tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59924215451251502312024-03-05T13:41:37.961-05:00Wine, Travel and Food MusingsBob Rossihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08349830722788278723noreply@blogger.comBlogger102125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5992421545125150231.post-51538637338632146482019-05-07T13:21:00.001-04:002019-05-07T13:21:28.009-04:00The End of the Trip<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We’re now home in the U.S. I had thought that my post at the end of the week in Ornans would be the last one for this trip, but we made a couple of unplanned stops on our last full day when we drove from Ornans to Cremieu, where we had started our vacation, so I thought I’d write something brief with some photos. The first stop was the village of Nans-sous-Sainte-Anne, which we knew nothing about, but as we drove through it it looked charming, so we stopped and took a walk around the village. The village contains the source of the Lizon River, and there is a shop in the village run by a milk and cheese producer named after that: Le Laiterie de la Source du Lizon. We made a brief stop there and picked up some of their cheese.<br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>After leaving Nans-sous-Sainte-Anne we continued on towards Cremieu, driving through the Jura Departement. As we were driving through we saw a sign for the village of Chateau-Chalon, which is one of Les Plus Beaux Villages (Most Beautiful Villages) de France. We had visited there about 9 years ago when we stayed in that part of the Jura, and decided to make another stop, since we had plenty of time. The village is high on a hill top, and not only does it have a Plus Beaux Village designation, but it has its own wine appellation, Chateau-Chalon, one of the appellations of the Jura region.<br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We then drove from Chateau-Chalon to Cremieu and checked into our AirBnB, where we had stayed last year. It’s a great place, and is right in the center of town. We took a walk around Cremieu and made another visit to the brew pub in town, Les Ursulines, which was bustling. Before dinner we took another walk, and came upon a very friendly cat on a window sill. Unfortunately, the cat was in constant motion, and we couldn’t get any pictures that were in focus. We then went to dinner at Le Castor Gourmand, a restaurant that we had passed by many times but never ate at. The meal was fantastic, with an excellent, but not pricey, wine list, and entertainment was provided by neighborhood cats who paraded by the window next to our table, presumably dining at the 4 little plates of food we had seen laid out for them next to the restaurant.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Cremieu at Night</span></td></tr>
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>On Sunday morning, after breakfast we took a short walk to our favorite boulangerie in Cremieu and picked up some things for the trip home and for the next day’s breakfast. We then made the short drive to the Lyon airport to return our car and begin the journey home. It was uneventful, but long. By the time we finally arrived home it was 10 p.m. here, or 4 a.m. French time.Bob Rossihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08349830722788278723noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5992421545125150231.post-79766543381913714962019-05-03T14:29:00.002-04:002019-05-03T14:29:27.901-04:00The Last Half of the Week in Ornans<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Wednesday was May 1, a French holiday roughly equivalent to Labor Day in the United States. Most shops were closed, but the boulangerie in town has had a sign up all week stating that they would be open on May 1, so that morning I took my usual walk there to pick up provisions for breakfast. It really is an outstanding bakery, with a terrific selection of breads, breakfast items like croissants and brioche, and cakes and pastries.<br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>It was the first beautiful day in almost a week, so we decided to take a drive to visit several villages to the north of Ornans. The first stop was Rougement, another of the Cités de Caractere of the Franche Comté region. Like so many villages in this region, it has an impressive church. We also saw a sign indicating that one of the buildings was once a winemaker’s house. This part of the Franche-Comté once had a thriving wine industry, until phylloxera virtually wiped out the vineyards in the late 1800's, after which improved transportation brought lower priced wine from the Midi that finished off the wine trade here. Now, there are essentially no vineyards in the area, although I’ve read that a couple of growers are trying to revive vineyards and winemaking near Ornans.<br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>After leaving Rougement we made a short excursion to Montbozon, a small village on the Ognon River with, once again, a lovely church.<br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We then drove to the larger town of Beaume-les-Dame, which we had driven through a couple of days ago on our way back from the Chateau de Belvoir. Being a holiday, pretty much everything was closed, but that meant that there were few people and very little traffic. We took a walk through the center of town, viewing the church and some beautiful old buildings.<br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We then headed back to Ornans by way of the village of Mouthier-Haute-Pierre. Mouthier is on the Loue River, and while it is not far from Ornans, we hadn’t stopped there when we were in the area 2 years ago. It’s another Cité de Caractere, and was one of the most impressive we’ve seen. We parked at the bottom of the village and then walked up though the center to the top. Not surprisingly, there was an impressive church in the village.<br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Back in Ornans we had aperitifs in the courtyard of our gite, as it was finally sunny and warm. Later on we had dinner outside, the first time we had done that here. We were joined for dinner by the gite owner’s cat. The cat had appeared the first day we arrived, but as soon as he saw us he ran; the owner said he’s very afraid of strangers. However, while we were having dinner he appeared in the gateway between our gite and the owner’s house, sniffing the air and walking towards us. We were having veal chops, so I guess that’s what he smelled. He came over, and happily joined us for some veal. After dinner we took our usual nighttime walk down to the center of Ornans and the pedestrian bridge over the Loue River.<br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Thursday was supposed to be a rainy day, so we had planned to drive into the nearby city of Besancon and go to a museum and otherwise spend some time indoors. However, the day started off with some sun, so we changed our plans and instead drove to the village of Nancray to visit the Musée des Maisons Comtoises, an open air museum of old buildings of the Franche-Comté. It was a sprawling museum divided into different regions of the Franche-Comté, each containing several houses that had been moved from their original locations. The buildings were furnished in their original styles, with explanations of their functions (such as the cheesemaker’s house and the bread baker’s house) and of the lives of the people who lived there. It was a fascinating museum, and we spent several hours there.<br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>After driving back to our gite in Ornans we had a late lunch with various cheeses and a rabbit terrine we had picked up at a boucherie in Rougemont the day before. After lunch we took another walk through the town, checking to see the progress the goats had made in clearing their land. Back at the gite we had dinner, without the cat. Ann made tariflette, a baked dish from the Savoie region made with Rebluchon cheese and lardons (similar to bacon), and with it we had a Petite Arvine wine from the winery we had visited in Sierre, Switzerland.<br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Friday was our last full day in Ornans and the Doubs department, and in the morning we decided to visit Besancon, the largest city in the Doubs with a population of around 120,000. We had spent some time here a few years ago, principally visiting the magnificent old Citadel high above the Doubs River, which now houses a large zoo, gardens, and several museums. This time we parked in the same area as before and walked through the center of town to the indoor food market, which is one of the finest in France. We spent some time wandering through the market, and although we were near the end of our trip and therefore couldn’t buy too much, we did pick up some items for lunch and dinner. We then walked back to our car along the banks of the Doubs and drove back to our gite for lunch.<br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>After lunch we decided to drive up to the chateau ruins high above Ornans. We had seen lights there at night, and walkers heading up that way, but I wasn’t up for what was apparently a 2 ½ hour walk. However, I saw the Rue du Chateau on the map which looked like it was a driving route up to the chateau, and we decided to drive up there. I had read that the chateau had been destroyed on the orders of Louis XIV, and only the chapel remained. When we arrived at the top, we discovered that the ruins of the chateau was now a little village with several houses and a great view of the Loue River and Ornans. The chapel, Chapelle St. Georges, was originally built in 1289 by the Count of Burgundy, and after being destroyed, was rebuilt in 1500. It is still in very good condition. Before leaving we took a walk even further up the hill, and got a great view of the chapel and the chateau ruins from above.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ornans Church From Chateau Ruins</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Chapelle St. Georges</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Chapel and Chateau Ruins From Above</span></td></tr>
