Troyes France

Once again the morning started cool and cloudy as we drove to the centre of Troyes to park closer to the action. We get a great spot and only pay €2.70 to 2pm. So that leaves us 6 hours to explore. (I don’t think we will last that long). We park next to the Canal du Trevois whose waters come from the Seine River that borders the centre. 

There are various sculptures along here ..

At 7:30am the town is still waking up, but it’s a nice time to walk around without too many people about. We find a patisserie and buy a traditional breakfast of pain au raisin and a pain au chocolat with a coffee. Our son said he thought the traditional breakfast was a coffee and a cigarette 😜 

We then begin to explore this historic capital of the southern Champagne region. It’s medieval old town (designed in a Champagne cork shape!) features narrow, cobbled streets with plenty half-timbered houses, mostly dating from the 16th century. Here are some of our favourites…

The narrowest street in the city is named Ruelle des Chats (cat alley) due to the cats being able to jump from one roof to the other as they were so close together. 

It’s also home to several gothic churches including the Basilica Saint-Urbain, 

Cathedral of St Peter and St. Paul with amazing stained glass.

We walk through the covered market Les Halles.

This is another significant building, the Private Mansion of the Petit Louvre. 

Around 11am we ventured back to Bluey having reached our tourist capacity. We fill up on LPG (€0.889), diesel (€1.61) and ingredients needed for lunch as we head out of town. We follow the Seine River along the D971. We stop in Bourguignons and have some lunch. We enjoyed our first FA cakes.

An old disused mill.

We then continue on past the source of the Seine (visited in 2013) near St.Seine l’Abbaye. 

We turn off and head to Sombernon where we then descend into the Ouche Valley. The rain is torrential as we follow the Canal de Bourgogne down to Veuvey sur Ouche where we snag a great spot. We enjoy a drink while the rain pelts down on Bluey and watch sodden riders go past on the old tow path.

Drove 186km today..