Finally as we headed home we one again ventured underground. This time to the caves of Baillys Lapierre. A wonder bubbly that is made and stored in old underground quarries. Again we went on a tour all in French. However there was an English guy on the tour that did a great abbreviated translation for us. We toured the caverns, sampled the cremant, bought a view bottles and headed home. Once there we sampled our purchases during our evening appies. Wonderful.

After the caves we drove to Auxerre. Carolyn and I have fond memories of this town from our canal boat trip several years ago. Once we got there Emily got to experience the automatic French toilet. A good find for .40 euro. We then wandered up through the old town and found a little sidewalk cafe where we had a great simple lunch. Salad, quiche, desert and a drink for €7, a real bargain. One of Emily’s favorite meals. We cruised through the old churches and then walked down and watched a canal boat come through the locks before heading out. Auxerre is a really cool town.

Today we loaded into the car and headed out. Our first stop was at the Caves of D’Arcy. These are natural caves along the Cure River that contain painting from the Stone Age, 28,000 years ago. We went on a tour, mostly in French, to see the caves and painting. It was a cool 12 degrees Celsius which actually felt really nice.

Today Carolyn and I headed up to town to pick up lunch supplies ( quiche, sandwich…). We then loaded up and headed on the short drive to Alesia. This is a famous area were the war between Vercingétorix (the Gauls) and Julius Caesar (the Romans) took place. There was a brand new visitors center with great exhibits introducing the battle. They also had demonstrations by both the Gaul soldiers and a Roman soldiers. Half way through we took a break and had or delicious lunch in a nice park.

Afterward we visited the site of an ancient Roman town then went to see the giant statue of Vercingétorix.

Back at home we had our wonderful appies before heading up the hill for a delicious pizza dinner. We ordered in our best French and got about 60% of our order right. It was all delicious. The grand finale was creme brûlée, it was excellent.