After a successful run on France Passion stop overs, an old faithful just outside Beune – Domaine Dury was our next and last vineyard for the trip with some lovely Bourgogne wine. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be as we arrived at lunchtime, parked up and the fridge was bare… cleared out for the winter. There is a sign to say that they clear everything down and turn off the services at the beginning of November through to the end of February but they didn’t say anything about not stocking any wine….. there was a number to call, just no reply.

It was a quiet night with three other motorhomes so we can’t complain really… but it’ll be next trip when we plug the last couple of holes in the wine cellar now (not that I think we need anymore for the time being anyway!!)

Leaving the vineyards and Bourgogne region behind us we headed north to Langres in search of some cheese. We haven’t been to the area before but the town sounded interesting and the cheese is everything we like about a good cheese – smelly and walking on its own.

The town is fortified and quite pretty, sitting on top of a hill looking out over the valley with an incredibly impressive cathedral amongst other buildings, just a shame that several of the shops are empty. It does look like the town is on the turn for change though, as we noted that there is a beauitiful looking new restaurant/boutique hotel that has just opened. The building has been bought and done up by a chef and his wife who have just moved back to his home town having run a 3 star Michelin restaurant in Annecy….so a place to come back to and try in the future….for now we sufficed with the cheese!

We woke to a beautiful sunrise, which was soon lost behind freezing fog that came from nowhere…..obviously snuck in along the bed of the valley without us noticing. It was, however time to move on though to Troyes, another town we found earlier this year and will always make a little detour to come back to if we are passing close by.

We had planned to stay 4 nights to ensure we could get a table at ‘Bistro Du Pont’ and make a visit to the Saturday market. However, we ended up staying 5 due to ‘Storm Darragh’… it just didn’t seem worthwhile travelling further than we needed to in high winds and torrential rain when we were comfortable where we were.

Unlike back in May, the Aire was pretty empty. Despite having a constant flow of motorhomes arriving, they majority were in transit and just stayed for a night so still fairly peaceful..

We had booked a table at the Bistro for Friday lunchtime and it was equally as busy as the last time we visited. This time we opted for the ‘Menu Bistro’ instead of the ‘Gourmand’ as there was a huge amount of food last time. After some salmon pate appetisers, Keith had a delicious plate of Boudin Noir (Black Pudding for the English), then we both had Sturgeon – a fish that neither of us had ever heard of people eating before as it is really only really know for its Caviar, but it was really tasty and firm. This was then followed by the ‘Cheese’ course which was a little ‘out there’ last time, and on this occassion, was a local cheese made from cows milk, mixed with nuts, honey and some dried fruits and made into a Nougat slab. It was a weird – but delicious mix of sweet and savoury – which is unusual coming from me at the best of times – and despite being a huge slice and being quite rich, it just kept making you come back for more. Having not had enough obviously, dessert was a perfectly formed, and rather feisty, ‘Champagne liquor’ tiramisu…. not too rich, but just perfectly balanced.

On Saturday morning we headed into the market, which was bustling as always and full of local, seasonal produce as well as some incredible looking patiserries and fishmongers…. one of which came with its own oyster bar. So after we finished our shopping we ended up joining in the festivities by partaking in a few Oysters and a glass of wine ….we could definetely get used to a post market Oyster or two at Christmas!

Moving on again, we headed North to Sedan which is on the river Meuse. We had planned to come to Sedan at the beginning of the trip after we visited Jurgen to have our habitation check done, but the weather and flooding was so bad we decided to change our plans and go anti clockwise to Normandy instead. A good choice I think we can now say, as the Aire is right on the Meuse river, and when we arrived – despite having been dry for a week or two, the Meuse was still precariously high, leading me to doubt whether we should be staying…..no-one wants water lapping at the tyres! All was good though, and we were joined by two other motorhomes and we had a peaceful, dry night.

We did another hop, skip and a jump the following day, arriving back with Jurgen in Rotselaar to get a warrantee part fitted that they had ordered for us when we were there a couple of months ago. The part probably only took an hour to fit, but as we like the area, we opted to stay 3 nights to pop into Leuven and see the Christmas market and catch up on washing and shopping before we headed home.

As it was so cold and we were on the bikes, we took the opportunity this time to eat lunch in quite an interesting little eatery and warm up. Food with Varinda has no menu, you are just served whatever they have on the day for a set price, but you can request more of any of the dishes should you wish to… their way to ensure minimising waste, which was good. All of the food was warming and full of flavour and on the day we went we had a beautiful aubergine lentil dhal, home made iranian bread, the most incredible crispy persian rice – something neither of us had ever tried before, orange and pomegranate salad and a refreshing yoghurt on the side… one to visit if you are close by.

We were soon back on the road again and after a quick stop back in Berguez, we caught the train to get back to the UK on the 15th December… just in time to do a little bit of a catch up with a few people before the Christmas festivities.

We had booked in to a tasting menu at the Beehive, where we have been before, albeit only for lunch, so were happy to see that the quality of the food was equally as good – full of interesting touches and flavours.

We also headed up to London to have a Chinese Dim Sum and get a glimpse of the Christmas lights before Christmas was upon us.

It has been a week of catching up with family, cooking up some deliciously warming food, and finished off quite perfectly by a night with friends to welcome in the New Year.

So bringing a year full of travels, great friendship, lots of laughs and good food to an end, we are now welcoming in 2025 with abundance.

We wish you a very Happy New Year, wherever you may be. Sending you all our love and wishing you health and hapiness for the year to come…. and many more after!

As always we have been doing lots of cooking and a few new tasty recipes over the last few weeks include the following:-
– Cashew and Chestnut Wellington – half cooked for Christmas day at Keiths mums and half cooking in the motorhome in the Remoska… no soggy bottoms !
– Mung Bean Dhal – great little breakfast combo if you like something savoury and lightly spiced
– Beetroot Dhal – making the most of those lovely red beets…. tangy and full of flavour

…and the map of course for this last little leg of the trip…