Day 10 in Nolay

Another beautiful day in Burgundy. Today we drove to the town of Nolay. We were somewhat surprised to learn that we had already been through the town and stopped at the bulangerie before. Luckily it was one of the best stops we made. The bread and pastries are Devine. Funny thing about the GPS is that the route seems to change, which is confusing but also nice because each road offers different scenery. 

We did a two part hike. Bout de Monde, not well marketed so there are local people, but few tourists. The loop is 3.5 hours, but not really. I think we walked 3/4 of the loop in 90 minutes. On the way back we found what we were looking for, the grote. the cave entrance was five feet off the main trail. We could only look into the cave from a tiny hole in the face of the cliff. As we looked into the cave we could feel the cool damp cave air. The hike lead us up to the top of a limestone cliff. Not dangerous but very scenic. 

The second hike was shorter. From the trailhead we walked  through a field to the base of the cliffs we were on top of during the first hike. There was a great oval formation with towering rock walls and a cascading waterfall. This was the best possible spot for our last lunch in Burgundy. We perched ourselves on a low rock ledge and ate and ate some more. Today we added to our diet because we purchased gigantic tomatoes called Coeur de Boeuf.

 As you may know, public toilets in France are few and far between. In the county there are no public bathrooms. Some restaurants will allow a child to use the bathroom, while others restrict the bathrooms for clients only. At the parking lot next to the hike there was no bathroom, and no hope of making it back to Nolay in time, so Jonah had his first lesson in how to shit in the woods. It was a pass/fail lesson and Jonah passed!

It was 33 degrees Celsius back at the car, but the heavy shade during the hike kept us feeling comfortable. We found the church in Nolay and the tiny village also had a fountain. All three kids were soaking wet and feeling refreshed. Before driving home we  walked to the grocery store for a box of pistachio drum sticks. All-in-all we finished touring  Burgundy on a high note.

Back in Beaune we stopped for take out pizza somwe could eat dinner by the pool. The sign said non stop service from noon to midnight but of course the door was locked and the restaurant closed at 4:30 on a Friday. We opted for a swim and then Isabel and I drove to Suerre to find dinner. We found frozen pizza, turkey nuggets, cantaloupe and candy... Another successful meal.