Part 1
Yesterday afternoon, (May 11) Dave, Janis, Chris, and Ron decided to hit a few spots near here that appear in the Michelin Green Guide. Their itinerary worked out as shown on the map:
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| Our house is actually in Hameau du Solle (Hamlet of Solle) which is part of Commarin. |
Château de l'Oizerolle was the first stop on the tour. However, the château was locked up tight and the only view was looking through the gate.
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| Château de l'Oizerolle way in the back, at the end of this lovely "allée" |
OK, so that didn't work out. Next stop: La Bussière to see the Abbaye de la Bussière. The team walked all the way around the abbey walls looking for a way in. It's now a 5-star hotel and the only way in is to enter a key code at the front gate. And you can't really see the abbey from anywhere. Strike 2.
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| At least it's a lovely town |
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| La Bussière |
Next stop: Chaudenay-le-Château, but the château is way up on top of a hill and there is no visible means to get up to it. Strike 3.
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| Chaudenay-le-Château |
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| no way in, no good views of the château |
Never ones to give up, the intrepid explorers headed to St. Sabine to look at its famous church. But the church was fenced off and again there was no way to get into the church. A couple of photos from a distance would have to do.
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| Eglise Sainte Sabine |
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| Eglise Sainte Sabine |
The explorers arrived home disappointed that the hadn't seen these landmarks, but glowing about the beautiful countryside they had driven through.
Part 2
Ron and Chris must head back to England today. So, Dave and I drove them to the Dijon train station, leaving at 8 am to allow plenty of time to catch their 9:30 train to Paris. (followed by a trip across Paris by metro to the Gare de Nord, then the Eurostar train to London, followed by a train to Winchester. Aaahhh. They'll be so glad to get home. But we miss them already. )
When we got back to our house, we pow-wowed with Janis and Clark to prioritize our adventures to fit them in to our remaining week here. ONE WEEK! I can hardly believe we only have one more week here. We had a MONTH! I feel like we just got here. Oh, well. We'd better get adventuring.
So, this afternoon, we decided to do part 2 of the driving tour of the Ouche River (and the Burgundy Canal which runs along side the river).
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| our house to Notre Dame d'Etang |
We started at La Bussière where the abbey was still as inaccessible as yesterday. But that's OK, we have other targets today. (Oh, and the scenery was spectacular, but we couldn't really stop to take photos since the road was narrow with no shoulders and lots of curves as it ran up and down hillsides.)
We're headed to Barbiray-sur-Ouche to see "les jardins remarquables du château du Barbiray". Except the remarkable gardens are closed today (but we could see groups of people on the lawn, how frustrating). We're continuing our luck of yesterday.
We were having trouble finding the route suggested by the Michelin Green Guide and researched by Dave. So, we got out the paper map of Burgundy. (When the GPS doesn't get us where we want to go, get out the map.) Clark took over driving and Dave wrangled the paper map and off we went again from Pont de Pany to near Urcy looking for the Château de Montculot.
Clark practiced his rally driving as we climbed up some tall rocky cliffs - switchback after switchback for what seemed like miles. Oh, and the roads continue to be narrow and without shoulders.
We found the château. But it was not open today. In fact, it looks like it hasn't been open for many years. We took a photo through the gate at this sad dilapidated château. Perhaps we should buy it and turn it into a 5-star hotel???? Never mind.
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| Château de Montculot |
Finally, we drove to Velars-sur-Ouche in search of the Chapelle Notre Dame d'Etang. We drove up a hill side of new, large homes (Why so much building in this tiny village? An easy commute to Dijon?) to the very end of the road. A sign pointed us toward a walking path in the direction of Notre Dame d'Etang, but gave no indication how far we'd have to pilgrimage to see this chapel. And it was beginning to sprinkle. Alas, we'd never have made it as medieval pilgrims. We got back in the car and headed home.
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| The only scenery photo we took today. this is looking toward Semarey, the little town next to us. You can see Lac du Panthier in the background |
We batted 0 for 3 on today's trip and realized we should have made more effort to take photos of the beautiful scenery because we had no photos to show for our outing along the Ouche River (and the Burgundy Canal that runs alongside the Ouche).
We got home at 3:00 this afternoon. Luckily, we had a quick visit from our hosts and we learned some things about our house. But that will have to be another post because it's late and we're going to visit 2 châteaux tomorrow. (Their websites assure us they are open. Wish us luck.)
Thinking about Ron and Chris and hoping they got home all right. We know that Dan and Paulette made it back to Brussels with no problems.
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