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Bob Rossihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08349830722788278723noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5992421545125150231.post-90316264625883642212019-04-30T12:40:00.000-04:002019-04-30T12:40:37.210-04:00The Next Few Days in the Doubs<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>On Monday morning I walked to the further of the two boulangeries in Ornans now that the closer one was closed for vacation. Despite having to cross the river, it still only took 4 minutes to get there. The place was busy, and had lots of choices. I picked up a couple of different croissants and a baguette, which turned out to be every bit as good as those at the first bakery.<br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>After breakfast we decided to take a drive to La Ferme du Rondeau in the village of Lavans-Vuillafans. The farm grows and makes a large array of products, including goat and cow cheeses, and also has a ferme auberge (basically a farm restaurant) and a gite for rent. It’s in a beautiful setting high up in the hills, and we picked up a few goat cheeses before heading down to the valley for a visit to the village of Vuillafans. On the way to the farm we had spotted this impressive church in the middle of the coutryside.<br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Like Ornans, Vuillafans is on the Loue River. We spent a little time wandering through the village, crossing the river, and visiting the beautiful old church, which dates from the 14th century.<br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>And if you find yourself in Vuillafans and crave cheese, you can get some any time of the day or night at this machine that dispenses Comte and Morbier in several sizes, produced by the fruitiere (cheese cooperative) up in the hills.<br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We then returned to Ornans and had lunch at our gite. In the afternoon we decided to stay in Ornans and do some walking. We had a brochure put together by the tourist office that directs you on a historical walking tour in the vicinity of the Loue River on both banks. The walk was fantastic, with many great views of the river and the town from different angles, as well as numerous historic buildings. It’s easy to see why Gustave Courbet was inspired in his painting by the Loue Valley.<br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Towards the end of the walk heading back towards our gite we came across these two hard working goats that were employed at clearing the grass on the hillside. They were much quieter than the man on the other side of the road doing clearing with a weed whacker.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>After our walk we stopped at the boulangerie to pick up some pastries for dessert, then headed back to our gite for aperitifs and then dinner. After dinner we took a walk down to the river and the center of town; the daylight lasts quite long now even though it’s only the end of April.<br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Tuesday morning I again walked to the boulangerie and picked up breakfast items. After breakfast we headed off to visit some sites a little to the west of Ornans, first stopping at the fromagerie in town to pick up some aged Comté and Morbier. We then made a brief stop to view Chateau de Cleron, a private chateau on the Loue River that we had passed by a few years ago when we were in the area. The chateau is only open during the Summer, so we just stopped to get a view and take some pictures.<br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We then stopped in the village of Quingey, which is one of the Cités de Caractere of the Franche Comté region. It has a lovely old church in the center, Eglise St. Martin, some well-preserved old houses, and was the birthplace of Pope Calixte II, born in the 11th Century and elected Pope in 1119.<br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>After leaving Quingey we drove to the village of Arc-et-Senans to visit the Salins Royal (Royal Saltworks). Several years ago we had visited the saltworks in Salins-les-Bains, which had been the principal saltworks in the area. However, it became increasingly costly to buy and transport the wood needed to be burned in order to evaporate salt from the salt water that ran through the region. To ameliorate the problem, the owners of the saltworks in Salins decided that instead of bringing the wood to Salins, they would build a massive saltworks in Arc-et-Senans, where there was plenty of wood, and bring the water from Salins-les-Bains via piping to produce salt at the Royal Saltworks in Arc-et-Senans. It worked for a number of years, but eventually problems with the water source in Salins and economic factors caused the closure of both saltworks. However, the buildings still exist in both places, and there are museums which include explanations of the saltworks.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Main Entrance to Royal Saltworks</span></td></tr>
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>After leaving Arc-et-Senans we drove back to Ornans for a late lunch, followed by another walk up above the town. We saw that the goats were still hard at work clearing their field.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
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<br />Bob Rossihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08349830722788278723noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5992421545125150231.post-83137843386474848812019-04-29T03:32:00.004-04:002019-04-29T03:32:46.390-04:00Returning to France<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>On Saturday morning we left Sierre for the drive to Ornans in the Doubs region in France, where we were spending our last week. Before leaving we gave Christine and her husband a bottle of wine from one of the wineries she took us to the day before, and also a bottle of St. Veran from the Maconnais producer Domaine de Corsin that we stopped at at the beginning of our trip. And in return, Carlo gave us a bottle of his red wine. He normally doesn’t put a label on his wines, but he does have a bunch of generic labels that he uses when necessary.<br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>On the drive to Ornans we stopped at Chateau Chillon on the shore of Lac Leman (Lake Geneva), and took a tour of the chateau, which dates from the 1500's. The chateau owns some vineyards, which apparently had been cultivated for many years and are now taken care of and have wine made from their grapes by a local producer. The wines are only sold at the chateau, and the proceeds go towards a major renovation project at the chateau. I decided to buy a bottle of their white, which is made from the Chasselas grape.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Old Wine Barrels in Chateau Cellar</span></td></tr>
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>After leaving Chateau Chillon we headed towards France, and while there was a long line of cars at Customs going into Switzerland, the crossing into France was a breeze. As we had advised the gite owner, we arrived right around 4 p.m., and she was waiting for us. She showed us around the gite, which is really fantastic. We then took a walk into the center of town and stopped at the boulangerie, a small grocery store (an epicerie), and a butcher shop (boucherie) to pick up provisions for the next couple of days. We had stopped at this boucherie 2 years ago when we were staying in the Jura, and was impressed with what they had, and were happy to go back there. We then went back to the gite where we first had some aperitifs, and then had dinner of white truffle tortolini and asparagus that we had bought at the market in Sion in Switzerland.<br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The next morning I walked to the boulangerie to pick up croissants for breakfast. It was all of a 3 minute walk, maybe 4 minutes coming back uphill. The croissants were outstanding, as were the pastries we had bought there the night before [Addendum: we stopped there on the way out of town and picked up some pastries before they closed; we had them after dinner, and they were fantastic]. Unfortunately, they had a sign posted prominently in their window informing their customers that starting the next day, they would be closed for vacation for 2 weeks. So tomorrow morning I’ll have to walk to the further bakery, which is probably twice as far.<br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>After breakfast we took a short drive to the large grocery store outside of town to pick up some things we hadn’t been able to get the day before in town. Afterwards we returned to the gite and walked to the Gustave Courbet Museum in town. Courbet was born nearby in 1819, and lived in Ornans as a child. When he was 20, he went to Paris to live with a relative who was a law professor, and Gustave’s father hoped he’d become a lawyer. However, he wasn’t interested, and decided to study painting instead. He eventually became one of the most famous painters of his time, and helped put Ornans on the map. What was once the Courbet family home in Ornans is now the Gustave Courbet Museum, and this year, in honor of the 200th anniversary of Courbet’s birth, there are numerous special events and exhibits at the museum. We arrived during the last 2 days of the exhibition of Courbet’s sketches, so we got to see that exhibit, as well as some of the permanent collection that we had seen 2 years before.<br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>In the afternoon we drove through a downpour to Chateau de Belvoir, about an hour north of Ornans. Except for the summer, the chateau is only open on Sundays and holidays, so we decided to go there on Sunday. It was an impressive place inside and out, and there were amazing views from the chateau to the valley below, as well as from the road below to the chateau. The first chateau was built here in the 12th century, and after it was destroyed it was rebuilt in the 15th century. At the end of our visit I asked the woman who had sold us our tickets and guided us on part of our visit if she lived in the chateau, and she said yes, and she gave me the same answer when I asked if she owned the chateau. There had been a horrible fire in 1968 that destroyed a large part of the interior of the chateau, and she said her parents had done the reconstruction of the chateau. Later research indicated that there were some famous artists in her family, including one who was good friends with Gustave Courbet in the 1800's. That would probably account for the presence of several Courbet paintings we saw in the chateau.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">View from the Chateau</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Chateau from the Road</span></td></tr>
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>After we left the chateau we drove back to Ornans in a circuitous route to see some towns and villages we hadn’t been to. It rained a good part of the way on the drive, but had pretty much stopped when we got back to the gite. With dinner we had one of the Cornalin wines we bought in Switzerland. Switzerland has a number of indigenous wine grapes, and Cornalin may be the best of the reds.Bob Rossihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08349830722788278723noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5992421545125150231.post-15178261152836106842019-04-27T03:25:00.000-04:002019-04-27T03:25:07.263-04:00Four Days In Switzerland<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>On Tuesday morning we left Chateauneuf-en-Auxois and drove towards Switzerland, where we would be spending the next 4 days. We made a brief stop across the road from Chateau de Joux, and had a picnic at the same spot we had done so 3 or 4 years ago. I hadn’t realized that we were going to pass the same way we did then, but Chateau de Joux is near the Swiss-French border, and it overlooks the pass from Italy to France via Switzerland.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Chateau de Joux</span></td></tr>
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The border crossing took no time, as France and Switzerland are part of the Schengen zone, with no passport control, and while there is Customs because Switzerland is not part of the EU, we were waved through. We then drove on towards the city of Bern, where we were spending 2 nights at an apartment. We left our car at a park and ride on the outskirts, and took a bus and walked to our apartment. It was in a building that borders the Aare River, which meanders through Bern. After checking in, we took a walk across the river into the center of Bern, and made several stops, including a wine bar and a grocery store to pick up some provisions for dinner and breakfast. We also walked by the famous clock tower, which has figurines that parade in a circle and also clang the bells on the hour. That evening we had dinner outside in the courtyard of our apartment.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">View of Bern from Above</span></td></tr>
