Saturday night. We slept (a little fitfully as it all felt a bit risky) and used the service station facilities, then set off fairly early for our next planned aire which was by a river.

After a long drive of four hours on beautiful roads and passing through frighteningly narrow toll booths, we got to the aire. It was shut, so we backed out and thought to stop at a service station again, the rain was heavy and I was at five hours of driving, I felt I should stop, an air came up “Phillipe de Rossy” so I pulled in. It was nearly empty, one old motorhome oddly parked in a very dark part of the aire (picnic type stop).

There was also one lorry. I pulled in two slots over from the lorry in the brightly lit area. We ate, watched a film, then locked up, for this I put both door locks on, one is a dead bolt type,

The door that was broken in to

also I put a water barrel and my folding bicycle across the step and tied it in position, you never can be too safe and went to bed.

At around 2 am I wake to an elbow in the ribs and the boss saying “someone is in the RV” there is a spot of red light at the foot of the bed but high up, which is weird.

I get out of bed and grab a stick to the sound of a fleeing person shutting our door, I follow out in to the cold night air and brightly lit parking area brandishing my stick, but the person has disappeared in to the dark outside our puddle of light and I am feeling the need to put some clothes on in this chilly and sodium lamp lit area.

I re-enter Monty and put the lights on. Many cupboards are open, the bicycle I put across the doorway as extra security had been carefully moved aside with the water barrel, but nothing was taken.

We are both very shaken, a stranger had stood at the foot of our bed whilst we slept, the stranger had been confident enough to rummage our cupboards with us in the RV.

In day light I find he knew how to overcome our locks, The dead lock can be pushed back with a screw driver. It took time to recover from this and we had trouble sleeping for about a week or so, but we both eventually saw this as a lucky escape.

Dead bolt at the top was forced back

We were not secure, and we falsely believed we would wake if someone tried to get in. We now knew different and were un-harmed and possessions intact. The next day we arrived at our destination in Burgundy and my sisters house. I set about improving security with the help of Empire RV by phone and my brother in law’s workshop (thank you Jean-Lou). I fitted a replacement door lock (thank you Empire RV for sending it out so fast), and an external lock that covers the standard door lock with an arm, which is bump key proof (thank you French Amazon)

Milenco lock £69 high quality

Excellent kit, with seals and instructions

, Fitting the lock was a slight challenge, I had to removed and modify a grab handle so the lock could be placed to protect the standard door fittings. I had to then drill three large holes (measure 3 times drill once, inside the door was a very tight fit), and to make the lock fit flush on Monty's door externally I had to make metal spacer plates, fortunately it all came together and looks good. I then installed four motion detectors, sensor alarm and pull alarms, plus sensor lighting independently powered, then additional locks on the sliding windows. We sleep better now, and the children at home are happier knowing we took this action. Someone might get in, but it will light up the place like a disco and make more noise; we will not be asleep and vulnerable as we were last time. My theory is that the old camper van in the dark had the place staked out, it drove off shortly after we put all our lights on and dawn approached. It drove to the slip road with its lights out, which I thought very suspicious. I struggle to understand people who prey on others, how low, base and disgusting they are and would have deserved where I would have shoved my pointy stick if I had caught him/them. I cannot tell you all the feeling this invasion caused. First was shock, then anger, these were immediate. Then I started dreaming of catching the toe rag and what I would do to him. In the end, scum and lowlifes are out there and we had to deal with it. We feel we have now and sleep better for it.

New security lock protects the new standard door lock

Security lock in unlocked position

New standard and new security lock inside

Nolay in Burgundy is in the heart of the French wine growing and is a beautiful small village,

Nolay Market square

it has an aire right in the centre by the Hotel de ville, which is also the village petanque court. The way for my parking there for three weeks was prepared for me by my sister chatting with the town mayor in the Hotel de Ville. On arrival I popped in made my thanks and gave my vehicle and contact details, in return the local police kept an eye on Monty for me. How nice is that!

I still visited Monty twice a day to check all was good and meet the new neighbours in their motor homes each day, for a small village, this aire really had quite a flow of motorhome visitors, even though a camp ground was just up the road.

