Moulins to Solutre Pouilly

Monday 14th September 

There was a bit of a commotion going on in the aire at Moulins last night, I wouldn't call it music but more a thumping grinding noise, I'm really not sure what it was ? 

I was distant so didn't bother me, I just nodded off as usual.

It cost 6.40 euro for 20 hours on the aire with services so pretty good value for money even with the noise.

It's a new day so let's try another BVoF village from the book I thought.

This time the village is called Semur en Brionnais and frankly I wish I'd not bothered. 

The book talks about Roman influences, all I could see was a Roman stone tower that was impossible to photograph from anywhere. 

It contained a museum that was closed, and that was all I could find of any interest.

The highlights of Semur en Brionnais

I've no idea what criteria they use for selecting the villages, I wonder if it comes down to whether the Marie greases the right palms ?

Anyway it was a convenient place for lunch and to have a video call catch up with Lauren and Piper, she was gurgling away with her new first tooth making an appearance.

After lunch it was on to my stopover for tonight at Solutre Pouilly, a small village in the wine region of Bourgogne Franche Comte, about 8km west of Macon.

The region is famous for its Pouilly Fuisse Chardonnay wine and there are plenty of vineyards in the area.

It's other famous feature is the rocky escarpment known as Roche de Solutre (Rock of Solutre).

It makes a very impressive backdrop and the motorhome aire has a fantastic view of it.

So that's how I've spent my afternoon, admiring the landscape and enjoying a glass of the local wine, actually bought from Aldi in Newcastle lol.

There is a path up to the top of the rock and I had considered climbing up, but after the wine consumption, another siesta seemed a better proposition.

Roche de Solutre

from Aldi in Newcastle, I wonder how the price
compares to the local retailers ?

This is another escarpment nearby called Roche de Vergisson

Apparently former French president Francois Mitterand used to make an annual pilgrimage to climb the rock.

After tea when it had cooled down a bit we did make a partial assent of the rock armed with supplies of water for Louis.

It started off steep but ok at a steady pace. Then the path got rather more erroded and more of a scramble, so we decided enough was enough and Louis was very pleased to do an about turn and head back to Ed for well deserved refreshments.

So that's been our day, we're parked up watching the sun set on the Rock of Solutre, perfect end to the day.
And tomorrow morning we'll get to watch the sun rise over it on the other side.