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When we wake it is a toe-numbing 16C but the sun is out and it soon reaches the low twenties. We use the service point, even though it's €4.00 it doesn't matter as we've had three good nights for nothing, then call into the supermarket for diesel before following the three-lane one way system out of town.
Soon we are passing through huge areas of vines with frequent signs for domains and tasting. We see more large wine mansions some of which have the trademark Burgundy patterned rooves, and we pass through towns and villages thick with colourful hanging baskets.
The Dijon ring road is not too busy and we are soon north of the city and heading into the Champagne Ardennes region.
Now it is all rolling golden fields of hay looking really flat compared with what we have become used to.
At 15:30 we reach Langres and park in the camperstop beneath the fortified walls. The car park is quite sloping, but we ramp up to an acceptable state of levelness and use the free, unmanned funicular to tak us to the ramparts. Now until today we hadn't heard of Langres, it was simply a convenient stop on the way to Troyes, but the lift and fortress sounded intriguing. Now we've seen it we're so glad we came.
The town sits inside 3.5km of thick ramparts, all accessible. Unlike many of the medeival walled towns, Langres has wide streets and numerous square. Its buildings are fascinating; weathered and aged but still majestic. The Hotel de Ville is a perfectly proportioned, grand Paladiun palace. St Mamme's church has gothic turrets and buttresses but a beautifully carved facade with massive colums and the roof is of green, red and yellow tiles.
Hidden away is the Maison de Renaissance, a stunning if modest house built around 1559, with carved friezes and fine leaded windows. The whole town is really interesting and aesthetically pleasing not least for its use of cut and dressed sandstone making it seem a bit more upmarket than the rough hewn walls in other towns.
Midway through our tour we stop outside Cafe de Foy for a beer [Affligem] in the sunshine.
Local worthies include Diderot, a philosopher credited with creating an early encyclopedia, and Jean Duvet master goldsmith and engraver.
Other grand buildings include the Charity hospital and a church by Forgoet which was supposed to be symmetrical but has only one tower. Perhaps he Forgoet the other one.
We could easily have spent a whole day here seeng more and more details like balconies, carvings, statues and stonework, rather than just a long afternoon.
France has so many old walled towns. How this one is so little known is hard to understand.
Langres. North of Dijon. Go and see it sometime.
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Roger Fletcher The citadel city! stayed there at the end of June at a site to the NE up by the lakes.