Saturday May 19th
Farewell to Beaune and a very interesting journey to the next place, with many chateaux and charming villages to be admired. We saw a huge bird of prey, which might have been an owl, and a big wild cat creature ran across the road in front of us. It was bigger than a fox and had a striped tail.
La Graviere du Moulin
7 Route de Frangey
89160 Lezinnes
This is a Camping Municipal, allied to the Acsi scheme and costs a mere 10 euros per night. What a bargain! There’s even a new shower block and an excellent laundry room.
We arrived at lunchtime so Reception was closed but no matter, we could see plenty of spaces. We parked the caravan round the corner in the big car park and had lunch. We were just settling down for a snooze when M le Patron turned up and invited us to check in. He was another jolly man with no English. He escorted us on foot to help us chose a pitch. We decided the river bank would be pleasant so that’s where we settled. The site is actually a small island, with the river on one side, the mill race on the other. The two join up into rocky shallows at the far end of the field.
We sat in the sunshine by the river, watching
the dragonflies and thinking all was right with the world.
Sunday 20th May
We had torrential rain in the night. So much for the sunny
idyll! We walked to the village for a look around but there’s not much there.
The river’s interesting, very fierce further up and picking up a great deal of
speed over the weir. The mill race is pretty impressive too.
We got caught in a thunderstorm while we were out, which
carried on with great gusto for at least three hours, chucking down buckets of
rain and huge hailstones. We then realised why there were flood escape notices
all around the site. Oh ****! Trust us to be parked six inches from the edge of
the river, which by this time had turned into a raging torrent. Why didn’t we
choose the middle bit, like the three sensible Dutch couples?
My anxiety was not helped when M le Patron came banging on
the caravans to make sure everyone was OK. He kept trudging up and down the
river bank, looking at the water level. He needn’t have bothered, I was keeping
a pretty close eye on it myself.
The first thing to flood was the road out. Yikes! But we
were reassured by a notice in the laundry, which said there’d be a loudspeaker
warning when we had to evacuate. It also warned us to gardez notre sang froid.
We’re British, dammit. Stiff upper lip and all that. I think the Dutch have
stiff upper lips as well.
There was a poor sod camping in a tiny tent. We were
wondering if we should ask him in for dinner and shelter but couldn’t decide
how to ask him to leave at bedtime! (I’m not that charitable.) Anyway, he had
the sense to remove himself to the shelter of the nice warm laundry, where he
spent the night. He was a bit sullen. I’d said bonjour to him earlier in the
day and he wasn’t at all smiley or pleasant I’m sad to say. Perhaps he had a
premonition of discomfort to come.
Monday 21st May
We survived the night and were not swept away but the skies
are miserable and grey. More rain but not the torrential sort.
The man with the tent packed up his sodden gear and cycled
away. If he had any sense, he’d have got on the next train home.
Tuesday 22nd May
More rain and the river’s up. We keep watching the weather
forecast because we’re really keen to cycle some of the Canal de Borgogne but
we’re fair weather cyclists and see no joy in doing it in the wet.
Wednesday 23rd May
Today the computer died.
We viewed the ancient laundry. (Huge key from reception on
request.) We had another look at the fierce weir, exuberant river and
tumultuous mill race and decided enough was enough and we’ll sadly leave
tomorrow. After the decision was made, the sun came out! But we’ve made up our
minds now.
I’m getting desperately short of reading material. Books
running out and computer broken. At this rate we’ll have to talk to each other!
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