Back in the USA; Jura Recap

  We're now re back in the US, and I’ll briefly recap the last half of our week in the Jura as a vehicle to post some more photos.
   On Wednesday of that week, we spent time visiting a couple more spectacular Plus Beaux Villages not far from where we were staying: Chateau-Chalon and Baumes les Messieures.  We also drove by 2 nearby chateaus, Chateau de Frontenay and Chateau le Pin, and stopped at two more cheese fruitieres to pick up some Morbier and Comte.

                                  Village of Chateau-Chalon

                                           Baume-les-Messieurs

                                  Chateaux Frontennay and Le Pins:

    On Thursday we spent most of the day in Dole, the largest town in the Jura, which is dominated by a large church in the center of town perched high on a hill.  The Doubs River runs through the middle of town, as does the Rhone/Rhine Canal.  Before heading back to our gite we took a long walk along the canal, and watched a boat traversing one of the locks in Dole.

The next day, our last full day in the Jura, we drove through the wine village of Pupillin again, stopping to pick up more sparkling Cremant de Jura at Desiré Petit, and also tasted some wine at Domaine de la Pinte in Arbois.  We then drove into the hills outside Arbois and through the nearby valley, stopping at the village of Les Planches to see its waterfall and at a few viewing points with some spectacular views of the valley below.

     We also spent part of the day observing, and also feeding, some of he wildlife in Brainans, the village we were staying in.
              Some cows in the field behind the back yard of the house we were renting:

                                           Hungry cat in the village:

    

                 Feeding the goats grazing in the field by the church:

      On Saturday morning we left our gite in the Jura.  Before leaving we spent some time talking to the gite owners and the Alsatian family who had rented the house next to ours, and we found out a little more about the extent of the volcanic eruption in Iceland and airport closures, although we were told that the problem might clear up in a day or two.  It wasn’t until we got to our next destination that it became clear that we wouldn’t be returning on Monday as planned.

    After leaving the Jura we drove to Yvoire, another one of the Plus Beaux Villages of France, which is located on Lake Geneva.  We didn’t do much of anything there besides walk around the medieval center of Yvoire, admiring the architecture, flowers, and the chateau that dominates the town.  With dinner at our hotel (Le Vieux Logis, located at the entrance to the medieval center of Yvoire), we continued our exploration of obscure regional wines, trying some white wines from the minuscule Savoie appellation of Crepy, which is situated near Lake Geneva isolated from the rest of the various Savoie appellations.

  After we left Yvoire the next morning we drove to Segny, on the other side of Lake Geneva but also in France.  We chose Segny because it was only a few miles from  the Geneva airport, where we were returning our car and flying home from the next morning, or so we thought. But, as I have already written about in a couple of prior positings, we wound up spening an extra night in Segny at La Bonne Auberge, 3 nights in Annecy, then the final night in Geneva.  And now here I am in Las Vegas writing this posting and dealing with the fallout from my mother's death a couple of weeks ago.  Funny thing is, Las Vegas seems far more foreign than France.