We left the very wet and smelly lakeside heading south on a mission.
We were off to find the source of the River Seine!    We've seen it in Paris and 'flown' over it on the bridge at Le Havre, so we're going to see where it all started.
This means a bit of a wander - so we headed for   Bar-sur-Seine and headed up the Seine valley.
This was very pretty with the beech trees on chalk just starting to turn and Champagne vineyards on the hillsides.

We passed through Chatillon-sur-Seine   and then turned off the D971 onto a very narrow white road.    Let's hope we don't meet something - we joked ....... and round the next bend came a great big lorry!!!
Rob was fantastic and reversed our big MH about 250 m back up the lane.   After all the rain the verges were very soft, and there was a ditch on both sides!     We let the impatient French driver pass us on the verge and off we went again.
We eventually found the source - which is in gardens, owned by the City of Paris! This was previously a Celtic religious place for the godess Sesquana and a beautiful statue of her was found here. This is now in a museum in Dijon.

The statue in the grotto that is here now dates from 1934, the earlier one disappeared during WW1
We went and had a look and took some photos and then had our lunch in Paris!!



We managed to get back to the main road by a shorter and slightly wider road. We then took the D10 road which had the TGV line to Lyons running alongside it - however we never saw a train.
We were heading for Semur-en-Auxois where we hoped to spend the night at the MH Aire there.
The road was supposed to pass near Alesia, the site of the battle where Julius Caesar defeated the Gauls in BC 52.    On the hillside there is apparently a huge statue of the defeated Gaul leader,Vercingetorix, which is 'visible for miles around' - however we never saw it - perhaps the trees had grown!!
We found the MH Aire in Semur very easily.   There were 3 other MH's already there.   it is by a sports centre and opposite a Hospital.    The Aire is flat and open and very well lit at night.
It is about 10-15 mins walk downhill into the town, passing an Intermarche with cheap fuel - very handy.
Semur-en-Auxois is a very pretty town on a deep bend of the river Armancon. The very helpful man in the TO, who spoke good English, gave us a map with a town trail on it
the town is picturesque, but a lot of the old buildings and shops are either shut up, for sale or just been left to decay.

The church was badly damaged in the Revolution and restored in the 19thC by Violett Le Duc (of Carcassonne fame) but when you enter there is a very strong smell of damp and it is obvious the roof leaks badly.    it looks as if it would take millions of euros to restore and repair.

It was a beautiful warm sunny afternoon and we had a good wander around - have a look at the photos