Thursday, 18 October 2012

Tuesday 2nd October 2012 - Gien


We have recently bought a new map of France and after some research, we chose the spiral bound AA Big Easy Read 1:190,000 map. We chose it because it was easy to read, easy to handle with the spiral binding but most of all because of the detail of sites of interest, especially historic and archaeological sites. It really is excellent for locating Roman remains and pre-historic sites such as dolmen. We noticed that a few miles east of Bray was an area with a number of dolmen, so we took a small diversion. Sure enough, we found some signposted from the road and we were able to visit them. We then moved on past the ancient abbey farm of Vauluisant, paused at the Devil's Rocks picnic site for a coffee and then stopped at Villeneuve-sur-Yonne to wander through the town. The Yonne is yet another major river in this area that has barges plying up and down it and the town was walled, although only two very impressive gatehouses remain of the fortifications.
We made a quick visit to the Roman amphitheatre of Chenevieres before pushing on to the aire at Gien. We had inspected the aire previously, stopping for lunch, but haven't stayed there. It is on the banks of the river with a pleasant walk along the riverside to the town – a walk that we followed to find a small restaurant for our evening meal.
Photos: The Dolmen des Blancs Fosses; Vauluisant Abbey Farm.


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