Chaumont and Fontaine-Française, France

Thursday 18th – Friday 19th September 2025

This part of France is sparsely populated and roads often go for several kilometres at a time in an arrow-straight direction. The scenery is green and mostly agricultural with some woodland. Over these two days, we travelled from an area which was mostly flat to one which has rolling green hills. Although there is some dairy, crops appear to be the main farming activity. Considering that this is the Champagne producing area, we saw remarkably few vineyards.

Thursday – Chaumont:

After reluctantly leaving Troyes, we headed further south and our overnight stay at Chaumont. The park-up was at the Port de la Maladière, Aire de Camping Car, which provided all services including electric hook-up for a little under €10. A popular park-up which was full soon after we arrived.

We had chosen to travel via Chaumont to see the viaduct, which was built to take railway traffic and local traffic on two additional levels. It was completed in 1857, is 600 metres long and has 50 arches. At 52 metres at its highest, it is an astonishing feat of engineering, but sadly the footway is no longer accessible for pedestrians as it is fenced off.

We later had a wander along the canal from the park-up:

Friday – Fontaine-Française:

Fontaine-Française is a lovely quiet village with a large chateau at its heart. We are staying the night on a free 4-van park-up, (with free services) just alongside the river which joins two lakes. And very pleasant it is too. Whilst we were there, Alison managed to spot a Kingfisher and there were large fish in the river.

Of course we had a wander around the village:

The local community is very creative. We were blessed to view both a photographic exhibition mounted by the local photographic society and an exhibition of impressive patchwork, housed in the village Marie.

That is it for today. TTFN and See-u-later.