Burgundy - wine lovers paradiso!

What a pleasant surprise. Burgundy exceeded all of our expectations!

Following our canal trip in the Loire we had three marvellous days in the area with our base at the Bourgogne capital of Beaune, also with our dear friends Andrea and Moheb.

Our hotel was just on the fringe of the old town and in a great location. Staff and facilities were very good. The hotel was called Le Cedre. Would very much recommend.

At the hotel Le Cedre before heading out to dinner.

Beaune is one of the key wine centres in France. Indeed their annual wine auction is the biggest in France. One of the most fascinating buildings in Beaune is the Hospices de Beaune which was founded in 1442 by Nicolas Rolin, chancellor of the Duke of Burgundy. The Hospices were a charity running hospitals and services for the needy. The feel and style of the hospice has been recreated internally and the exterior superbly maintained.

Also known as the Hotel Dieu, it was created after a 100 year war which was particularly hard on the people of the region.

The roof tiles are set in a stunning pattern and in very good condition.

Hotel Dieu functioned as a hospital all through the period up to 1970. It was run by an order of nuns.

 

 

The main ward in the hospital.

Beds ran head to toe both sides of the ward.

The hospice had all necessary facilities including a fully functioning kitchen......

.....and a pharmacia for drug production.

And every night they have a fabulous light show on the building exterior.

Wine and viticulture dominate the region. Just beautiful scenery and so extensive. It stretches from Dijon in the north to Lyon in the south.

The four amigos

Burgundy is made up of a number of different areas including Chablis, Cote de Nuit, Cote de Beaune, Cote Chalonnaise, Maconnais and Beaujolais.

Its' primary red wine is made from Pinot Noir and the white from Chardonnay. They produce just under 200 million bottles per year from 25,000 hectares of vines.

Famous names include Romanee Conti, Gevrey Chambertin, Nuit Saint George, Pommard, Pouilly Fuisse and Chablis.

It is appellation controlled with gradings of Grand Cru, Premier cru, village and regional with the best being designated Grand Cru.

Wine tastings were very, very good. Sometimes a charge is made but on all occassions very generous with plenty of explanation.

A number of wine tastings were held in caves (undergound cellars) where you go from one barrel to the next with a bottle on each barrel and a description of the wine on the wall and you help yourself.....oops I've poured too much vino! Great fun!

Almost finished?

Another wine tasting!

And another !

And another!

Experts? No

.

In need of help? Maybe!

We were also fortunate to meet some of the winemakers. Most winemakers are small which is a welcome change from the big conglomerates. Here are a couple of the winemakers

Patrick Bize of Domaine Simon Bize et fils from Savigny-les Beaune

Gerard Quivy owner and winemaker of Les Corbeaux in Gevrey Chambertin. A Grand Cru winemaker

Of course it was not all about red wine. The girls had other ideas.....

Mmmm...Clos de Tart. Is there a message here?

Are these desperados waiting for another tasting room to open?

Food...what a boys delight...Beouf Bourgognes!

And as always an interesting night crowd.....

Ciao ciao 

bacci a tutti

Carolyna e Alan

The Canals of France

We spent one week in France on the lateral Loire Canal which as the name indicates runs alongside the Loire river.

Our staring point was Chatillon Sur Loire and our finishing point Decize...in between many interesting adventures.

We were joined on this trip by our good friends Andrea Stone and Moheb Moses. We rented a boat which was relatively new and reasonably large so there was enough room on board. A fore and aft cabin with dual steering either from inside or top deck. Plus, very important, air conditioning.

We would only travel between 20 -35 km per day, which was usually made up of a cycle into the village pre breakfast for baguettes and pastries, a leisurely morning, a stop for lunch at 12 noon (locks close for an hour), afternoon boating and mooring for the evening (usually achieved by 5pm).

We passed next to a number of interesting places with two nights spent moored in a small village at the foothills of the famous wine town of Sancerre.

Good wine and and an interesting town.

Here we are in the town centre.

And of course for the mandatory wine tasting. The lady in front was our delightful host and she provided us with great knowledge of the different wines and conditions under which they are grown.

The boat trip was organised through Le Boat and they were very helpful when things went wrong...eg flat tyre on a bike, air conditioning problem (although the latter took a little bit longer to fix than expected resulting in a final rebate).

We would usually have lunch beside the boat in a pleasant location. Carolyna and Andrea made great salads.

The bikes came in very handy for travelling to towns once moored or just sight seeing.

We came across many picturesque houses, villas and scenery on the trip.

We also enjoyed the lock experience. As most were manual locks we would drop a member of the crew off to help the lock keeper open and close the lock. We probably had about 25-30 locks on the trip.

Lockkeeper's house - they are very proud and had amazing floral displays! 

I think we made it look harder than it really was.

But at times it seemed like it was coming from everywhere. How is Andrea going to catch this line?

Most locks were only about 2 metres in level change however we did get up to a 9 metre lock which really had a lot of water pressure.

We all shared steering duties and all navigated into and out of the locks. We had one day where we went over the Loire River on an acquaduct high above the river.

Running alongside the Loire River we had a few opportunities to enjoy the cool waters of a beautiful river. We certainly enjoyed the experience.

And of course we occassionally kicked up our heals on the boat at night (usually after a glass of vino or two).

Okay, when does the vino arrive?

Yippee...also our anniversary....so in France as one does.....we celebrated with some Bolly...thanks to Andrea and Mo!

Who's happy and contented?

Okay party time...why won't anyone else dance with us?

Did I really do that?

Butter wouldn't melt in my mouth.

And on shore for the occassional dinners.

Ciao ciao, bacci a tutti

Carolyna e Alan

Paris

Off to France for a few weeks for our French experience. First stop one of the worlds most beautiful cities, Paris

Nothing much changes in Paris, the wonderful monuments, the broad boulevards, the quaint sidestreets and the sense of style.

But one thing had changed. The Parisians actually seemed to be making an effort with tourists....polite and with an increased use of the English language. Apparently there has been a campaign for some time to improve this aspect in Paris tourism.

We caught up with Amanda and Charlotte on our first night in Paris. Alan is a godfather to Charlotte and Carolyn and Amanda go back a long way.

We met them at a restaurant that was made famous by a Jack Nicholson and Dianne Keating movie "Somethings gotta give" (I think)

Ambiance good but quality and price did not match

Next day was the traditional things such as shopping, walking, soaking up the atmosphere and just enjoying the city

One of our favourite spots is the Luxembourg Gardens. We always make time to just walk around the gardens and enjoy the activities

The central lake feature in the gardens

Alan with his friends in the gardens

And as always our favourite restaurant in Paris, Benoit for dinner

Always a great experience with good food and service

Next off for a boating trip in the Loire, then a wine experience in Burgundy and finally a taste of Provence

Baci a tutti

Carolyna e Alan