Dole

Setting off from Epernay this morning we made a wrong turn and came upon a market. We decided to pull over and have a look. Oh my goodness if only we had markets like this at home. So much amazing food and such fabulous quality. We really have nowhere to store food but we bought chicken legs, sausages, champagne pate, a baguette and strawberries. We ate the chicken and sausages for breakfast on the road and the baguette and pate for lunch.

An hours drive in we stopped at Troyes to see the half timbered houses. It’s Saturday morning so it is busy busy and finding somewhere to park was a bit of a challenge but we managed a park at Hotel De Ville. I think every town has a Hotel de Ville. Came up in the street right at the old timbered houses. Wow there were so many of them. It’s amazing these old building are all still standing, some a little crookedly, but still there and still in use.

Another couple of hours drive got us to Dole, which we were expecting to be a small town and it is, but in the middle of a huge place. Google maps keep wanting us to go down a street with a bollard in it but we finally found our accomodation. It is lovely, and the old town is lovely too but I don’t know that it has enough to keep us entertained for two days. Might have to venture further afield.

We went foraging for dinner and considering there doesn’t seem to be that many people about all the restaurants are booked out. We found a French frontage fondue place who said if we eat straight away and are done by eight we could come in.

Nobody in there had much English and we had no idea what we had ordered but it was all delicious. I think we keep the owner amused, he keep coming out to talk French to us, none of which we understood but it seemed to entertain everyone, us included.Read more