4 February 2024 – Essoyes and a woodland walk

Miles driven today = 115

Total Miles to date = 524

Troyes won 2-1 last night thanks to a 93^rd minute penalty, so everybody went home happy and we woke to almost total silence this morning. 

We got ourselves up and on the road and pootled in a South Easterly direction for an hour.  We’ve been in the Champagne Region for a couple of days now and Lisa noted that we hadn’t seen a single vineyard, but a few did appear as we wiggled our way through the countryside to the quaint little town of Essoyes, on the banks of the River Ource.

We parked up in front of the Town Hall just as the Church clock struck 11 and made our way into the Cultural Centre dedicated famous impressionist Pierre Auguste Renoir (1841-1919).  Renoir’s wife Aline was born in Essoyes so they visited on many occasions before the painter ultimately bought a house in the village and set up his studio here.

We parted company with €10 each for a guided walk through the village and a tour of Renoir’s house.  Apparently the thing that most attracted him to the place was the light, although on a grey day like today I’m not sure that he would have bothered hauling his arthritic carcass out of bed.

I commented on the size of the Church for a relatively small town and was told that although there are currently only 700 full time residents in Essoyes that number would have been more in the region of 1,800 at the time Renoir lived here.

This painting features Renoir’s son Jean and his nanny Gabrielle, who became the painter’s favourite model, appearing in some 200 different pieces.

Renoir had this studio purpose built at the bottom of his garden.

He was responsible for no less than 7,000 works of art during his lifetime.  None of the originals are on display here but the studio is mocked up with copies to show how it might have looked when he was in residence, complete with couch for models to recline.

We strolled up the garden to Renoir’s house, which he paid F4,000 for.  10 years wages for an agricultural worker at the time.

The Living Room, which Renoir used as his studio until the building at the bottom of the garden was complete. 

The Kitchen complete with an amazing old range.

Writing desk in Renoir’s bedroom.

Aline and the couple’s young children slept in this room.

Once we finished the tour of the house we were left to our own devices.  The cemetery is very close by. Renoir’s grave has a bust of him and Aline is buried directly behind him.

There are also war graves in the cemetery with a variety of shell casings for adornment.

We had a quick bite to eat and then drove on for another couple of hours along minor “D” roads, through arable land and forests and numerous small villages which were seemingly deserted, their residents no doubt all inside tucking into their Sunday lunch.  We skirted around Dijon and found our way a few miles further South to the village of Fixin.  The roads got gradually narrower as we drove uphill through the village but eventually we found our way to this car park, where we are ensconced for the night, free of charge.

There are lots of walking trails starting from here and when we got here the car park was fairly full with the locals all out for a post-Sunday lunch perambulation.  So we had a quick brew before putting on our walking boots to join them.

Shortly after leaving the car park we stumbled across this place.  It’s a small museum created by a fellow called Claude Noisot who idolized Napoleon Bonaparte.  But it’s only open on weekends during the Summer months so we strolled on.

There are no mushrooms to be found at this time of year but Lisa did spot these brilliantly coloured Scarlet Elf Cups.

Our path continued uphill into a gorge with rocky cliffs on either side.

100 steps lead up to the top of the gorge where Google Maps reckoned we could find something called “Le Soldat de Napoleon”.  I wasn’t sure if this was supposed to be M.Noisot’s grave but I found nothing so we retraced our steps back to the carpark.

Most of the cars have gone now and we are all alone in the silence.  Reviews on Park4Night from people who have stayed here before have all been positive but I’ve given the 7.5% ABV French country beer a miss tonight just in case we do get a tap on the door.  We’ve booked ourselves into a campsite a little way South of Lyon for the next couple of nights so it’s probably going to be a good 4 hours on the road tomorrow before we can look forward to a non-driving day on Tuesday. 

5 February 2024 - Follow the Saone