Another very foggy start to the day, but the weather man has promised a beautiful sunny-ish day once the fog clears.
On our scenic drive we notice a road sign to the "Source de la Seine 8km". "Bit far for a side trip, we have a long way to go today". Ten minutes later another sign but this time only 2km. "Ok, lets make a short detour and have a look".
An here it is, the source of the mystical, fabulous Seine River that runs through Paris. The spiritual artery of France.
Again a French national treasure lies unheralded, in a wonderful forest just north of Dijon. It is not like it is in the wilderness. We have it all to ourselves.
This is the first bridge over the River Seine...
From here our scenic route follows the course of the Seine until we hit the motorway. The road system is France is wonderful. The roads are excellent. Even the minor roads albeit narrow, are well maintained. We can't get over how little traffic there is on the roads. Apart from a few busy weeks in August and the inner city, it is like we have the roads all to ourselves.
The road up to and beyond Reims takes us across a vast plain of rolling hills which are cultivated to the horizon.
In the middle of nowhere we came across what looks like an oil well pump in an ocean of farming..
By the look of the massive silo complexes along the road, the farms are very productive.
We also saw sugar beet for the very first time. Eventually we stopped and got up close with our new crop discovery.
Apart from a few tractors on the roads there is no sign of farming activity; maybe it is the wrong time of the year.
There is not even any sign of farm houses or sheds. The only farm sheds we see are in town. It looks like the farmers have their houses, sheds and other farm building clustered in the local towns and villages. By Australian standards a strange way of doing things.
Just south of Reims we entered the main Champagne growing region. By the look of it harvest is in full swing. Later in the week we will wander back to do the Champagne trail.
North of Reims we come across some major alternative energy production. First we see wind farms strung out along the ridge lines..
Then sheds, still under construction, which have the southern facing roof completely covered with solar panels. Thousands of squares meters of solid solar panels.
Note that even the small pump shed next to the large one has solar panels on its roof as well. Maybe they over ordered and so they needed a bit more roof space. Who knows? How much must it cost to install this size of solar panel array?
We figure it must get cold around here because every house has a huge pile of wood stacked in its yard.
We arrive in Grandrieux mid afternoon. We have the address of the cottage but no directions. Following Kathleen our GPS's directions we drive into and out of Grandrieux.
Through another small village to “your final destination on the left”. Yeh right we are in the middle of nowhere not a house in site. Luckily there are only two roads so we tootle up and down and around and around for a bit in the hope of stumbling across the two story, red-brick cottage with the shiny chimney we had seen on the internet. No luck. Ok time for plan B; We punch the longitude and latitude co-ordinates we have been given into Kathleen and off we go again. “Your final destination” is again in the middle of nowhere, this time on the other side of Grandrieux. At least we are getting a good chance to check out the ancient Grandrieux.
The Church....
How hard can it be. The cottage is supposed to be close to a major national walking trail, which we have found. We go back to where the trail intersects with our street address and drive around bit more playing detective. Finally on the way back from a third village, we see the “shiny chimney” going up the side of a red timber building (we would have bet our lives it was a red-brick building).
That has to be it! Sure enough it is and we are 10 minutes early. Any wonder the French lost the war, they have no idea about giving directions.
The cottage called La Dorine is an almost brand new and purpose built.
Downstairs is a huge lounge room....
with fireplace which comes in handy now the nights are getting down to single figures....
a small kitchen which is adequate but poorly designed and equipped considering the amount of money spent on the building...
Up the spiral stair case is a humugous bedroom that takes up almost the entire top floor. All the upstairs floors are heavy industrial grade vinyl. All the floors downstairs are tiled. No carpet, great.
Also upstairs there is a small and pretty impractical bathroom. Large bath tub, nice. Hand shower with no shower screen or curtain; hopeless.
There is laundry and toilet downstairs as well.We unpack, light the fire and settle down with a Kir cocktail or two. La Dorine is home for a week.
