Tapp's Travels

We were heading southward to a site a number of kilometres northeast of Mâcon and east of Pont-de-Vaux.  Les Ripettes.  Sounds fabulous, with huge pitches and good views.  The trouble was that lots of other people – mainly Dutch – had had the same thoughts.  As we arrived at the site entrance the proprietor was putting out a sign.  “Complet!”  We missed the last place by 10 minutes.  That’s the disadvantage of our non-booking policy!  There is another site 18 kms further east.  We don’t know much about it.  Will that be full too?  We tried calling – no answer.  Only one option.  Let’s go and see.  Camping Les Milipetts near Saint-Nizier-le-Bouchoux (don’t you just love the French town names?  Imagine – Saint-Torqué-le-Groetville!).

“Park anywhere and tell us later!” was the policy here.  Immediately adjacent to the site is a lake on the Bief de Nanciet.  (As far as I can tell, a “Bief” is a “reach” of, or a section of a waterway.)  Anyway, the plan d’eau improved the view!

Failing to get on the Les Ripetts site was actually a blessing in disguise.  The Milipetts turned out to be one of our favourites!

The routine for preparing for a move of area is getting more complicated.  To be fair, mainly in a precautionary way.  The sliding cupboard drawer (the one that fell to pieces on us in Northumberland last year is strapped into place.  The fridge is largely emptied into a cool box and the door is taped shut (following our experience at Autun).  And a patented system for ensuring that all my ball gowns don’t jump off the wardrobe rails and fall into a crumpled heap in the bottom of the cupboard is put into effect before every trip.  This consists of wedging cushion-shaped parcels of bubble wrap between the top of the hangers and the ceiling.  VERY effective.  But did you know …

Bubble wrap was originally invented in 1957 by an American mechanical engineer and a Swiss chemical engineer trying to design a textured plastic wallpaper.  That failed.  Then they tried selling it as greenhouse insulation but failed again.  The product was only saved when IBM started using it to wrap its mainframe computers for shipping!  Another useless fact!

The air temperature is getting out of control.  Ten to fourteen days of French heatwave are predicted (over 35°C).  Some of the days over 40° with a peak of 47° expected…  We need shade!  … and a few cold beers!  … and a swimming pool!

A unanimous vote for the best restaurant in the area by the campsite owners was for l’Echappée Gourmande in Saint-Amour.  It was certainly worth the 20 minute drive further east.

… and after, I claimed the Valentine’s picture of the month.

The town boasts another of the fashionable whole wall murals.  And don’t you just love the “Magic Eraser” function on the phone?

BEFORE                              AFTER

I didn’t like those cars anyway!  The village church is pushing the boat out with probably the longest name of any we have seen on this trip …

… (L’église Saint-Amateur-et-Saint-Viateur-de-Saint-Amour).  In our extensive review of French churches I don’t think we have clocked another with more saints’ names attached.  (Assuming Saint Amateur was a fully qualified saint!) 

Immediately behind the church is the “Prisons Royals”.  

Under Louis XIV, Franche-Comté was a province rife with smuggling.  The Gabelles Courts were therefore established to combat illicit trade in salt, tobacco, textiles, etc. and to hunt down smugglers.

Built between 1730 and 1741 to house this court, the building comprises a courtroom, the jailer’s quarters, a chapel, prison cells and dungeons.  (Doesn’t Google have a way with words?)  It’s only open to the public on two days in June, and we will not be here on either of them!

We visited Bourg-en-Bresse one Sunday.  A goodish distance south of base-camp.  But of course none of our missions is ever direct.  A hesitation at the delightfully named village of Marboz.  To investigate the old wooden framed houses, the patisserie and, of course, the church!

Well, the visit to the baker’s was very productive, the houses looked pretty old and the church was typically magnificent!  And COOL!

In Bourg-en-Bresse while wandering aimlessly around the little alleyways in town we came across the Fontaine Bernard …

… this imposing fountain was built in 1879 on the site of the cross from the old cemetery that had occupied the location between 1755 and 1839.  The decision to erect the fountain followed the tapping of a local spring.  However, this substantial cast-iron structure stood dry for over 100 years due to faulty piping.  During this time it served instead as a large flower pot!  Research undertaken in 1990 led to the discovery of the original plans and the fountain’s subsequent restoration.  It was put back into operation in 1992

The theatre is a really impressive building and is surrounded by associated bars, restaurants and other hangers-on.

There were the compulsory old, wooden-framed, overhanging houses …

… and the equally compulsory Hotel de Ville.

The cathedral is entering the longest-church-name-competition.  Cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-l’Annonciation de Bourg-en-Bresse. And wins by four letters!

The weather is getting “rather warm” now as we start to move into what is being described as a “Heat Dome”.  The skies are crystal clear and the sunsets are spectacular – as seen from our front room.

We decide that Sunday lunch should be taken back in Saint-Amour.  Another beautiful meal.  We hit Louhans before their market finished!

It spread through both the town’s main roads and it’s  narrow alleyways.  We never cease to be amazed at the total effort that goes into setting up in the early hours, trading all morning and then packing away after noon.  And they do it all the next day in another town in the area.  There’s a market somewhere in the vicinity on at least six days a week!

The highly decorated roof of the Église Saint-Pierre, rises elegantly above the more lurid stall covers.  Virtually every town we visit is clean, tidy and plastered in floral displays.  Louhans is no exception.

In the tiny rural town of Montpont-en-Bresse, we come across another example of a decorated house.  The four lower panels depict piles of books, while two girls upstairs are reading and a barn owl sits in the attic.

At the head of our peaceful lake …

… there was a “Salle Polyvalente” (a multi-purpose village hall).  The first day we were camped here there was a boules competition with about 15 thousand petanquers energetically trying to blast the opposition’s boules into the next world.  The next day the place turned into a dog show with 15 thousand yapping and barking dogs.  Following that, the local fire brigade came to practise filling their fire engines with water from the lake.  And finally the local council spent two days mowing the grassy areas and cutting back the vegetation all round the water’s edge.  That looked a bit much like environmental vandalism to me.  A case of trying to be super-tidy.  What about the family of ragondins (coypus) we have seen swimming in the lake and playing in the long grass?

With the weather as it was, we got to use the pool most days – often with the whole area to ourselves.  But the heat is already getting ridiculous and forecast to get even worse over the next couple of weeks with temperatures of up to 47°C predicted.  And it looks like this everywhere in France!  Our only option is to head north and west.  Normandy and Brittany are projected to be slightly less oven-like.

We are on the move again!