A New Adventure in France

As we travel around it’s interesting to see how different communes welcome motorhomes – or not. As we saw nearer the riviera, motorhomes are actively discouraged. In other places you can come across functional facilities in the smallest villages, towns with no parking restrictions and tolerant to off-grid stays and in some you get the bonus of a wonderful view, a lively town or scenic surroundings. In the past week we’ve had two such experiences.

The first was an off-grid overnight stop overlooking the town of Dole, our last stop in the Jura region. The town was the capital of the Franche-Comté region until 1678 and is also the birthplace of Louis Pasteur so his name and face features heavily. Several canals run through the town including the Canal des Tanneurs, site of the former tanneries which can still be seen today.

We followed a trail through the town to see all the key sites. It really is an elegant town and it was good to see that people do seem to live in the historic centre giving it a vibrant feel that some of the older towns lack. On one wall there is a marvellous trompe l’œil depicting famous personages through the ages who have links with Dole.

From there we headed west into the Burgundy region with a brief stop at Nuits-Saint-Georges and a quick sample of the famous wines before travelling through the beautiful vineyards to the Burgundy canal.

We found a beautiful stopping point for 8 motorhomes next to the lock, one of 189 locks on the canal, at the village of Vandenesse-en-Auxois. This village is not far from the canal’s highest point at Pouilly-en-Auxois and is overlooked in the other direction by the castle of Chateauneuf. The small site at Vandenesse has full facilities for motorhomes and Monsieur Le Maire himself comes round each evening to collect the modest dues. A neighbouring Swiss camper told us that he had spent a week there to do some research into the lives of two RAF airmen whose plane had been shot down in the area on the way to Milan and whose graves are in the small village graveyard. He didn’t seem to have any specific links to the RAF but was moved by the story of the crew and the young pilot, only 20/years old.

This particular lock is a base for the large luxury peniches that can be chartered for cruises along the canal and we observed the progress of one through a couple of the locks, with only inches to spare on each side. The Burgundy canal is one of the the most heavily locked canals in France and, unlike other canals we’ve seen, most of the locks have to be operated by a lock-keeper or what seemed to us to be a mobile force of ‘Voie navigable de France’ staff who travelled between the locks on scooters or in vans. One of the lock operators told us they were paid by the kilometre – not sure if he was having us on or not! What’s clear is that life on the canal goes at a very slow pace indeed. We watched a boat go through a couple of locks and then cycled ahead of it back to base which took us 10 minutes but the boat only arrived an hour later! We’ll have to save our pennies to do that trip as a 6 day charter for 6 people half-board costs around 23,000 euros.

Many of the original lock-keepers’ houses are now privately owned and often very nicely restored and festooned with flowers at this time of year. We came across one house, now a family house that was decorated in a very individual style.

The chateau on the hill near us was calling to us like a fairytale castle with an enchanted zigzag path up to it so we part cycled, part walked up the very steep road to reach the village of Chateauneuf, one of the Plus Beaux Villages and certainly one that seemed to merit that label with the castle and well maintained stone houses.

We’re certainly very grateful to the enlightened communities that provide these lovely facilities.