Things are Heating Up

Despite our night out in Nuits St George we were up early the next day to get on the road as we had a lot planned for the day.

Our first stop for the day was Beaune, famous for its medieval hospital. We had originally planned to spend the night here but reports of camper break-ins at the popular parking places put us off.

However we thought we’d be pretty safe in broad daylight as there were plenty of people around, so we parked up just outside the old town and went to explore.

Beaune is a medieval city with the usual half timbered buildings and some partial city walls but the highlight is definitely the Hospices de Beaune. This, like many of the grand buildings of the area, has its roof tiled in the colours of the Duke of Burgundy. The Hospices de Beaune was founded in 1443 as a hospital for the poor and remained in operation in the same building until 1971. The Hospices de Beaune still operates today albeit in new buildings.

There is a large room with individual beds down each side where the poor were treated but there is also a much grander treatment room where those with money could receive paid treatment.  At one end of the poor ward was the chapel which allowed those in the beds to attend mass without having to get up.

We decided to spend the night in Autun. This is a grand old town perched on the crest of a hill. We managed to find a great spot for the night just below the town overlooking a big leisure lake which gave us a lovely breeze, very welcome with temperatures beginning to rise.

We explored the elegant and charming town by bike and although it was pretty quiet the buildings, especially the cathedral are very grand.

The cathedral is famous for a carving of the apocalypse above its main doors.

Autun is also where Napoleon Bonaparte went to school briefly in 1779, apparently to hone his French before joining Military school.

We had every intention of making our next overnight stop Chalon Sur Saone but when we arrived at the towns Aire we decided to have a re-think as although the Aire was nicely located just a short cycle from the centre of the city, it was directly under a busy by-pass, had no shade and a concrete floor which in temperatures of over 30c made it unbearably hot. So we went to explore the town knowing we would head off to stay somewhere else for the night (i.e. no sneaky beers at lunch!).

From where we were staying we had to cross over two islands, which make up part of the city, to get to the heart of the old town where there is lovely old cathedral off a square of pastel coloured half timbered buildings.

After exploring the town we made it back to Beastlet and drove around half an hour to the small town of Louhans, where we found a lovely Aire right on the river, which helped to cool things down.

As we have headed south the temperatures have really started to increase with the days in the mid 30s and nights staying pretty hot. This can be very uncomfortable in a camper and we weren’t sleeping too well so we decided that we needed to start staying places we could park on grass, preferably in shade and at altitude.

We had one last town in Burgundy that we wanted to hit up and that was Bourg-en-Bresse. So we decided to drop in on the way East towards the Alps.

We parked up by the football stadium and set off on our bikes to explore. Somehow we always seem to hit big towns on Mondays when many of the shops are shut which is frustrating, but its clearly a big shopping centre.

The place that we really wanted to see in Bourg-en-Bresse was the Monastere Royal de Brou. This impressive monastery was commissioned by Margaret of Austria between 1506 and 1532. She built it as a memorial to her third husband Philibert the Fair/Handsome, Duke of Savoy. Margaret of Austria was the daughter of Maximillian of Austria, who later became Holy Roman Emperor, and Mary of  Burgundy. After Philibert’s untimely death she would later become governor of the low countries.

The construction of the monastery is interesting as there are three sets of double height cloisters (monks, clerks and guests cloisters), one for the monks, one for the day to day functions of the monastery with access to the kitchens and the other for guests to the monastery. The guest cloisters included apartments for Margaret of Austria as she intended to retire there but she unfortunately died 2 years before they were completed.

The cathedral attached to the monastery is very impressive with some of the most intricate stone, marble and wood carvings I’ve ever seen. This is a definite must see attraction for anyone in the area. We had also hoped to visit the Apothicaireie building (the pharmacy of the old hospital) which is practically next door to the Monastery but being a bank holiday, it was sadly closed.

After completing our tour of the monastery we headed further towards the Alps and a lovely little Aire in the small village of Begnier-Cordon. This was beside the Rhone river and beautifully shaded with very private hedged spaces.

From here we enjoyed a cycle to a local waterfall called Cascade de Glandieu. This was a beautiful waterfall but unlike any other waterfalls we have visited, this one had security guards ensuring no-one disobeyed the rules, one of which was very officious. We were quickly told off for putting our bikes in the wrong place! While we were there he was constantly telling people off for various infarctions – who knew waterfalls had so many rules !

As the thermometer started approaching 35c we decide enough was enough and it was time to head for the mountains, but that is for the next blog.