Wandergliding: Charming Semur-en-Auxois

February 16^th, 2026

I arrived in the town of Semur-en-Auxois in the rain at the end of the afternoon yesterday. I read that it had a nice historic centre with a keep called Tour Orle d’Or (which translates to the Tower of Golden Orle…whatever Orle is).

My campspot in Semur-en-Auxois...just a parking lot, but there was a public washroom...score!

The spot where I slept was 4-5 kilometres from the area of town where I wanted to wander so I looked on Google Maps for a nearby parking lot. I could see that it was on the other side of town and it should be an easy drive on the main road that bisected town. Well, it should have been, but for some reason Google took me right into the historic area which straddles one side of a hill, and it was chock full of narrow streets and sharp corners. I found my way to the main road without Mr. Google’s help and there were plenty of parking spots on the side of the road, so I abandoned the idea of the parking lot.

The cobblestone streets of Semur-en-Auxois.

In the historic part of town.

That's one of the towers of the Orle d'Or Tower (kind of redundant, but the Orle is really a keep).

I saw some lovely pictures online of this bridge before arriving, but it was under renovation as you can see by the white truck on the right.

One of the town's churches.

I enjoyed my half hour walk around the old buildings and then hopped into Octi for another 4-5 hour drive with my aim of making it to the village of Chenonceaux, where the supposedly nicest chateau of the Loire Valley is situated.

On my way out of town in Octi.

Google Maps sent me on some interesting roads today...with minimal traffic, which I was happy about as there were some narrow roads with wet grass and mud on the shoulders.

Almost a tunnel of trees.

Not surprisingly, this was a shitty town...

Beautiful countryside.

This could have been a very interesting stop. It's called the Castle of Guedelon and I knew that it was closed to the public until April, but I had hoped to get a glimpse of it...but all I got to see were these solar panels. Why is it interesting? It's actually not finished being built...and they started construction in 1997! Yup, 1997. They are only using methods and tools that would have been used in medieval times. Wow! I would have like to have seen it.

Octi was thirsty for some oil, the first time in this trip which is amazing compared to Betty, my campervan in 2010 who drank 35-40 litres of oil in 4 months! Anyways, it seems that a traveling circus was in town as there were some two humped camels hanging out. I only saw one humpers in Morocco.

I saw the white car (on the right) pull into this place, perhaps it was their home. It was a small castle complete with a moat!

There was flooding by all the rivers that I passed today.

I thouht this was an interesting road configuration. You'd think that this would be a prime place of a roundabout...but there wasn't one. Actually, all of the smaller roads were dirt onces that lead off into the forest.