We left Colmar on an early morning and waved goodbye to the Statue of Liberty, a 12-metres high replica that was sculptured to commemorate the 100th death anniversary of the sculptor Auguste Bartoldi who was born in Colmar and created the “Liberty lightening the world”:
The replica is located right by the Colmar airport.
The air traffic controller helped us with double-checking the NOTAMs and the military zones opening times.
Flemming and I were going to Joigny, a small town in Bourgogne:
There are many restricted areas in France, and they are often active only at specific time slots. All this information is published an evening before. When you learn how to use the French AIP, it becomes easy to navigate through all those active and not active areas.
After take-off Flemming and I flew over the mountains:
The views were spectacular. In one place, which was NOT a resricted area, just an ordinary airspace class G, we saw 2 low flying military combat aircraft! We were happy to be far above them!
A prohibited area was on our way with the upper limit of 4500 AGL. Unfortunately, a large area of scattered clouds was over it. All other airplanes, the same as us, asked the air traffic controller for permission to climb above it. It showed up, the cloud top was at 7,500 feet!
Besides that, the views were stunning, and we took around 100 photos.
Flemming and I were glad we had used lots of time to prepare for that flight – everything went very fine.
Approaching Joigny airport, we decided to fly over the town and see it from the air:
The airfield was just above the town (yellow arrow poins at):
At the airport, we refuelled and parked our OY-9797. It was extremely hot, we changed clothers and drank lots of water.
Reaching Joigny on foot was easy – we simply followed the path down the hill by the vineyards:
In about half an hour, Flemming and I were entering the old town of Joigny via the Porte du Bois, the only one of the four defensive gates, left from the 13th century:
We walked down to the main square of the old town, and took a table under an umbrella at the first restaurant we saw, to have lunch and a break. They had very good salads, among other things – perfect for such weather.
The square was named after Jean de Joigny, who was born in Joigny in 1506. He was a famous sculptor of his time, and several of his works are still remain.
It was siesta time, and the streets were empty.
The town also looked a kind of abandoned. All shops on the main street were closed down; big bags of rubbish were lying on the streets…
Cats ignored us…
We found our street and checked in to the apartment we rented.
It was very small, though on two floors.
Flemming and I settled down, had a cold shower and a break. One of those few days a year when you are taking a cold shower intentionally!
In the evening, before dinner, we went for a short walk. Eglise de Saint-Jean de Jovigny with the oldest part from the 13th century:
We went inside – it was pleasantly cool. The church didn’t look like well-taken care of…
Our search after a restaurant wasn’t successful – there were no restaurants in the old town! The one we had lunch at, closed at 6 p.m. … Luckily, there were two small grocery stores, open till 10 p.m. and a boulangerie, open til 7 p.m. We bought our food there – paté, cheese, and a bottle of local wine. We were saved 🙂
Flemming and I looked forward to the next day, to explore the town and learn about the place.
