What About Sue and George: Auxerre, France

This weekend we returned to the town of Auxerre since our first visit was in the freezing cold weather. Auxerre sits along the picturesque Yonne River with two large churches rising up from its cityscape.

Auxerre, France

Auxerre, France - on one of the bridges a plaque honoring
Thomas Jefferson referencing the French-American friendship

Auxerre, France

But the thing we wanted to do the most in this region was ride our bikes on the towpath along the Canal du Nivernais. There are about 500 miles (800K) of cycle tracks in the Bourgogne region alone. This was our first time biking in this area of Bourgogne, previously we have cycled north of Dijon.

Map of Bourgogne region cycle paths

On Saturday we rode south of Auxerre about 15 miles to Sainte Pallaye. We initially thought we could ride from Auxerre to Clamecy without realizing the distance and of course considering the return to the car. But as it turned out, Sainte Pallaye isn't even a third of the distance to Clamecy. So there is so much more to discover in this corner of Bourgogne.

With numerous people on houseboats riding the canals and at the locks, you can hear conversations with the canal attendants about where people are from, and where they are going. There was a lady riding her bike with a freshly picked wild flower bouquet, and picnickers galore. Lots of fisherman too.
We passed several groups of people with saddlebags on their bikes and had to assume that they were traveling long distances. There are companies for hire to transport your bags from one location to another and reserve accommodations in advance along the towpath. It was picture perfect ride!

Here's some sites we saw along the way:

Canal du Nivernais - not sure what this was other

than a reenactment of by-gone-days in France

Canal du Nivernais - Chateau along the towpath

Canal du Nivernais

Canal du Nivernais - passing through the lock system

Canal du Nivernais

Canal du Nivernais - Sainte Pallaye, a canal attendant's home

Canal du Nivernais

Canal du Nivernais - home along the canal

Canal du Nivernais

We were recommended a fantastic restaurant for Saturday night, something way beyond our normal fare. Upon arriving to the restaurant, the hostess pointed to George's shorts and said, "Sir, we don't allow shorts to be worn in this restaurant." Oh jeez, we just drove 25 minutes from our hotel, we both looked at each other -What are we going to do now. But she said "Don't worry we have a pair of pants that you can wear."

As George was changing, a prior conversation while we were packing for the trip came to mind. Husband-"Do you think I should pack long pants." Wife-"It might be a good idea if we eat in a nice restaurant." In all fairness, you wouldn't have known George was wearing pants of the rental kind. The meal was incredible and the service was outstanding. The restaurant was located next to the Yonne River offering beautiful views from the terrace for our aperitif before we were taken to the dining area.

As previously mentioned we've been to this area before, but we didn't give the town of Chablis a second thought, I think because we saw tourist buses. Say no more. But this journey put us in Chablis near the end of lunch time. If I haven't said it before, I'll say it now. When in France, if you don't eat between 12-2:30, you are plumb out of luck for a decent meal or no meal-period, restaurants either close or stop serving (large cities don't count).

So we stopped and had a very nice lunch in a sun-filled courtyard. Chablis is an extremely small town but it is probably safe to say that its name is a draw for tourism. But even if it was named something else, it would be a must see in this region. In the heart of some of the best wines you can find, you will also find narrow cobble stoned streets winding through the town with several wine tasting locations in addition to several cute shops for finding that unique French memento.

Here's some photographs of Chablis:

Chablis, France

Chablis, France - a walk through tunnel

Chablis, France - love this exceptional sign work

Chablis, France

Our last stop on the way home was pure luck. We randomly plugged in Ancy-le-Franc into the GPS and interestingly enough discovered a castle. Chateau of Ancy-le Franc was built in the 16th century during the rein of Francois I and was designed by an Italian architect in the renaissance style. I was just reading about Francois I and Leonardo da Vinci, but I'll leave that for another blog.

The castle and the grounds are immaculate. We were able to take a self-guided tour, but there wasn't enough time to tour the grounds.