I visited the camp ground and found it would not be suitable for Monty, access was too narrow and the field too sloping. The aire was flat, had water and drainage. Go there, it really would make a great base to visit the wine growing area.

Nolay countryside

Eventually it came time to leave my sister and the lovely Nolay, the boulangerie cakes will for ever have a place in my heart and on my waistline. They are sooooo nice.

Jennifer's favoutite

Mmmm, my favourite

Near to Nolay is Autun

Autun Centre

Ladies who lunch in Autun

Autun Roman Ampitheatre

Also Beune and Rochetpot Chateau Now closed as it was bought by a dodgy Ukrainian dude)

Autun Roman temple of Janus

Rochetpot

Rochetpot from when it was open to visitors

and Sully Chateau

Cest moi avec Sully Chateau

Sully Chateau

Sully Chateau excellent tour and amazing guide

all worth a visit. We started calling the area Bonjuer France as everyone we passed said hello, it was hard to walk and hold a conversation at times for all the hello's, how nice is that!

Our 3 week house sit for my lovely sister over, it was time to move on.

The next stage of our journey

South France to Spain Via Carcassonne

First to head off I had to navigate Monty through the Nolay village centre, where two cars cannot pass. I took heart from the large lorries I saw passing through and some careful reconnaissance of my own. We made our way to the A9 Toll road and pointed south, this time with better security and better route planning for stops, with a contingency for every stop.

It had become clear to me that driving Monty was like flying. Some may be asking right now how I can make that comparison, well I am a pilot and when flying you had to plot your route and your diversions, with refuel points and estimated times for arrival, once you take off, you cannot pull over, get out and re-plan and this was the case with Monty, it was all about preparation.

So every stop had an alternate, every refuel point had an alternate and driving time was taken in to account. The boss even went one step further, as we were going through the route plan so carefully, she wrote the route down, in case the Sat Nav died or threw a hissy fit, which on one occasion in the UK it did. I have an Aguri, it is great, but it got in a mess when it lost internet connection in the wilds of the Newbury country side.

We found ourselves back to road atlas and sweating every turn and road for weight, height and width. It was not fun and I am not sure the boss has forgiven me yet. May be in a decade or two I will be let off the hook for getting pretty stressed out about this. given our ages I have to accept I may not see that forgiveness.

The Aguri has been excellent with its routes and I have found it just a little easier to do multi-stop route plans with, than the Snooper.

Her Bit:

As it was Saturday, the Aires seemed quite busy so we stopped at a Motorway Service station with loads of trucks,

Motorway Service station Lorry Park

thinking they would be moving off and it would become clearer. This was not the case and we were told some commercial vehicles are not allowed on the roads on Sundays, so these vehicles were parked for the night. As we felt it was too late then to move on to find another Aire, we spent the night there which was OK, although we were totally hemmed in by huge trucks and we were not that sure we would be safe-so it was not a very restful nights sleep. We survived!

We have tried to stay on the toll roads because they are wonderful, not so busy, plenty of Aires and petrol stations, meaning shops as well, and generally less stressful. The toll booths are very narrow though-only 1 cm each side of the mirrors on Monty so Steve has to be very careful driving. It is so nice to be able to relax a bit and look out the window at the lovely scenery-so many forests that stretch on for miles! Wonderful colouring of the trees changing from green to yellow and red. Very flat fields and loads of cows and so much space! So different to England!

A bad fright in the night!

Sunday we spent on the road again and marvelled at the amount of lorries-really huge ones, traveling taking goods from one place to another. We followed the direction to an Aire, down some quite small roads, only to find it was closed. We decided to get back on the toll roads and pull into one of the Aires on that route. We chose Aire Phillipe Rossi, just off the A19. It was about 4pm by now and one other big lorry was there and a camper van in the area of cars. We saw people coming in to use the toilets, or to wash their cooking items in the sinks provided. We went to bed but at 2am I suddenly woke up-I realised there was a man in Monty-stood by the dining table, and shining a red LASER torch right at us. I knocked Steve awake and said, ‘There is a man in the van!’ Steve leapt out of bed and fortunately, the man fled out the door. We turned on all our lights and saw most of our overhead lockers had been opened, and some of our belongings were put by the passenger seat by the door-including our whistling kettle! The amazing thing was that Steve had not only locked the door but tied his bicycle across the steps at the top-he had also put a container of water on the steps-but all of this had been moved.

