Sunday 7th January 2018

It was quite overcast today but it remained dry. We set off north and travelled through some beautiful countryside in the Jura mountains.

There has obviously been a lot of rain or snow in this area recently. All the rivers are very swollen and some have broken their banks. We saw quite a lot of flooding.

We stopped for the day in the City of Dijon. The town Aire was flooded so we settled for a nice quiet car park by the canal which we found through the Wildcamping database. We were keen to visit the church of Notre Dame which had a good write up in our Rough Guide to France. We got the bikes out, cycled along the canal and chained the bikes to the railings before walking the last bit into the city centre.

This is the facade of Notre Dame.

Here's some detail of the arch above the main door.

This is a general view inside.

On the inside of the main door is this little carved devil with his hair standing on end.

Here's the alter.

To the right of the alter is the statue of Notre-Dame de Bon Espoir - often erroneously referred to as "The Black Virgin" due to a coating washed off in 1963!

On the left close to the entrance is this old mural.

On the outside of the church is this carving of an owl worn smooth by countless hands. Apparently it is a very lucky thing to touch!

We wandered back to our bikes through the old town stopping along the way to buy some (Dijon) mustard. What else would you buy here?

Back at our van after we had finished our tea and it had got dark there was what I would describe as an extremely unsettling incident. A middle aged to elderly woman with a dog started shouting at us through the windscreen of our van. We opened the side door and talked to her. She told us that we were in a very dangerous place. That there were drug addicts here. That they were likely to set our van on fire. That the police had been ordered by President Macron not to come here because it is too dangerous. We asked her why she and her dog were here if it was that dangerous. She explained that she couldn't afford to move anywhere else!

I spent quite a while wandering around the very quiet and tidy car park pondering on what she had said. Everything I was seeing seemed to be at odds with her account. People were strolling up and down the canal side path without a care in the world. It just all seems a very calm and okay place. Who knows what the truth is?  

Today we travelled 114 miles (184 kilometres).We are at N47.32142 E5.00493

Dijon   Street view