6th August - Nancy to Noyers, Tool Museum at Troyes

Keen to get on the way before it got too hot, we set off on the 4-hour trip to Noyers after an early breakfast of muesli and milk. Our little apartment had a fridge, so we managed to keep our fresh food cold, though we've been trying to minimise how much we transport. Our double-chillibag system in the back of the car is working very well when we can freeze two bottles of water overnight.

The land had changed immensely from the vineyards on the other side of the Vosges. Here it was all huge rolling fields, cropping wheat, corn or sometimes sunflowers.

At Mentier-en-Der we stopped for a coffee, but thought it just might be worth checking out a boulangerie-patisserie just up the road. It sure was. It had what might be the best patisserie selection we've seen - sweet, savoury, everything. We chose a couple of little pies for dinner, and a superb millefeuille, with beautiful creamy custard, just the right amount of icing on top, and crunchy pastry top and bottom.

The itinerary of the day included two items - a tool museum and a circular spring. The 2-hour trip to Troyes went quickly enough. Troyes is yet another old town based on a major Roman crossroad, full of 16thC half-timbered buildings. We were most impressed how the old buildings worked well for modern shops, with the packing between the huge beams simply removed and replaced with glass.

Main street, Troyes

The MOPO tool museum houses a massive collection of mediaeval and later tools (11,000 in 65 display cases) used in all of the manual trades, as well as 32,000 books about trades in its library. It was an astounding collection, and well displayed. There was even an excellent audio guide, in English. It was very hot and stuffy inside the building and it says a lot for the displays that we lasted nearly 2 hours until we were just about passing out in the heat.

The MOPO museum had been a hospice

Some of the many displays, in this case furniture-making tools

Masons dividers

Roadmenders on the left, tilemakers on the right

Back to the car we fired up our trusty phone-based GPS again and set it for the circular spring which we'd read about. The Fosse de Dionne at Tonnerre is a natural spring issuing 200 litres of water a second. It is the reason that Tonnerre was established there. The spring was sacred to the Celts, and in more recent times (17th century) was used as the communal washing house. When we found it, the water was a little weedy around the edges, but you could see the cool clear depths in the centre, and it was in lovely surroundings.

Fosse de Dionne at Tonnerre

40C - our high for the trip!!

Our destination for the day was Noyers, which we chose partly because of its halfway location between Nancy and Beaune, where we would end up the following night. We arrived dead on our expected time, 5pm, at the same time as another couple. Ringing the bell there was no response, but a woman wandered up the lane 2 minutes later, opened the door and told us to bring our bags in. Next we were questioned about what time we'd like breakfast - but between 8am and 9am. We said we would sort our own - it wasn't included in the price was it? No. We were shown upstairs to our room. We soon found out that there was no fridge (the booking says there is one in the room), the welcome bottle of water, glass of wine and pastry noted on the website were also conspicuous by their absence, and there was no working wifi, despite the website saying it was available. NOT a good start. 

The woman had disappeared so we texted to ask if she could reboot the wifi or something. A text in response said "go downstairs, it's sometimes better there". We went downstairs and it wasn't any better. She still didn't make an appearance, or offer any assistance in any way. Not impressed. Also, the notice in the room said that it was not permitted to eat in the room, and the kitchen/dining downstairs was out of bounds and a private area. Great - that's super welcoming. We got out the stuff from our chilly bin and ate our self-made meal anyway, using the picnic gear we carry with us. What made all this a little harder to take was that it was an Airbnb that cost a little more than we usually go for, but we'd decided we'd treat ourselves a little, for the one night. The room itself was indeed very nice, but the overall experience was very disappointing. 

Noyers

We had a walk around the town in the (relative) cool of the evening. Noyers is quite a tired little place with a number of abandoned buildings and an air of decline. However there are equally many well-cared-for places too, so a bit of a mix.