Avoiding Snow on our way to Auxonne

21/03/2026

Despite dropping down to a lower altitude it seemed that the snow was still destined to catch up with us.

Saint-Ferréol Aire

We stopped for the night in Saint-Ferréol at a Camping Car Park aire that just happened to be in the right location. After many years spent without managing to visit a single Camping Car Park aire, we have found ourselves visiting quite a few this year. I think it’s because they seem to have snapped up many more locations. Fingers crossed they have a strong business model.

This spot was between a small industrial area and an estate of bungalows and detached houses with pitches between and under trees. We found ourselves a pitch that was as clear of the trees as possible. We didn’t want to be kept awake by the drip drip of raindrops on our roof. A few more vans turned up as the day progressed, including one very large van, the driver of which ignored the XL pitches near the aire entrance and regretted it as they tried to turn around in the narrower spaces where we had sited ourselves.

We took ourselves out for a leg stretch in the grey mizzle of the afternoon, it was a very quiet spot. The houses seemed mostly unoccupied – although I often find that French towns seem empty on wet weather days. A lot of the businesses on the industrial park were directed towards boat owners. No surprise as we were only a few kms south of Lake Annecy.

Behind the aire the craggy forested hills were a pleasant backdrop to the village. We would have gone for a longer walk in different weather, but the fog shrouding the hills was a bit off-putting.

The following morning we’d had a sprinkle of snow. We walked down to the boulangerie in woolly hats and gloves to collect a couple of baguettes and some delicious pastries for our onward journey.

Onwards

Our original plan had been to travel toll free back to the UK. The snow changed that decision. The roads through Annecy were a little snowy but not too bad. However we didn’t fancy blindly following the sat nav in case it took us on some interesting minor roads across the Jura. We decided to keep the same destination but ‘allow tolls’ on the sat nav and use an actual physical map to keep to the motorways. We had a good journey, long, with some snow, but no delays. Our bread and cakes formed the basis of a lovely lunch.

Auxonne

Our destination was Auxonne, just south of Dijon. Wikipedia informed us that the ‘x’ was originally pronounced as a double ‘s’, the letter ‘x’ being a type of medieval manuscript writer’s shorthand. Now the town has two alternative pronunciations depending whether you stay with the traditional double ‘s’ or sound the ‘x’ instead.

The area around Dijon is one we like to explore, mostly because it’s a convenient half way location between Calais and the Alps so it’s good to know what parking or camping options we have. Auxonne was a new spot for us, and yes, it was another Camping Car Parks aire.

This aire was so new (or at least newly adopted by CCP) that it was still being worked on. We arrived to find a mini digger and several workmen laying gravel and tidying up the shrubs and beds between the pitches. Several pitches were roped off waiting to be levelled out.

More excitingly, the circus was in town. It looked like they were still setting up, but their animals were in the field in front of us. The exotic sight of llamas and camels around the vans was a bit of a change and we made sure we had a good view of them from our windows.

Camels in front of the van

We took ourselves out for a walk around Auxonne. It’s a small city/large town, just the right size for us. The Saône river flows past the town which must have contributed to it’s strategic importance. It also provides a lovely recreational area and we may return with the bikes to meander along the riverside bike path. We were surprised to spot some very cute Coypu in the river, but found out that they are an invasive species which diminished their appeal a little.

Our friend Vauban constructed a fort here, it was closed for works, but we walked around the outside as part of our walk along the river and back through the town. Another claim to fame is that Napoleon Bonaparte spent some time garrisoned in Auxonne as a young Second Lieutenant. There is plenty more history to be found here so we have ear marked it as a good stopover for future journeys to the alps. For the moment here are a few pictures of the town.