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The next morning we first headed out to the Bear Park, which was only about a 10 minute walk from our apartment. Bern has a long historical connection with bears, and the Bear Park is a big tourist attraction, being home to 3 bears at the moment who have free reign over a good amount of territory near the Aare River. After seeing the bears, we took a long walk to the Bern Zoo, where we spent a couple of hours.<br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We then took a bus from the zoo to the center, and stopped at an outdoor market and picked up some local cheese and air-dried beef, which is a specialty of this area. We also stopped at a shop that stocked wine, and we picked up a bottle of Swiss white wine to have with lunch at our apartment. We then walked back to our place, and since the weather was so nice we had lunch in the courtyard.<br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>In the afternoon we did a lot of walking, spending some time at the huge cathedral that dominates the Bern skyline. While the cathedral dates from the medieval period, it was only in the last couple of hundred years that it was extended upward to tower over the city. Afterwards we walked around the center of Bern again, then wound up stopping in the wine bar section of a Spanish restaurant along the Aare River. We had a few glasses of Swiss white wines, along with a huge tapas platter that became our dinner.<br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The next day we left Bern and headed towards the canton of Valais, Switzerland’s premier wine region, where we were staying in the town of Sierre. But first we stopped in the village of La Gruyeres, a medieval village with a spectacular chateau that was built in the 13th century. We spent quite a bit of time touring the chateau, then stopped at La Maison de Gruyeres and picked up some Gruyeres cheese, which we had as part of a picnic lunch.<br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We arrived in Sierre in the late afternoon, and Christine, the owner of the B&B, was there to greet us. She and her husband live next door to the B&B, which used to be part of their home. It’s all part of a small complex on the outskirts of Sierre, looking towards the mountains. They also have a small farm in the mountains where, among other things, they make wine from grapes they grow in Sierre and around the farm. We joined them for one of their white wines, an unlabelled Johannisberg (AKA Sylvaner), which was superb.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Chateau Mercier</span></td></tr>
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>In the early evening we went to the nearby Chateau de Villa, which has a restaurant as well as a wine bar. The wine bar opens early, and at 6 p.m. it was already very busy. The main room was full, but we sat at a table in one of the adjoining rooms, which was stacked with hundreds of Swiss wines for sale. The list of wines by the glass changes every week, and normally has about 8-10 wines, split between red and white. We tried all 4 whites, which were made from the Chasselas, Johannisberg, Petite Arvine, and Muscat grapes respectively, and one red, a Syrah. All were good, but I preferred the whites. With the wines we ordered a small platter of 5 different cheeses from the Valais, and a large platter of air-dried meat from 3 different local producers. It was very interesting to taste the differences in the cheeses and between the meats.<br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The next morning we walked towards the center of Sierre and to the train station, about a 15 minute walk. We had read about a large weekly market in nearby Sion, and decided to go there by train rather than driving. The train runs very frequently, and only took around 10-15 minutes to get to Sion. We walked towards the center of Sion and easily found the market, which stretched throughout the center of town. We bought some food items for the next leg of our trip, including asparagus, which had just come into season in the Valais. We also made a brief stop at a wine bar next to the market, and tried 2 more white wines from the Valais.<br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>After leaving the market we walked back towards the train station and returned to Sierre. We had a light lunch on the patio, then I went to ask Christine if she would mind calling the winemaker down the road and see about setting up a visit for us at his small winery. It turned out that he was away for the day, so she then called another winery she knew well in a nearby town, Salgesch, and said she would drive us there for a visit. Salgesch is a village of winegrowers about 10 minutes from Sierre, and our first stop was at Cave St. Philippe, a small family run operation. The husband and wife who run the winery were away in Bern at a wine show, but their daughter was filling in for them, and she gave us a brief tour and then poured several wines for us to try. The wines were very good, especially the whites, and we bought a couple of bottles. Christine then asked if we wanted to visit a larger operation just down the road, which she said was very good. Of course we couldn’t turn down her offer, so we all went to Cave Nouveau Salquenen, which has a beautiful set up for tasting and makes an amazing array of wines. We tried about 10 wines, and most of them were superb. Among the wines we tried were ones made from several unique Swiss grape varieties, including Amigne de Vetroz, Humagne Blanche, Petite Arvine, Humagne Rouge, and Cornalin. We bought half a dozen different wines to fortify us during the next week.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3trYDHjKavVHmj5Hwf9kNsbrShrdt1TDcTghZQ-Q0QlK3HhBX-MOXolO1wT1DhGJw-Ql29WxtmmqDJRhCQ3QwOnw3oXBTbYp7SWeO1hS3FH442ZuhIPXb9JXhXXkajylIKsY2VkuRtgiv/s1600/IMG_4125.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3trYDHjKavVHmj5Hwf9kNsbrShrdt1TDcTghZQ-Q0QlK3HhBX-MOXolO1wT1DhGJw-Ql29WxtmmqDJRhCQ3QwOnw3oXBTbYp7SWeO1hS3FH442ZuhIPXb9JXhXXkajylIKsY2VkuRtgiv/s320/IMG_4125.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Barrels and Wine Press at Cave St. Philippe</td></tr>
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>That night we walked to the Chateau de Villa again, this time to go to their restaurant. The restaurant is actually a pretty low-key place, which specializes in Raclette. Like us, most of the people there ordered the Raclette special, which consists of Raclette from 5 different producers in the Valais, brought to your table on a plate by the Raclette Master, one cheese at a time. It’s all you can eat, but the best I could do was have 2 more cheeses after the first round. It was a superb way to spend our last night in Sierre.Bob Rossihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08349830722788278723noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5992421545125150231.post-11339559376176158712019-04-24T13:33:00.000-04:002019-04-24T13:36:26.715-04:00A Few Days in Burgundy<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>On Easter Sunday we left Gueugnon and headed towards Chateauneuf-en-Auxois, a small village a little over an hour to the north. But first we stopped at the ancient town of Autun. One of the most striking features of Autun is the large, magnificent church dominating the upper part of the town. We walked up to the top part of the town and spent some time viewing the church.<br />
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After leaving Autun we stopped in Sully and visited the spectacular Chateau de Sully. The chateau is now owned and inhabited by the Scottish-born Duchesse of Magenta. As a young woman she met the chateau owner, a member of royalty, at a party in Vienna. They fell in love and were married shortly thereafter, and she went to live at the chateau. When her husband died several years ago, she continued to live in and maintain the chateau with help from her sister, and it was probably the Duchesse herself who was running the ticket counter and gift shop when we visited.<br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We then made the short drive to Chateauneuf-en-Auxois, where we were spending the next 2 nights. Chateauneuf is one of Les Plus Villages de France (Most Beautiful Villages of France), and definitely deserves that designation. We had briefly stopped here over 20 years ago after spying the massive chateau high on the hill above the road we were driving on, and had often talked about coming back. The village was certainly as beautiful as we remembered.<br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening wandering around Chateauneuf and visiting the chateau. The chateau was spectacular both on the inside and the outside. When we visited here 20+ years ago we remembered how the village was swarming with cats. While there weren’t nearly as many as we remembered, we still ran into quite a few. The next night a restaurant owner said that feral cats used to run wild through Chateauneuf, but then several years ago a woman started to take care of feral cats and bring them to get neutered, so there aren’t nearly as many.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Cat seen in the window in the photo above</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Our chambre d'hote</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Chateau at night</span></td></tr>
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>On Monday morning we drove north to visit some chateaus and villages. The first stop was Chateau de Bussy-Rabutin. The chateau is now owned by the French government, but in the 1600's it was owned by Count Roger de Bussy-Rabutin, who was exiled to his chateau after ridiculing and exposing the misdeeds of fellow members of royalty. All in all, it probably wasn’t the worst place to be exiled to, and at least he kept his head.<br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Our next stop was the village of Flavigny-sur-Ozerain, another of the Plus Beaux Villages. The village was beautiful, and an interesting feature was the Anis factory that has made little anise bonbons since 1561. Many years ago the company bought up the abbaye, and has made and sold their anise candies there, and now distributes them all over the world. We went into the museum and gift shop at the abbaye and bought several little packets of the candy.<br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>After leaving Flavigny we drove the Commarin to visit the Chateau de Commarin. This time we got to visit the interior as well as the exterior of the chateau. The most fascinating thing about Commarin is that it has been in the same family since 1214, having survived the Wars of Religion and the French Revolution, and the current owners live there. We toured one wing and part of another wing, and were told that the owners live in the center building and in part of one of the two wings.