Thursday 8 June 2017

Bourg-en-Bresse to Autun - 86 miles

Awoke to another lovely day and took our time getting ready. No facilities here, but then it's cost us nothing either so took the time to give Jamie a proper run in the park before getting on our way. We have no particular destination in mind, just head north-west and see what we find, so first place of note, Challons-sur-Saone. On the way there we stopped at Tournus for fuel and a bit of shopping as well as an early lunch before passing through an attractive but busy town on one of Frances larger rivers.

From there it looked like Autun had a selection of aires and campsites either there or around so followed our noses and ended up on a good, though not main, road which took us through the lovely Bourgogne (Burgundy) countryside with acres and acres of vinyards and dozens of vintners inviting passersby to a “degustation” (sampling). Not being wine people we resisted.

Solar generator

Along the way we often spot unusual sights, usually as “roundabout art”, and the contraption above caught our attention. Lucky enough to be driving slowly past it, we identified it as a solar generator, the panels opening like a circular fan and the whole thing powered to track the sun. Solar energy is starting to become a big thing in France and we've seen buildings with roofs totally covered in panels. However we wouldn't have thought this example was particularly efficient.

On the way to Autin, we thought we'd have a look at the aire but on approaching noted it was full however the book told us of another which we discovered, mostly by chance, with plenty of room so stopped for a cold drink and make some plans. It was now very warm and we'd been using the aircon for a while so we thought we'd take a break for a few days and found an ACSI campsite just on the edge of town which looked nice and turned out to be almost empty. The office was closed but a sign on the door said settle yourselves wherever you like and come back at 5.30 pm, so after a wander round we chose an enclosed pitch in a corner that provided some shade but also good sunshine as well. Given Jamie's current fractious behaviour we thought an enclosed pitch would help to keep him quiet. The only drawback, as we found later, is that it is close to the road but we'll see what it's like overnight; when reception opened the very friendly young lady told us we could move later if we wanted although it doesn't seem much quieter elsewhere. We booked in for 4 nights, get some laundry done and maybe have an explore.

Seems Autin was a Roman town, known as Augustodunum, and there are numerous Roman buildings and remains to see – a couple of which we've already spotted. Reception gave us several informative leaflets.

Largest known surviving Roman amphitheatre

Porte Saint-Andre

Where We Stayed

Camping de la Porte d'Arroux, rue du Traité d'Anvers, Autun N46 57'53” E4 17'34”

79 level pitches on grass, some enclosed by hedges, others open with varying shade. All usual facilities, m/h service point. Shop for basics in reception. Some road noise. Roman town 500m.

ACSI (No. 1962) €15 per night otherwise starting from €17.10.