Thurs 9 Feb 3° light fog

Into Dijon where some of the cobbled streets led to small squares, very rickerty to drive over, thankfully not much traffic which made driving round in search for the illusive park painless, for a change.  However our patient search was to no avail, so North it was to Troyes and the start of the Appelation of Champagne-Ardenne.

Traffic jam in Dijon

Sample of buildings as we drove around Dijon

As we left the city the countryside turned into green plantings, surprisingly not of mustard, but of rape seed for oil, which roll and undulate in shades of green. Don't  know how we got so high up but now winding our way down and up again through forest. Little village Le pays de Saint Seine de L'Abbaye  I site sign, so pulled over. Tony went to get some info and came back with fine foraging from little market, salad, veg, fruit and beautiful fresh mini quiche each for lunch with a fresh baguette and the all important jar of Dijon mustard. He even managed to crouch down to get through a very small doorway into the Abbey 1840 which is still operating as as working church, he reported was quite beautiful inside with stain glass windows.

Our lunch fresh from the market here.

The I site told Tony that the source of the seine starts up here and several tributaries meet further down to make the main river.

After lunch we  began to climb again, gentle rolling green hills but glimpses of the seine as we drove on through forest, rolling pasture like patchwork quilts.

Chatillian sur Seine Lidl's for couple nights dinners, have great carparks to make our shopping easy.

On through lots of modern homes and new housing area and just out of town. The sun came out and warmed up the day. The river is wider as we enter the Appelation of Champagne. 

Bar sur Seine for deisel, wouldn't take card but we're able to check tyres €1 65psi = 4.5 bars 70psi = 4.8 bars, rear 2 were a little higher than front 2, now all the same.

On to Troyes 3.5 t weight restriction,  sorry Les......into massive car park site free overnight no services, we chose quiet corner, tree lined border, pleased with lighting as whole car park lit up,10 minutes walk to town which we did on arrival at  4.45 for preliminary explore, before bigger outing tomorrow, but too cold to stay stay out long.

our camp for the night,

Troyes from the air forms the shape of a champagne Cork.  This is a Renaissance town from 17th century ,  I love the ancient buildings and the thought and feel of all that history .  The Hotel  du 

Lion Noir is 16th century with an external wooden staircase which we hope to see tomorrow . Apparently this is also the heart of textile industry and theire are lots of designer discount stores in town.

 Bought a box of vegetables for soup complete with bouquet garni,  so after our rekki we chopped it up, put in the pot and had fresh homemade soup for tea with fresh baguette , perfect for a cold night yummm. 

Got another motorhome in front of us for company so after null good.