<br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>That night we had dinner at a restaurant in Chateauneuf that the owner of our bed and breakfast had recommended. She and her husband had gone to a big village birthday party there the night before, and she said the food there is very good. We figured her recommendation was probably good since she told us that the restaurant was owned by a couple who were originally from England, and for a French person to recommend a British-owned restaurant meant something. Dinner turned out to be excellent, and one of the owners told us a little of their background. They originally came to France to run a hotel canal barge, then opened a restaurant in Dijon, and eventually moved to Chateauneuf and bought a building that now houses their restaurant and their living quarters upstairs where they reside with 2 children, a dog, and a cat.Bob Rossihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08349830722788278723noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5992421545125150231.post-65731584482993105692019-04-22T10:53:00.000-04:002019-04-22T10:53:07.532-04:00Arriving in France<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We began our trip to France exactly the same way we began last year’s visit. We flew on Lufthansa from Boston to Lyon with a change in Munich, picked up a car at the Lyon airport, and made the short drive from the airport to Cremieu. Cremieu is a small town that we fell in love with the first time we stayed there a few years ago, and this was our third visit. We parked near the center of town, and spent the afternoon walking through the town, going up to the medieval chateau, walking around the old walls, and passing by the former convent buildings. The brewery Les Ursulines, named after the nearby former Ursulines convent, opened at 4 p.m., and, following our tradition, we stopped to have a beer in their courtyard.<br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We had booked our hotel for the first night back in the Fall, and wanted to stay at Auberge de la Chaite, where we had stayed on our two previous trips. When I made my reservation, I discovered that the hotel had been sold by the family that had run it for over 30 years. It was a charming place with just 9 rooms, and a great restaurant serving classic French country cooking, with the chef being one of the owners. It was now called Hotel Le Baron, and was being run by a young man and his partner. Based on what I could see from the web site, the decor had been changed somewhat, and the menu was totally different. However, we decided to give it a chance. The rooms were still quite nice, albeit furnished differently, and the decor of the common areas and the restaurant was very different. As for the restaurant, the meal was enjoyable, but in our opinion it didn’t compare to the meals we had had at Auberge de la Chaite.<br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Friday morning, before leaving Cremieu we stopped at Les Saveurs Paysans, a small food shop that carries products from local producers. We bought several goat cheeses from a nearby farm, strawberries that had just come into season, walnut oil from a local mill, and some sparkling wine from a Bugey producer. We then headed out to visit some wine producers in the Maconnais on our way to visit our friend Ghislaine in Burgundy.<br />
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The Maconnais wine region is a little south of the famous wine appellations of Burgundy in the Cote d’Or. The wines from Maconnais are almost all white, and, like the white wines from the rest of Burgundy, are almost all 100% Chardonnay. And speaking of Chardonnay, in the middle of the day we stopped in the village of Chardonnay, which proudly proclaims that it gave its name to the Chardonnay grape. Also, the village of Chardonnay, like many villages we drove through, can append its name to Macon as an appellation. Among the appellations whose wines we tried on this excursion through the Maconnais, or whose vineyards we passed through, were Macon-La Roche Vineuse, Macon-Uchizy, Macon-Bellait, and Macon-Ige. We visited 3 wineries, 2 of which we had stopped at previously – Chateau de la Greffiere in La Roche Vineuse; Domaine Talmard/Mallory et Benjamin in Uchizy; and Domaine Corsin in Davaye, principally a producer of Pouilly-Fuisse. The Maconnais produces excellent wines that are an affordable alternative to the more prestigious appellations of the Cote d’Or.<br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>After leaving Domaine Talmard we headed towards Gueugnon, where Ghislaine lives. We had stayed there several times, and were familiar with the route. We arrived there mid-afternoon, and after spending a little time with Ghislaine, Ann and I took a walk into the center of Gueugnon while Ghislaine started dinner. She had a dance class that night, so we had an early dinner before she left.<br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The next day Ghislaine drove us to several sights in southern Burgundy. We made a brief stop at a medieval chateau in the village of Chassy. Besides the medieval part of the chateau, there was a tower that was clearly modern, but fit in well with the rest of the chateau; it appeared to be a vacation rental property through Gites de France. After Chassy, Ghislaine drove us towards the village of Uchon, where we took a walk through the hills and admired the views, as well as the numerous huge rocks, known as Les Rochers du Carnaval, that proliferated there. Afterwards we stopped at an auberge in Uchon and had lunch outside. After lunch we went to Mont Dardon, a viewing area high above the valley with outstanding views in all directions, and took a walk around the park. Afterwards Ghisliane drove to a goat cheese producer she had visited once before, but Friday was their closing day.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chateau de Chassy</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rocks of Carnaval</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hazy View From Mont Dardon</td></tr>
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We then returned to Guegnon, and Ann and I took a walk to the center of town to pick up some provisions for the evening. Ghislaine’s 3 children, their spouses, and their 4 children were coming to dinner that night, and Ghislaine was making Raclette, along with accompaniments such as potatoes and charcuterie. Ann and I were supplying the wine, as well as dessert. We had hoped to get a gateau (a cake), but all of the bakeries had sold out, so we got a few dozen macarons. It was a very enjoyable evening, and everyone liked the raclette and the macarons. When they weren’t eating, the children spent most of their time running around the house playing games with each other.<br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The next day was a whirlwind tour of goat cheese producers, small villages, and visits to Ghislaine’s parents and several long-time friends of hers. Our first task was to find a particular goat cheese producer, but on the route we spotted a sign for La Ferme de Bellevue, a farm that had goat cheese and chickens. We stopped there, and while they were out of chickens and eggs, they had plenty of goat cheese. So we stocked up there, and then headed for the other farm, La Ferme des Biens Vivants. It was a beautiful place, and after buying several goat cheeses, we went to the barn to see the goats. There was a young woman there feeding the goats, and she talked to us a little about their operation, which had over 150 goats.<br />
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Figurines at La Ferme de Bellevue </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Real goats at La Ferme des Biens Vivants</td></tr>
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>After leaving the second farm we headed towards Ghislaine’s parents’ house, first making a few brief stops along the way, including this beautiful church in the countryside.<br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>When we arrived at Ghislaine’s parents, her mother had made lunch for us. It was an enormous meal, and included cauliflower gratin and a roast pheasant that a friend of theirs had hunted. It was a real treat, as pheasant is not something you often find in the U.S.<br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>After lunch we drove through the countryside and made a couple of stops, the first of which was Le Moulin d’Angoin, an old restored water mill that appeared to be a residence. The next stop was the town of Saint-Gengoux-le-National, a medieval town with some beautiful old buildings, and a couple of non-Medieval cats.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Moulin d'Angoin</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Saint-Gengoux</td></tr>
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We then finished the day by visiting two couples who are longtime friends of Ghislaine, all of whom we had met previously. We shared a bottle of wine from the Maconnais, a Vire-Clesse, that the friend at whose house we all met brought up from his cave. When we left he gave us a bottle of sweet Coteaux de Layon that he had picked up in the Loire, and we had that after dinner at Ghislaine’s house. This was our last night in Gueugnon; the next day we were heading a little bit north in Burgundy to the village of Chateauneuf-en-Auxois.Bob Rossihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08349830722788278723noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5992421545125150231.post-71095874128294579202018-05-07T09:36:00.004-04:002018-05-07T09:36:59.710-04:00Finishing Up In Cremieu, Part 2 Like last year, we finished our trip in the town of Cremieu, not far from the Lyon airport. We left our gite in Beaucroissant on Saturday morning, and made a couple of stops on the way to Cremieu, which is only about an hour from Beaucroissant as the crow flies, although it took us a lot longer since we're not crows..<br />
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Our first stop was in Saint Chef, a small town with some remarkable buildings, including a beautiful church dating from the 10th century, which in this case was open to visitors.<br />
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We had a picnic near the center of Saint Chef, and then continued our drive. This weekend was the Isere's equivalent of the Ferme en Ferme event that we went to last weekend when leaving the Rhone area. There was a goat cheese producer on the outskirts of Cremieu, La Chevre "Ry," that we planned to visit, and on the way we stopped to get a view of a chateau. La Chevre "Ry" is presumably a play on the word "chevrerie," which means a farm that makes goat cheese. We stopped to visit the farm, and the goats, and bought several of their cheeses before heading towards our hotel in Cremieu.<br />
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For our last night we stayed at the same hotel as we did on the last night of our trip in 2017 -- Auberge de la Chaite. It's a wonderful small, old hotel with a great restaurant. After checking in we walked all over Cremieu again, stopping at the brewery Les Ursilines for a beer in their outdoor courtyard. It was a beautiful afternoon, so we took several pictures of the chateau ruin high above the town and the former medieval priory that we had visited at the beginning of our trip. We also spied a cat that was curious but safely out of reach.<br />
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In the evening we had dinner at the Auberge, which was just as outstanding as it was last year. The difference was that last year it was chilly and we sat in the main dining room near the fireplace, whereas this year it was warm and we sat on the outdoor terrace. The food was outstanding, and the restaurant has an excellent selection of local wines, including several producers we had visited last year. We had a glass of sparkling wine from the Caveau Bugiste in the Bugey region, and a bottle of Altesse (Roussette grape) "Marestel" from Domaine Dupasquier in the Savoie. After dinner we took one last stroll around Cremieu.<br />
