We are ahead of plan on the journey back to Calais so we spent last night deciding where we were going to spend our spare time. Last night Jane found an aire listed in the National park (Parc Nature Regional du Morvan) just north of Luzy. It was set on a lake and there were walks from the aire – ideal. At least it was ideal until we woke up to the sound of rain in the early hours and it continued through breakfast. We decided to go to the park anyway and then decide whether to move on or stay the night. The weather brightened up slightly as we drove to Lac les Settons and although it was still rather dim, we could see past the hills of the park and over many miles of the lower land beyond. We drove through large forests, both pine and deciduous, with areas of heathland and bracken and marshy areas. There were also many more fields of Charolais cattle and we again thought that the countryside could easily have been that of Britain even if the farm architecture and the cattle were very French. It was then that the reason for this finally occurred to us – it was the fields. Unlike the overwhelming majority of France, the fields were small and had hedges or, occasionally, dry stone walls. Normally, French fields are vast areas of cereals or other crops with no field boundaries. Cattle in fields are unusual, unlike in Britain where they are commonplace. The field system in Britain is part of the reason why the British countryside is so pretty and it certainly made this area of France much more picturesque.
We arrived at the lake in glorious sunshine but the warmth in the motorhome was deceptive as there was a bitter wind. We walked a short distance around the lake and decided that we would drive on rather than freezing by the lake.
Lunchtime approached and Jane diverted us slightly to a Roman villa site shown on the Michelin map. The Compierre Roman Villa near St. Reverien is somewhat remote and, I suspect, not much visited especially in November but it proved to be quite interesting. Occupied from the 1st to the 4th centuries AD it is positioned in a valley with an abundance of iron ore and there is evidence of a considerable amount of iron smelting in addition to bronze working and pottery kilns. The site itself is in a forest and trees still grow around and in many of the buildings. The two kilometres of paths gave us an interesting walk and some fresh air before we had our lunch.
The cross-country route continued in the afternoon still with many more fields of Charolais catttle - the Pays de Charolais must be huge. We saw some lovely farmhouses, many with round turrets that were obviously fashionable around here. They may well have been emulating the châteaux that we saw that had similar towers. We also passed a number of impressive gatehouses but we will never know what the main houses or châteaux looked like as they were well hidden in the trees. Eventually the small fields and woods gave way to large fields of cereals and we approached the Loire river, crossing it at Cosne-Cours-sur-Loire. We were heading for an aire at Vailly but there was some doubt over whether it would be open at this time of the year – 'All the Aires of France' suggested that it was whereas 'Camperstop Europe' suggested that it closed earlier this month. As we drove through Boulleret I spotted an 'Aire de Camping-car' sign and following it we found a brand new aire that wasn't in either of our books. It is very smart with two large picnic tables, very large designated motorhome parking places and an excellent Euro Relais service point. The aire is free although water requires a token and a token can also be used to obtain 6 hours of electricity from a point next to designated parking spaces. Very impressive. The tokens can be obtained from any of the local shops, bars and restaurants that are only 50m away. The only problem is that on a Sunday afternoon, none of them are open. Still we parked up and investigated the area and I took photographs to send with a report to Vicarious Books so that the aire can be included in the next edition of 'All the Aires of France'.
Photos: The Château at Chitry-les-Mines; We stumbled across the lovely hamlet of Champallement with a fortified manor house and a round tower (complete with arrow slits), with no more than ten houses, one of which was the Marie (mayor's house) – the views over the surrounding area were excellent; The evening sun catches the tops of the trees in Boulleret.
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