We went to our café this morning for coffee and croissants before we left for today’s road trip. We had the coffee but he was already out of croissants. We sipped the coffee, connected to wifi, the girls had hot chocolate and then they headed out to the boulangerie to find our fare for food for the morning.

We left Semur and headed for Auxerre this morning. (Pronounced O-zayer). This is a little larger town but with no significant world history. There is a lot of things that had occurred here during the French Revolution. We had not had any of our books that mentioned anything about this city so we did the unmanly thing and went to the Tourism Office to get information. Turns out they have a wonderful self guided walking tour through the city. They have bronze plates in the sidewalk that make it very easy to follow. We took off on the tour and followed the trail for about 2 hours or so and then broke for lunch.

We lunched at a small corner bistro. Kay had a salad, KW had a Panini and KD and JA had a baguette open faced sandwich. It was a very good lunch for very affordable price (about 5 euro each). We then did a short cut on the tour as it was all becoming repetitive and we had places to go. Auxerre is a lovely city, very narrow streets but they all have those. We did get lost a few times getting into town but always managed to find our way back. There is an advantage to having a tall Cathedral in the center of town as that always gives us a targeted destination.

Early wake up this morning again at about 6:45 am. Tough as it was, we dragged ourselves out of the rack. JA and Ken went to the Boulongerie for Croissants and Puff Pastries which are generally like a work of art. There are probably at least 6 of these bakeries in this small town and our goal is to try them all.

We had breakfast at home with our purchases, fresh fruit and coffee. The conversation at the table this morning was that the girls were just so excited to get up every morning because you just never knew what new territory we would discover this day. We headed to Dijon to see the Saturday Market.

About an hour later we pulled into downtown Dijon with a lot of help from our new best friend Armin Garmin. He/she did a super job of finding the Centre Ville (Town center). We parked and began our jaunt through the streets following the local Tourism Office route. There are relatively no tourists around at this time of year that we can detect and that is great. We see the locals in their element and how they are living their lives. The market is more like a flea market with all kinds of wares for sale. There are fresh food, meat, cheese, candies, canned goods and more. There are clothes for every age, most new, some used. Ken could have picked up a nice pair of used shoes for only 10 euro, but no more room in the suitcase.

An early morning rise and breakfast at home this morning. Then off to Church at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Semur en Auxois. Turns out that the 9:30 service posted on the exterior was for a different location and the ND service was at 11 am. We walked around the corner and there was a Sunday market set up with just a few things.

Packed the bags early today and load them in “The Beemer”. (that is our new nickname for the Chevy aka BMW. With bags loaded we headed to the Boulangerie for one last stop before departing Semur. We were on the road by 8:30 and headed for Avignon. It was a beautiful day for a drive. We were only a short distance from the Toll Road so by 8:36, we were cruising at 130 toward Beaune. (130 kilometers per hour equals 78 miles per hour). Ken D was at the wheel and off we went.

After we passed through Beaune, we got into more hills. The geography seems to be much like that of Virginia and Nothern Tennessee. We started seeing vineyards again at Beaune and shortly the vineyards were side by side with corn fields. After we passed Lyon, the vineyards seemed to run next to orchards for apples and pears.

As we drove south, the terrain became a little more mountainous but only mild mountains. Eventually we could see the Alps off in the far distance to the east.