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On Sunday morning we had breakfast at the Auberge, then took a short walk to the great bakery we had visited several times this year and last, and picked up some croissants to bring home. We then drove to the Lyon airport for our journey to Boston, which, with a connection in Munich, seemed to take forever. We arrived home late last night via the bus from Boston, having been awake almost 24 hours.Bob Rossihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08349830722788278723noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5992421545125150231.post-75106791841356175842018-05-04T12:16:00.000-04:002018-05-04T12:16:07.895-04:00The End of the Week in the Isere Thursday morning we took a walk into the center of the village to stop at the boucherie and pick up something to have as part of lunch. On the way we spied the friendly orange and white cat that we had seen late yesterday, but this time I had brought the camera. The cat was behind a fence and some shrubs, but she squeezed under the fence and greeted us, and I managed to get some photos. We continued on to the butcher shop, then stopped at a farm in town that sells milk, cream and cheese, and we bought some cheese.<br />
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Afterwards we decided to visit the somewhat large town of La Cote Saint Andre, about 25 minutes from Baucroissant, driving through some small villages on the way. La Cote Saint Andre is known for being the birthplace of the composer Hector Berlioz, and the house he was born in has been converted into a museum celebrating his life and works. We went through the museum, and took a look at the beautiful interior courtyard.<br />
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After leaving La Cote Saint Andre we returned to the gite to have lunch. Since we were running out of time in Beaucroissant we took a look at the map and some booklets to figure out what we wanted to see this afternoon and tomorrow. There were several towns in the mountainous Vercors Park that we wanted to see, but we decided to save them for tomorrow, since the weather looked like it would be more promising then. Instead we decided to go to Saint Antoine l'Abbaye, a village that is another one of the classified Plus Beaux Villages, and also has a well-known former abbey.<br />
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Saint Antoine certainly deserves its Plus Beaux Villages designation, and the abbey was impressive. We spent a couple of hours walking through the village and touring the interior of the former abbey, including the massive church and a museum which details the history of the abbey and the order of Saint Antoine.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Gate to the Abbey</b></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Abbey Church</b></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Church From the Lower Village</b></td></tr>
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After leaving Saint Antoine we drove back to Beaucroissant on back roads, avoiding the major roads during rush hour. We had dinner at the gite, which included a bottle of Mondeuse Blanche from Domaine Philippe Grisard, as well as the Verdesse we had opened at lunch, as we tried to make a dent in our wine purchases.<br />
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On Friday, our last full day in the Isere, we headed to the Vercors Regional Park to visit several villages that I had read about. The first stop was Cognin-les-Gorges, a beautiful village which leads to the Gorges du Nan. We parked near the center of the village and walked upwards through the streets and towards the gorges, stopping to admire the turrets of an old church and a small bridge. Along the way we met a friendly cat, which we later saw down at the bottom of the village near where we were parked.<br />
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After leaving Cognin we drove to Pont-en-Royans, a larger village on the Isere River. We parked outside the center and walked through the Grand Rue and up some small streets into the upper part of the town. Since it was a little past noon we decided to have a picnic along the banks of the Isere with some provisions we had brought with us and some that we picked up in town. We decided to picnic on the opposite side of the river from the center of town, since from that spot there were great views of the houses perched over the Isere.<br />
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After our picnic we stopped in the village of La Sone, which is also on the Isere River. La Sone looked like it was a little down on its heels, but there was a charming little park next to an old tower, and an imposing church with a 12th century clock tower.<br />
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Our last stop of the day was the village of Beauvoir-en-Royans, which is the site of the ruins of a medieval chateau, as well as a former Carmelite convent. While not much of the chateau remains, what does exist gives one an idea of how massive the building must have been.<br />
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After leaving Beauvoir-en-Royans we drove back to our gite and started to get things together for the return trip. Tomorrow morning we leave Beaucroissant to finish our trip where it began -- in the town of Cremieu.</div>
Bob Rossihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08349830722788278723noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5992421545125150231.post-39021042991066697092018-05-03T03:13:00.002-04:002018-05-08T17:17:15.562-04:00More From The Isere<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Tuesday, May 1, was a holiday in France, roughly equivalent to Labor Day in the United States. While most things are closed, we had planned to go to a festival in the town of Condrieu. That town is known for having two AOP (Appellation d’Origine Protegeé) products – Condrieu wine and a small disk of goat cheese called Rigotte de Condrieu – and both products have been celebrated for 31 years at the annual May 1 Fete des Vin et de Rigotte de Condrieu. There were a couple of dozen producers of Rigotte de Condrieu at stalls in the center of town, and we tasted a lot of their cheeses and bought a fair amount. The wine producers were set up in a nearby hall, and with the purchase of a glass one could taste any of the wines, mostly Condrieu, Cote Rotie, and Saint Joseph, that were being poured by about 20 producers. We tasted a number of wines, but since we had stocked up on so many wines yesterday, we didn’t buy any here. After the wine tasting we wandered a little more through the center of town, where additional food vendors had set up stands.<br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We then headed back towards Beaucroissant with plans to make a few stops on the way. Our first stop was in Chatenay to view the church that was supposed to have a beautiful interior. However, like so many churches we stopped at on this trip, the door was locked. We then continued to the town of Bressieux to take a look at the 13th century Chateau de Bressieux, which was high above the town looking over the plains below. The chateau is mostly a ruin now, but two corners of the structure have been well preserved, as well as vestiges of the walls. There is also a large church in the lower part of the village, but alas, the door was also locked.<br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>After leaving Bressieux we drove to the town of Vinay, which we had passed through the day we arrived in the area and thought it was worth going back to. We parked at the entrance to the center of town and took a brief walk. There were some interesting buildings in and around the center, including a modest chateau that was for sale.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Chateau for Sale</b></td></tr>
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We then drove back to our gite in Beaucroissant for aperitifs and then dinner. For dinner, Ann made tartiflette, a Savoie specialty made with Rebluchon cheese, potatoes (using Ghislaine’s father’s potatoes), cream (using cream from the farm in Guegnon), and lardons (thick cubes of smoked bacon), baked in the oven. It was fantastic, and went well with one of the Mondeuse wines from Maison Phlippe Grisard. After dinner we took a walk through the quiet village.<br />
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On Wednesday we had two appointments at wineries in an obscure wine region to the north of Grenoble. The first was Domaine des Rutissons in the town of Le Touvet, where we were to meet up with co-owner/winemaker Wilfrid Debroize. To say that the winery was unpretentious would be an understatement. After a little trouble we found the building that houses the winery, and were ushered into the cellar down steep, unlit stairs. But the wines we tasted more than made up for the surroundings. Domaine des Rutissons, like the winery we were to visit later in the day, and indeed like many wineries in the Isere and Savoie, emphasizes indigenous gape varieties that are unique to this region, some of which were almost extinct before being revived fairly recently. Among those varieities, Rutissons makes a red from the almost-unknown Etraire de la Dhui grape, and a white Verdesse. The wines were outstanding, and despite the fact that we had more wines than we could handle, we bought 4 bottles.<br />
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After leaving Domaine des Rutissons we drove to the next village, Crolles, to have lunch at a restaurant that Wink Lorch had mentioned. Crolles was very suburban and congested, but it did have an impressive church.<br />
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After lunch we headed towards Bernin, where we had an appointment with Thomas Finot at Domaine Finot. We had a very difficult time finding the winery, having stopped at 2 different places to ask for directions. Fortunately, Thomas Finot seems to be well known in the town, and we finally found the "winery." I put that in quotes, because the "winery" was in an industrial area consisting of a lot of small warehouses, car repair places, and similar buildings, and Domaine Finot was an even smaller facility than Domaine des Rutissons. But like Rutissons, they make superb wines. We were greeted by Audrey, Thomas Finot's partner, who said that Thomas was busy working in the vineyards, and that she would be giving us a tasting and tour. Like at Rutissons they make a wine from the Etraire de la Dhui grape variety, and while they had sold all of the small 2016 vintage, Audrey poured us the 2017 out of the barrel. We also tried their late harvest Verdesse, and a Persan (another indigenous grape variety), both of which were outstanding, so we bought both of them. Audrey also told us about a couple of other virtually unknown varieties that Thomas had planted and which they hoped to be able to harvest and make wine from in a few years.<br />
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From Domaine Finot we drove through the outskirts of Grenoble towards the town of Vizille to see the Chateau de Vizille. The chateau is quite impressive, as is the huge park surrounding it. The chateau is now simply a museum, which we skipped, but we took a long walk through the park, whose grounds contained a long canal with lots of waterfowl, including a family of ducklings, and an extensive fenced in area with dozens of deer. We had parked a long distance from the chateau, on the edge of the center of town, so we got to see a good part of the town in addition to the chateau.<br />
