Feeling the need to escape the tourist invasion in Sarlat we decided to spend a few days in a national park in Burgundy – Parc naturel régional du Morvan – on our way to the Paris airport

We ended staying in the apartment of a French guy, Kada, in an 16th C French Chateau that had been converted into apartments and set smack bang in the middle of the park so very remote. Gorgeous and peaceful, the community that lived in the apartments had chosen an ‘alternative’ lifestyle and all lived very simple lives growing their own vegetables, and getting back to nature. Perhaps the Nimbin of Burgundy…?

The owners of the whole area, Dukes dating back to medieval times, built a new renaissance style chateau nearby in the 19th C as was the fashion of the time which they holiday in 3 weeks a year from Luxembourg where they now reside (Hmmm says something about the French tax system…)

Kada was a brilliant host and a pretty fascinating guy, a compulsive traveller he has walked (yes walked) around the Med so had loads of stories including the one about crossing the Sinai desert with an old Bedouin and 2 camels..

He is also an amazing cook and each night producing gourmet meals which included dishes such as salmon and scallop quinelles, a wild duck dish that was both unusual and delicious (it reminded me of shepards pie made with wild duck) and a spinach and smoked fish open pie…each meal was accompanied by local Cote de Rhone wine.

We did do more than sit around and eat….one day we visited the ancient Celtic site of Bibract, which was once a walled fortified hill city of major importance which was later settled by the Romans. Julius Ceaser spent a year here and wrote his book ” Commentaries on the Gallic War”
Today the site is an archeology site with quite an interesting museum.

We also went to to the town of Vezelay, a small village really dominated by the Basilica of St Magdelene a UNESCO World Heritage site which is one of the many starting point of the Camino de Campostela and was also where Richard the Lionheart stopped on his way to the crusades. Whenever I see these massive churches, while impressed by the grandeur and architecture it always makes me wonder about the cost to the locals it took to build…

After 3 nights / 2 days we set off to Paris CGG airport to fly to Bangkok. While the roads were pretty quiet (all the French have gone off to the seaside) the weather was cold and it rained heavily for a lot of the trip.

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