Cormoranche Sur Saone near Macon 14th June

This has been one of those days!

When we arrived at Montigny last night a kind Dutchman pointed out a problem: we were leaking an oil of some sorts. Indeed. He thought lots was coming out and so did Meryl! With a wet road it seemed to be running in a stream down the rather steep hill where we had camped.

We had seen it before and I had put it down to an engine overfill when the van had been serviced. However, with no reduction in the engine oil according to the dipstick this oil drip was becoming a puzzle. The Dutchman was very concerned and suggested it might be the brakes! Given that it was a Friday this was not promising at all. Could be a weekend in the middle of nowhere!

This morning when I spoke to him again to thank him for his concern, he suggested it might be diesel and that sounded more promising in the sense that it might be fixed more easily. So we set off for Langres, the nearest town and given more time we might have stopped and explored it.

At the first garage that we visited they said they could not fix it (VW place so I guess we were not up to the mark!) but sent us onto the Peugeot place a few miles away. Surprising myself with my fluency in French we explained what we thought was the problem - une fuite de gazole- and pointed out where it was dripping. Two minutes later the van was gone and ha mechanic was sorting it out! After about 40 minutes it was returned having been fixed. It was explained as a blocked, or leaking, fuel filter which had been replaced. All we had to do was pay for the filter but just give the mechanic a tip!

With that sorted, we set off towards Dijon and then continued down the Saone Valley which just happens to produce the odd bottle of wine: Gevery Chambertin, Mersault, Fixin, Corton and so on. This was an awful drive! With hundreds of very tasty places trying to tempt us to stop and buy one, or two, or more bottles of their wine it was really hard work to resist. The fields were in an immaculate state, the walls and gates indicate the owners and one can almost smell if not taste the stunning wines on sale.

Sadly we resisted in the hope that we can have more time in the southern Rhone area and find wine that is…..cheaper but equally tasty and enthralling.

Now we have arrived in Macon for the night and just maybe we might explore a wine or two. In any case we have picked a detailed booklet about the wine routes in the area: and the wine here maybe a little cheaper than further north.