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We then drove back to our gite in rush hour traffic, and made it back in time to take a walk to the boucherie (butcher shop) in the village to pick up some provisions for dinner. We also encountered several scared cats on the walk, but also a friendly cat that looked remarkably like our late cat Tavel. Unfortunately, I had forgotten to bring the camera.Bob Rossihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08349830722788278723noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5992421545125150231.post-66693419066818587812018-05-01T03:12:00.001-04:002018-05-01T03:12:36.385-04:00On To The Isere<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>After leaving our chambre d’hote in Sainte-Croix-en-Jarez on Saturday morning, our first stop on the Ferme en Ferme circuit was right in the village, at La Ferme du Moulin des Chartreux. The farm is located just outside the walls of the old monastery, and raises several kinds of animals for meat and for cheese. After looking around the farm, we bought several goat cheeses, a meat tourte, and a fresh pintade (guinea hen) for roasting, complete with the head. One of the owners took some pictures of us at their stand, and asked for my email address. Two days later I got an email from her with the two photos.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Pintade Before Being Roasted</b></td></tr>
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We then drove out of Sainte-Croix towards the village of Pelussin, where we found Le Potager d’Olivier, a small organic farm growing a number of kinds of vegetables, as well as mushrooms in their darkened cave. We were given a tour of some of the vegetable plots, and shown the mushroom growing operation. They had several of their vegetables for sale, and since we needed some food items for the coming week, we picked up some things, including the first asparagus of the season.<br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>After leaving Pelussin, we headed up towards the village of Chavannay, high above the Rhone River. We saw signs for numerous Northern Rhone wine producers, some of whom I was familiar with, but the only one that was participating in Ferme en Ferme was Vignobles Verzier. We stopped there, and were given a tasting by one of the winemakers. The wines were superb, and we bought several bottles, including a Condrieu (a white made entirely from Viognier), a Saint Joseph blanc (a Marsanne/Roussane blend), and a Saint Joseph rouge (all Syrah).<br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We then crossed the Rhone and headed towards Beaucroissant in the Isere departement, where we were going to be spending the next week at a gite (basically a restored farmhouse), with a stop in Chatte to check out two shops we had read about. One of them is a cooperative of local farmers, including vegetable, meat and cheese producers; the other is the retail store of the adjacent factory that makes raviolis that are a local specialty called Raviolis de Royans. We bought a number of items at each store, the continued on to Beaucroissant.<br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We arrived in Beaucroissant in the late afternoon, and were greeted by the woman who runs the gite with her husband. They live next door to the gite, and the woman told us that the property was originally owned by her grandparents, and that she grew up in what is now the gite. She also told us that we were the first Americans to stay in the gite. A chance encounter later that afternoon made us wonder whether we were in fact the first Americans to have stayed anywhere in Beaucroissant. While we were walking back from the center of the village we met a man who was walking his very friendly dog. As he started to walk away he asked us where we were from. When we said “the United States,” he was taken aback, and said, in English, “the United States, and you’re staying in Beaucroissant? Why, do you have family here?” We told him no, we were just on vacation. He seemed surprised that a couple of Americans would be spending a week of their vacation in Beaucroissant.<br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>That night we roasted the pintade we had bought earlier in the day at the farm in Sainte-Croix-en-Jarez, and drank the Ladoix red Burgundy we had bought on our excursion to the Cote d’Or last Tuesday. With the pintade we had the asparagus from the vegetable farm we had visited that morning, and some of the potatoes from Ghislaine’s father.<br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>On Sunday morning we drove to Morestel, about 45 minutes from here, for their weekly outdoor market. It’s one of the largest and best markets in this part of France, and we had gone there last year when we stayed in the Bugey region. We had planned to just get a few things there, since we had quite a lot of food already, but everything looked so good that we wound up getting far too much. We spent a fair amount of time walking through the market and throughout the center of town, and then drove back to Beaucroissant for lunch, which consisted of cheese (we have a lot of that) plus some olives and tapenade we had picked up in Morestel.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Fishmonger in Moretsel</b></td></tr>
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<span style="white-space: pre;"><br /> </span>In the late afternoon we took a short drive to the village of Virieu to visit the Chateau de Vireu. The chateau was originally a fortification built around the 12th century, and was later added on to in several stages and renovated about 100 years ago. Part of it now houses five families descended from the Virieu family line. An interesting part of the tour concerned the role that the Virieu family played in the French Resistance during World War II, including their efforts at hiding some families, including Jewish families, which earned them a commemorative award from Israel.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Chateau de Virieu</b></td></tr>
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>That night our dinner included a Saucisse Lyonnaise, a specialty of the nearby city of Lyon, which we had picked up in Morestel. For the wine, I opened the Saint Joseph rouge from Vignoble Verzier, which was a great match for the sausage; not surprising, since Lyon and the St. Joseph wine region are so close.<br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Monday morning we headed off to the Savoie departement to visit some wineries. The first one was Domaine Grisard in Freterive, which we had visited last year and a couple of years before that. We’ve both become big fans of Savoie wines, which can be difficult to find in the United States. One thing that’s interesting about Savoie wines is the number of indigenous grapes grown here, many of which are not grown anywhere else, and some of which had almost become extinct before being revived by some grape growers in the area. Domaine Grisard has been a pioneer in keeping some of the ancient varieties alive, and they are also a pepiniste (fruit tree seller), selling grape vines to other vineyards. We tried a number of their wines, and bought several of them.<br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>After leaving Domaine Grisard we stopped at Domaine Philippe Grisard, another branch of the family. We were given a spectacular tasting by Philippe himself, who poured us about a dozen different wines, including 4 or 5 different red Mondeuse Noire wines, and wines from the rare Mondeuse Blanche and Persan grape varieties. We had hoped to keep our purchases to a reasonable number, and had planned to visit a third winery afterward (down from the 5 I had originally planned to visit in this area), but the wines here were so good we bought 9 bottles (plus we were given 1 by Philippe), and cancelled our next planned visit. Instead, we went to lunch at a restaurant on a small lake, La Carouge, which had been recommended to me by the wine writer Wink Lorch. After lunch we took a walk around the lake, which has great views of the surrounding mountains.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Tasting Room at Domaine Philippe Grisard</b></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Lac Carouge</b></td></tr>
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>On our drive back to Beaucroissant we took a route through the mountainous Chartreuse Park, rather than taking the fast autoroute that we had driven on in the morning. We passed through some charming villages and had some great views of the hills. We made one brief stop in Saint Laurent du Pont and took a stroll through the town. We then drove through the congested town of Voiron during rush hour, and eventually returned to Beaucroissant for aperitifs and then dinner.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Saint Laurent du Pont</b></td></tr>
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<br />Bob Rossihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08349830722788278723noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5992421545125150231.post-17457165972276914112018-04-29T09:05:00.001-04:002018-04-29T09:05:12.440-04:00Leaving Burgundy And On To Beaujolais And Beyond<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We left Burgundy last Wednesday, and on our drive to the Beaujolais region, Ann remembered that there was a great boulangerie in Saint Bonnet where we had stopped on our drive to Ghislaine’s last year, and we managed to find the town, and the bakery, without any trouble. The bakery looked and smelled as good as I remembered, and we picked up some breads and pastries there. We then found a picnic spot in the nearby village of Beaubery, and stopped to have lunch. The picnic area had a great view of the surrounding countryside, including an impressive church.<br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We then continued our drive to the town of Le Bois d’Oingt in the southern Beaujolais, and met up with the woman whose apartment we had rented for the next 2 nights. After installing ourselves in the apartment, we went back out and took a drive to the nearby village of Chamelet, which is one of a series of old villages in the Pierres Dorées (Golden Stones) region of Beaujolais. We had a difficult time driving through the village and finding parking, which we thought was due to tourism, but which turned out to be due to a funeral at the church in the village. We finally found a place to park, and took a stroll around the village, which was quite beautiful.<br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We then drove back to Le Bois d’Oingt for aperitifs and dinner on the apartment’s terrace. With our aperitifs we had a bottle of Beaujolais that the owner of the apartment had given us, and then with dinner, which consisted of a huge cheese board and a salad, we had a bottle of a Premier Cru Puligny-Montrachet that Ghislaine had given us that morning. It’s been very difficult to make a dent in our wine supply when people keep giving us wines.<br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Thursday morning I took a walk to the boulangerie down the street, which was less than 2 minutes on foot. After we finished breakfast we headed off to visit several villages that are part of a circuit of medieval villages in the Pierres Dorees. Our first stop was the village of Chatillon d’Azeergues, and from where we parked there was an amazing view of the church and the 12th century Roman chapel of Notre-Dame de Bon Secours high above the village. We took a walk through the village, all the way to the chateau and chapel at the top. Chatillon is a spectacular, beautiful village, and although it isn’t officially classified as a Plus Beaux Village, I thought it deserved to be. Especially because of the cat.<br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The next village was Chessy-les-Mines, which has a much smaller medieval area than Chatillon, but nevertheless has some beautiful old buildings, including a 10th century chateau. Our last stop for the morning before heading to the town of Oingt for lunch was Ternand, which has some beautiful medieval buildings, including a 12th century chateau, and a church and chapel that also date from the 12th century.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Chessy-les-Mines</b></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Ternand</b></td></tr>
