France 103 - Elise, the little man against the bigger man. David v Goliath ,the man with the droopy moustache a pizza in Dijon

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We slept well . Well you would wouldn’t you in such an idyllic spot . I cannot quite say if Carlsberg built aires …………………..because although it had views I have seen better locations and the water bourne and electricity supply was not working. But in the great scheme of things we couldn’t complain and it had cost us nothing for a nights stopover. The village itself was tiny with just a few farms and a church so we found little to do but then after such an awful day all we wanted to do was rest awhile before heading south for a visit with a small man with a droopy moustache. Vercingetorix a Gaul .

We headed down the motorway towards Elisia the town where the might of the Romans met the Gauls who wanted to keep them out. You can guess who won this battle . It is always nice when David meets Goliath and David wins but there was no way this little man would win. Being a Sunday the motorway was empty. Our little machine beeped and pinged her way through peages as we ate up the miles. Yes it its monotonous and we enlivened the journey wondering how long it would be before we found the Frenchman peeing in the bushes rather than use the toilette. Not long the first aire we came to there he was and during the day we saw three more . Don’t their mothers teach them modesty? We also pondered on why they sit in their cars and ride in our slipstream. One guy was inches away from us and had we had to perform and emergency stop he would have ended up in the cabin of Suzy. He overtook us eventually, roared off and left his indicators going for mile after mile until he stopped to relieve himself in full view of anyone who wanted to look. We enjoyed the drive through the small towns of Burgundy with their mellow stones and quaint wooden buildings. Huge Mairies worthy of enormous towns sprung up in the smallest. Pretty little rivers and canals wound their way through pretty fields full of bucolic cows. The trees were even pretty covered in mistletoe which hung from every branch. The sunflowers hung brown and heavy with their seed heads almost touching the earth beneath them. Burgundy has to be one of the prettiest departments of rural France.

We pulled up in the huge parking area for the interpretation centre for the battle that took place here . It looked closed but was not but we chose not to go in . It was expensive and not authentic more of a theme park for children. The café was closed and we just walked back to the van. So what of the history of Vercingorix and his tribes …………….Well picture the scene The man with the droopy moustache (well he only was depicted like that because Napoleon chose his own likeness and added the moustache) was the ruler of Gaul . Along came those pesky romans trying to colonise everyone and everything. Nothing was going to stand in their way. They intended beating the hell out of the guy and his people and turning Gaul into a territory of Rome. Let battle commence .

Versingetorix was the leader of his pack of Gauls and he fought many battles against the pesky romans defeating them along the way. Now they did not like that very much and thought to teach him a lesson. He holed up and fought them as best he could defending himself in fortifications where he supplied himself for the long haul. However , the Romans being the Romans wanted his land and his people and if they would give themselves to Rome voluntary then Vercingetorix had to be starved out, burned out, killed and got rid of in whatever way they could do. The battles went on for some time but eventually food ran out, supplies ran low and the Romans succeeded . The little man was taken prisoner and paraded all the way back to Rome where he was eventually strangled. His kingdoms were taken over by the Roman empire who then continued their march north conquering all before them.

We went not to see the mock pretend fort that is erected on the site of the battle nor to see the interpretive centre but to see the monumental statue on top of the hill erected by Napoleon It is impressive when you eventually find it. We drove down some of the narrow streets of Elisia working our way through the parked cars and then eventually came to a car park. For once we did not stop. You sometimes have a feeling and we did not feel particularly safe so we moved on and eventually found the proper car park. The statue is impressive . Napoleon III erected a seven-meter-tall monument in 1865, created by the sculptor Aime Millet . The architect for the memorial was Eugene Violett le Duc. The inscription on the base, written by Viollet-le-Duc, which copied the famous statement of Julius Caesar, reads
La Gaule unieFormant une seule nationAnimée d'un même esprit,Peut défier l'Univers.Gaul united,Forming a single nationAnimated by a common spirit,Can defy the Universe.

Our evening was spent on a municipal site near to Dijon. We had not intended to stay there but it just sort of worked out. The driver had thought that we might get in to Dijon by bus that night. The co- driver had decided as it was Sunday the bus service would be poor so in the end we ended up sat on a tarmaced car park plugged up to the electricity next to a few Belgians and Dutch and a lot of French out for the weekend. The cost of the site was 10 euros 20 a bargain at half the price . Our evening ended with a pizza cooked on a wood burning stove that turned up in the back of a van. It was a lovely end to another near perfect day where David for once was defeated by Goliath .

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