Aire Phillipe Rossi view from Monty

We were fortunate that our bedroom door was open or I may not have seen the man-the amazing thing was-he stood totally still when I opened my eyes and saw him-maybe thinking I would not see him there and go back to sleep. Steve went outside and walked all around the area but could not see anyone. Another lorry driver pulled up whilst he was outside, and we told him what had happened. He was very shocked but only there for the toilet so left soon after. Needless to say, we had a very restless night and I stayed up with the light on until Steve had a bit more sleep and we could get on our way.

Don’t put levelling legs down if you park in an Aire overnight.

We were told later not to put the legs down unless you are at a camp site for more than a few days as if they had been up-we would have felt the movement of the vehicle when the man tried to get in, and we could also make a quick getaway if necessary. We examined the lock and it seems as if the potential thief had put something in the side of the lock to flip the dead lock. No windows were open or roof vents but luckily nothing was taken, and no one was hurt. It was very scary though and made us determined to take as many precautions as we could to stop this happening again. It is also surprising what you can sleep through as we did not hear the man enter, move the water container, move the bicycle, or open any of the lockers or move any items. I was grateful that we were going to arrive at Steve’s sisters house later that day so would be sleeping in a secure house. We would have 3 weeks to get over the intrusion and to make Monty more secure. Even then I did wake up several nights at about 2am picturing the man stood looking at us in bed. Very disturbing.

The journey must go on…….

Our next stopping point was Nolay in Burgundy-where Steve’s sister lives and we were going to house sit whilst she and her husband went on holiday. Nolay is a medieval village

Nolay streets

with some lovely architecture but very small roads.

Statue of Msr Carnot

The camper site stop is the car park or the petanque court-lots of space, water collection and drop off but no electric that we could see. Many motor homes used this area and most days there were three or four parked there. The mayor of the town was very helpful and gave us permission to park there for as long as we wanted to.

Chapel of Saint Pierre-Gothic style buillt 1517 "Lepers Church"

The shops were really delightful and mostly family owned. The butcher had a fabulous selection of meats and home-made pies, and the patisserie had an amazing selection of cakes, croissants & breads. We were regular visitors to the later 😉 Both shops open 6 days a week until 6pm.

lovely LOVELY Cakes

Improving security

Whilst we were staying in Nolay, we ordered a new door lock plus an additional lock that goes across the other lock

The new lock to protect the standard door lock

as well as an alarm, motion sensors and a chain lock. Steve spent several days fixing all these things as well as making window locks so the windows cannot be slide open. We now feel we have done everything we can to deter anyone thinking of breaking in-and hope that is the case.

The trips in Burgundy were amazing-there is so much to see there. So many fields of vines changing colours stretching as far as the eye can see. There seem to be lots empty houses, an awful lot in need of renovation-in England these would be snapped up and people would be living in them. Instead they are just left falling down, they would make wonderful homes for people.

We visited Beaune,

Beaune Centre

the wine capital of Burgundy and a walled city, with about half of the battlements, ramparts, and the moat, having survived in good condition. The central "old town" is really large and lots of small cobbled streets and old buildings. Historically Beaune is closely connected with the Dukes of Burgundy.

A House in Beaune Centre

Autun, one of my favourite cities-great to walk around and lovely cafes selling crepes 😉

In Roman times the city may have been home to 30,000 to 100,000 people, according to different estimates. Nowadays, Autun has a population of about 15,000. There is a huge amphitheatre there which was one of the largest in the western part of the empire with a 17,000-seat capacity. There was a wedding photographer there the day we went taking photos of the bridge & groom. The house in the second photo was built using stones and statues from the theatre…..

Autun Roman Ampitheatre

House next to Ampitheatre with "Borrowed" statues

There are 2 ancient Roman gates and an impressive Cathedral. We spent some time walking around these cobbled streets and thinking of the history of the town.