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We left Ternand a little after noon, since we had a lunch reservation in the town of Oingt at 12:30, at La Table du Donjon. The restaurant had been highly recommended by the apartment owner; she told us that there really were not any worthwhile restaurants in Le Bois d’Oingt, and that La Table du Donjon was superb. The village of Oingt, which is another classified Plus Beaux Village, is situated high above the surrounding countryside, and the restaurant has a fantastic view of the vineyards, hills, and nearby villages. We sat outside on the terrace and had a leisurely 2+ hour meal, which was outstanding. The restaurant also has a fantastic wine list, which, not surprisingly, emphasizes Beaujolais wines, especially the wines of the Pierres Dorees. We each started with a glass of excellent rose from a local producer, and then I ordered a bottle of a red Beaujolais from a producer in Oingt. Wines from the Pierres Dorees can only be labeled simply “Beaujolais,” as opposed to the more prestigious appellations of Beaujolais-Villages and the well-known Crus to the north, such as Julienas, Morgon, and Fleurie. However, the 2 Beaujolais from the Pierres Dorees that we had last night and with lunch today were superb, and fruitier and more enjoyable than many of the more highly regarded Cru Beaujolais I’ve had in the United States.<br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>After lunch we spent some time walking around Oingt, which is a lovely village with beautiful houses made of golden stone. We had visited Oingt 8 years ago while spending one night at a chambre d’hote just outside town, but we didn’t see much of the village then. This time we walked through the entire village, and stopped at a pottery shop where we bought some lovely small table pieces.<br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Afterwards we went back to our apartment in Le Bois d’Oingt and had a quiet evening. Since we had eaten a large lunch our dinner consisted of just a salad and several cheeses. Since we had been so impressed with the Beaujolais wines from the Pierres Dorees that we had, I walked to a shop in town and picked up a bottle from the same cooperative as the wine the apartment owner had given us the first day. It too was excellent.<br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>On Friday morning, we left the apartment and headed out towards our next location, the village of Sainte-Croix-en-Jarez. But first we stopped in Saint-Roman-en-Gaul and spent a couple of hours visiting the archeological museum. Saint Roman was the site of a Roman settlement over 2,000 years ago, and in 1968 the vestiges of that settlement were discovered. A museum was eventually created on that site, which opened in 1996. The interior of the museum has numerous artifacts and exhibits illustrating the history of the Roman settlement, and the exterior has extensive ruins and explanations of the settlement. After touring the museum we crossed the Rhone River to the city of Vienne, which has a number of Roman and medieval buildings, and we walked through the old part of the town before heading back to our car.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Saint-Roman-en-Gaul</b></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Vienne</b></td></tr>
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>After leaving Saint-Roman-en-Gaul we drove to Sainte-Croix-en-Jarez, where we were spending the night in a chambres d’hotes. Saint-Croix-en-Jarez is another of the classified Plus Beaux Villages, and it’s fascinating because it was formerly a Carthusian monastery that was turned into a village. The Carthusian order was founded in 1084, and the monastery in Sainte-Croix-en-Jarez was built in the late 13th century and remained a monastery until the order was driven out during the French Revolution. What once were the Carthusian order’s rooms for the brothers (freres) and fathers (peres) are now schoolrooms, shops, and homes. We took a fascinating tour of the parts of the monastery that have been preserved in their original state. Afterwards we had dinner at Le Carthusian, a restaurant across from the monastery that is owned by the woman who also owns the chambre d’hote that we were staying at that night. The chambre d’hote is on a road that is just above the village, and there’s a great view of the monastery/village from that road.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Village Cat</b></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Monastery/Village From Chambre d'Hote</b></td></tr>
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Saturday morning we had breakfast at the chambre d’hote with Josee. The night before the restaurant and bar had been very busy, especially the bar given that it was a weekend and there was a big soccer match on TV, so Josee hadn't gotten home until 4 a.m., and then got up before 8 a.m. to get our breakfast together. She said that is often her kind of schedule, since she runs the restaurant, the bar, and the chambre d'hote, with some help from her family.<br />
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After breakfast we left the chambre d'hote, this time being given not a bottle of wine, but a jam that Josee had made, and a bottle of tomato sauce that one of her family members had made from an old Sicilian family recipe. This weekend was Ferme en Ferme weekend (roughly equivalent to Maine's Open Farm Day) in this part of France, so the bulk of our day was spent touring a couple of farms and a winery before heading to our next stop.Bob Rossihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08349830722788278723noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5992421545125150231.post-49715852199257519252018-04-28T12:42:00.003-04:002018-04-28T12:42:43.503-04:00More From Burgundy It's now Saturday, April 28, and we're in the Isere departement, after not having Internet access for several days, and I'll recap the past few days or so of our trip in segments.<br />
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Last Monday morning, Ann, Giselle and I headed out to the town of Marcigny in Burgundy, which has a large outdoor weekly market. Unfortunately it was raining pretty heavily, so I wasn't able to get any good pictures, but we did spend a fair amount of time wandering through the market and the streets of the town. It was too early for lunch, so we decided to drive to the next town on our itinerary -- Semur-en-Brionnais -- and see what we could find there. Semur has a partly restored medieval chateau/fortress, and is also classified among the Plus Beaux Villages (Most Beautiful Villages) of France.<br />
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When we arrived in Semur we parked near the chateau, and right across the street was a restaurant that was open for lunch. We spent a couple of hours having a leisurely, and good, lunch. A big surprise was the carafe of an unnamed white wine from the Maconnais that I ordered, which was incredibly inexpensive (about $10 for what would be 2/3 of a bottle) and very good. While we were having lunch, the rain stopped, and we went to visit the chateau after we finished lunch, and then took a stroll through the town, stopping to visit the impressive church and the priory.<br />
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<span style="text-align: center;"> After leaving Semur, we drove to the nearby Chateau de Dree. We were too late for a visit of the interior, so we bought tickets for the gardens and toured the extensive grounds of the chateau.</span><br />
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When we left Dree heading back towards Gueugon, we searched for Domaine d'Argolay, a goat cheese producer that I had found information about on a prior visit. Thanks to their excellent signage we were able to find them in their tiny village. We bought several of their goat cheeses, and then made a visit to the barn to see the goats, where I had the opportunity to help milk a couple of goats.<br />
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The next day we made a day-long excursion to the heart of the Burgundy wine region, the Cote d'Or, with two of Ghislaine's longtime friends. One of them, Ghiselle, is related to a young winemaker in the Marsannay wine region north of Beaune. But first we stopped in Ladoix to taste wine at Domaine Ravaut, which Ghiselle's husband was familiar with. Their wines were outstanding, particularly their Premier Cru reds.<br />
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We then headed off to Marsannay, where Ghiselle and her husband gave us a tour of the scattered vineyard parcels owned by Sylvain Pataille, the owner/winemaker of Domaine Sylvain Pataille. Sylvain has developed a reputation as an outstanding young winemaker, and his wines are well-known among wine enthusiasts in New York and San Francisco, and a few other major American cities.<br />
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Before visiting the winery itself, we all had lunch at La Table du Rocher in Marsanny-la-Cote, an excellent old restaurant where we had a Marsannay rose from Le Chateau de Marsannay. Ghiselle then drove us to the winery, where Sylvain's assistant, Simon, welcomed us into the cave and proceeded to open about 10 bottles of their red, white, and rose Marsannay wines. I thought we were done with trying their wines, but afterwards we all went next door, where Sylvain's parents live, and we sat outside for awhile before Sylvain arrived, followed by his young daughters coming home from school, his partner/wife, and other assorted family and friends. Sylvain then proceeded to open several more wines, including a rose sparkling wine (a pettaillent naturale, or "pet nat") that he was experimenting with. We spent about an hour there, and before we left Sylvain went and got 2 bottles of one of his red wines, which he gave to Ann and me as a gift.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cellar at Domaine Sylvain Pataille</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ann and Sylvain</td></tr>
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>On Wednesday, our last day in Burgundy, I went out in the morning and walked to the center of Gueugnon again to pick up some croissants and bread for breakfast. After breakfast, Ann and I drove to the nearby goat cheese producer, Mireille Naulin, to pick up some more goat cheese for the next part of the trip. We then drove back to Gueugnon, where Ghislaine was waiting to take us back to her parent’s house before we left Burgundy. Ghislaine’s father was in the middle of planting potatoes (he said that when the lilacs are in bloom, it’s time to plant potatoes), and he picked some parsley and rhubarb for us to take with us. We then headed off to our next stop, the town of Le Bois d’Oingt in the southern Beaujolais.<br />
