I left the lovely campsite early and began my day before 8am. I had a lot of driving ahead of me - I was in an area I'd been before and I was trying not to retrace old steps. My first stop of the day was, however, new to me: Chalon-sur-Saône, a city on the Saône river. I drove in and they had LOADS of parking areas, with a lovely big one for campers and larger vehicles. I picked a spot then walked into the city.
The first thing that struck me was that there were quite a few half-timbered houses, which I hadn't seen in a while, painted in bright colours. The second thing was the delicious smell that was coming from the boulangerie. I had to stop and take a photo of it, both because the sign was so lovely and because there was a decent line-up going on. I snapped a few, then got in line to buy a pain au chocolat. yummy.
I started heading in the direction of the office de tourisme to pick up a map, so ended up next to the river. It was a lovely morning to spend walking beside a glittering river. There was an island in the middle so, after I'd grabbed a map, I headed that direction and had an explore over there. Then head back to the mainland and meandered towards the camper.
It was a bit before 11am that I left, and stopped at the Intermarché on the way out of the city. I needed some supplies, and I was running low on wine! I also picked up some lunch from there and hit the road. I had about 2 hours of driving ahead of me. I stopped along the way to eat my lunch - that's one of the great things about driving in France, there are picnic areas EVERYWHERE! They usually have a park bench, a bin, and are usually in an area with a good view.
I finally made it to my next destination, a little town called Flavigny-sur-Ozerain, or Flavigny by the people who live there. It also is the village that Juliette Binoche's character in the movie Chocolat opens her shop, and there is a little plaque on the nondescript building to commemorate it... No chocolate shop I'm afraid! Speaking of all things sweet, Flavigny is also the little village where the sweets called "Les Anis de Flavigny" are made. The recipe used for these little bon-bons apparently dates from 1591, but the type of sweets have been made by monks since the 8th century! It starts with an anise seed (which is used to flavour liquorice, but so much purer in this form) coated in layers of flavoured sugar. Very nice!
Flavigny is another one of the Les Plus Beaux, or beautiful villages, and it really deserved the title. It was the prettiest little place!
I popped into a little art gallery to buy a postcard and had a really long chat with this lovely man who ran the store and lived in Flavigny in the summertime and Switzerland at other times. What a life! He also invited me for drinks that evening, but it had been a long day and I needed to find somewhere to camp and recharge.
I left the store and kept walking around until I'd covered off every inch of this lovely place!
It was time to go and find a campsite. The man in the art gallery had told me there was one nearby at Venarey-les-Laumes, about 9km away from Flavigny so I drove there. The pitches were huge and the campsite itself was too, so I found myself a nice, secluded spot in the shade and had an aperitif before dinner.
Campsite: Camping Municipal Alesia
Rating: 7/10. Good, quiet campsite just down the way from Flavigny-sur-Ozerain. Facilities were fine, pitches were shady. Reception speaks very good English.