Quite a way from the main city were the remains of the Temple of Janus.

Steve loves looking at remains of buildings (Not!) and when we got there it literally was parts of 2 walls but very impressive. In ancient Rome, the main Temple of Janus as it is often called, although it was not a normal temple, stood in the Roman Forum near the Argiletum. It had doors on both ends, and inside was a statue of Janus, the two-faced god of boundaries. The doors were closed in times of peace and opened in times of war.

Temple of Janus

We visited Chateau de Sully,

Chateau de Sully

situated between Autun and Beaune. It is the largest of the Renaissance châteaux of southern Burgundy. Two outbuildings face each other across a grassed forecourt, and to the rear is the vegetable garden, fenced by fruit trees. An impressive building, but needed some work doing inside due to possible subsidence and general lack of care-could do with some good restoration work. Enjoyed the visit though and the guide, who kept apologising for her poor English, was excellent-BUT- no coffee/cake shop!!!!

Chateau de Sully

We had driven past a sign on several occasions to Chateau de Rochepot and we decided to drive up into the hills to have a look at it.

Chateau de Rochepot

Amazing building- a 12th-century feudal castle of neo-Gothic-Burgundian style, rebuilt in the 15th century and completely restored and covered with glazed Burgundy tiles in the 19th century. We parked the car and walked to the gate; it was locked. We walked around the outside and took a few photos. A police car came up and watched us as we walked back to the car. Later, we were told Europol announced it had caught a “high-profile” Ukrainian fugitive who had been enjoying a “lavish lifestyle in France
” and is “thought to be behind a complex case of international fraud and money laundering”. Three other men were arrested in the swoop - two Ukrainians and a Moldavian. Two Ukrainian women have been placed under investigation.

Chateau de Rochepot

Gendarmes also seized €4.6 million (£4m) of jewels and property. The Chateau until recently belonged to heirs of former French president Sadi Carnot. In the haul were three unnamed Dali works. Locals said the vintage Rolls was seen towed from the castle in recent days. So, the locals are hoping it will soon be released and opened to the public again for viewing and conferences/parties.

Chateau de Rochepot

My sister in law and I had a magical experience when we visited Bibracte Archeological Dig.

Bibracte Archeological Dig

It was pouring with rain yet she drove the whole way up the mountain and we stopped to look at various artefacts and read the history of the place.

Bibracte Archeological Dig

It was like being in another world. We were the only people there-just a fine mist hanging over the trees and only the sound of the rain drops. You felt like the only people on earth and really as if you were living in another age. It was amazing! At the end of the 2nd century BC, Bibracte was the capital of the Gallic Aedui people. It had a population of over 10,000. It was here that Vercingetorix was proclaimed leader of the Gallic coalition in the year 52.

With its fortifications and districts grouped around a central avenue, Bibracte tells a moving tale of life in ancient Gaul. It was so much larger than I expected and totally laid out in an organised fashion. In 58 BC, at the

Bibracte Archeological Dig

Battle of Bibracte, Julius Caesar's armies defeated the Helvetii 16 miles south of the fort. A few decades after the Roman conquest of Gaul, Bibracte was abandoned in favour of Autun, 25 kilometres away.

Once abandoned, Bibracte remained undisturbed and unexamined until discovered by modern archaeology. Jacques Gabriel Bulliot initiated the first excavations at the site between 1867 and 1895. Photo 3 shows the house he lived in

Photo 3

whilst excavating the site. His nephew Joseph Déchelette, author of a famous Manuel d'Archéologie, continued the excavations between 1897 and 1907. The modern site known as Mont Beuvray is generally identified as ancient Bibracte. There is an excellent museum there with lots of hands on stuff and 3 D models. No coffee or tea room!!!!

I talked Steve into a visit to the Chateau Clos de Vougeot & Abbey and we were surprised when we got there how busy the place was with cars and people all over the place.

Chateau Clos de Vougeot

Castle built by 12th-century Cistercian monks, with wine cellars, original wine presses & vat house. When we got to the paying area-we were told it was a special day with wine tasting and omelettes-at a cost of 39 euros each-and no showing around the castle or the wine making area-just a tasting session.