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Bob Rossihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08349830722788278723noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5992421545125150231.post-37171199764616817192018-04-22T13:49:00.000-04:002018-05-08T17:28:43.121-04:00A Visit to Burgundy On our first full day in Burgundy, I got up fairly early and walked towards the center of Gueugnon to pick up some croissants and other breakfast items. Rather than walking to one of the bakeries right in the center, I decided to stop at the closest one, which was less than a 10 minute walk, leaving the others for another day.<br />
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After breakfast, the three of us (actually four if you count Ghislaine's dog Max) went off for a trip to a couple of chateaus about an hour from Gueugnon: Chateau de Cormatin and Chateau de Brancion. As you can see from the photos below, the two chateaus are like night and day. Cormatin was a luxurious house of the nobility, and Brancion was a defensive fortress.</div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Chateau de Cormatin was built by <span style="background-color: #f8f8f5; color: #333333;">the Marquises of Huxelles in the early seventeenth century, eventually went through several changes of ownership before falling into disrepair, and then began being restored starting in 1980. We had a guided tour of the interior, then took a stroll on our own through the grounds.</span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Kitchen</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: #f8f8f5;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: times, times new roman, serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">After leaving Cormatin we stopped in a small village, Chapaize, and had a picnic at a rest area just outside the center of the village. We then continued on to Brancion, where we visited the restored chateau and the medieval village surrounding it.</span></span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Chateau</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Village</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Village Church from the Chateau</span></td></tr>
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After leaving Brancion we headed back towards Gueugnon, stopping on the way to visit Ghislaine's parents, who live about 20 minutes from Gueugnon. They're in their 80's, but are very active. Her father tends a large garden in their backyard, and her mother cooks and bakes, among other things. Our dinner at Ghislaine's last night included potatoes that her father had grown, and at their house this afternoon we were served an apple and cherry clafoutis that her mother had baked the day before.<br />
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That night Ghislaine was attending a celebration for a friend's 70th birthday, and we stayed at her house and Ann made dinner for the two of us. Before dinner I opened one of the Maconnais wines we had bought the day before -- a Saint Veran from Domaine de la Greffiere. Not surprisingly it was excellent, as we had tasted all of the wines that we had bought from the two Maconnais producers we had visited.<br />
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Sunday was kind of a lazy day. In the morning, Ann and I took a walk into the center of Guegnon while Ghislaine slept in, having gotten home at 3 a.m. from her party. We brought home some breakfast items from a boulangerie in town, and after breakfast we all went to a goat cheese producer in the next town. We had gone there twice on our visit last year, and I thought it was the best cheese producer I had ever visited. It was just as good as I remembered, and we're planning to go back there on Wednesday on our way out of Gueugnon. Unfortunately, that will probably be our last visit, as the cheesemaker, Mireille Naulin, is planning to retire this year.<br />
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In the afternoon, we reprised last year's bowling expedition, meeting Ghislaine's 3 children and their children at the same bowling alley where we all went last year. Afterwards we all gathered at the house of one of her sons for aperitifs and dinner for the children.Bob Rossihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08349830722788278723noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5992421545125150231.post-48362722189121438392018-04-20T15:37:00.002-04:002018-04-21T12:09:19.093-04:00Beginning in Cremieu<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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My last post from last year's trip was titled "Finishing Up in Cremieu." Now we're back in Cremieu, having flown in to Lyon yesterday and driven right to Cremieu. When we left home the weather had been not-so-springlike, with temperatures in the 40's. When we arrived in Cremieu, it was sunny, in the mid-70's, and flowers were blooming everywhere.<br />
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During last year's visit we spent our time in the center of town, and took some pictures of the medieval structures in the hills above town, including this photo of the 12th Century Priory of St. Hippolyte.<br />
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Yesterday, since the weather was so beautiful, we took a walk up to the abandoned priory, which is in the process of being restored. We had some great views of the town below and the chateau and convent.<br />
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After walking back down from Saint Hippolyte, we stopped at Les Ursulines, a brewery outside the Ursuline Convent that we had visited last year. We sat and had a beer in their courtyard, then headed back to the place we were staying and had dinner at a table in the garden.<br />
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Friday morning we made a couple of stops in Cremieu to pick up some pastries and cheese, and then headed to Gueugnon in Burgundy, where we were going to spend 5 nights with a friend. On the way, we stopped at 2 wineries in the Maconnais and picked up a dozen bottles of wine. We're now in Gueugnon at our friend's place, having gone out for a long walk with her and her dog and having dinner at her house. And if anyone still thinks that the French don't like Americans (probably not anyone reading this blog), they should know that we're staying at 2 Impasse (dead end) John Kennedy, which is off Rue John Kennedy.Bob Rossihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08349830722788278723noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5992421545125150231.post-87762443538392031422017-05-08T08:57:00.000-04:002017-05-08T08:57:56.349-04:00Finishing up in Cremieu<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Saturday morning. after getting the gite in order and feeding the cat, we left Nyons and headed off to our final stop, Cremieu, where we would spend our last night. Cremieu is in the Isere department, near where we started our trip. We knew nothing about Cremieu, but picked it because it was a short drive to the Lyon airport, where we would be flying home from on Sunday morning. Cremieu turned out to be fantastic, and the hotel we stayed at, Auberge de la Chaite, was excellent, and had an outstanding restaurant.<br />
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The drive to Cremieu was tiring, mostly because it rained heavily most of the way. It was still raining when we arrived in Cremieu, but that didn't keep us from strolling around the central part of town, although it did restrict my picture taking. The town was absolutely spectacular, with an amazing number of medieval buildings, and I eventually did manage to take a few photos (see below). We also stopped into a bar frequented by locals, where we had a couple of glasses of sparkling Bugey, and we discovered a great brewpup in a building that was once part of an Urseline convent. We eventually walked back to our hotel for dinner. The hotel had a beautiful dining room, and the dinner was outstanding. They also had an excellent wine list, which gave us one more chance to have some Savoie wines. We wound up ordering two wines from indigenous Savoie grapes; a red Mondeuse and a white Altesse, both from Domaine Ravier in Apremont. The next morning we left early for our flight, and made the long and tiring trip home, where I’m writing from now.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Town Hall</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Hotel Restaurant Dining Room</span></td></tr>
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<br />Bob Rossihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08349830722788278723noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5992421545125150231.post-84109553305033113472017-05-05T16:05:00.000-04:002017-05-05T16:05:17.476-04:00In the Shadow of Mont Ventoux<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>On Friday morning we took a long drive to visit a number of Provencal villages, most of them located in the valley below Mont Ventoux or otherwise having views of the mountain. Mont Ventoux is the tallest mountain in Provence, and is part of the Tour de France. We stopped at a lot of villages along the way, and rather than write about each one, I’ll principally post photos from each village, with occasional discussions.<br />
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>First up was the village of Puymeras.<br />
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Our next stop was the nearby village of Faucon.<br />
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We then drove past Mollans-sur-Ouveze without stopping, since we had visited it the other day, and also skipped Saint-Leger-du-Ventoux because we couldn’t find a place to park in the village. We then drove to the perched village of Brantes, which turned out to be spectacular and where we bought a couple of ceramic tiles at a faiencerie.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Brantes, With Mont Ventoux in the Background </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Chez Mathilde, Restaurant of the Faiencerie</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Interior of Church in Brantes</span></td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>After leaving Brantes we drove to the nearby village of Savoillans and stopped to take a walk around the town and pick up some bread at the small boulangerie in town.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Savoillans</span></td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We then drove towards Montbrun-les-Bains, which was spectacular from a distance. However, the village was fairly busy, and parking was a problem, so we continued on up higher on Mont Ventoux. We eventually came to an extensive plateau that had lavender fields everywhere, but very few houses and even fewer people.<br />
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>After we drove down the mountain, we came to the village of Aurel, which we knew nothing about. We stopped to take a stroll, and it turned out to be a charming village.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Aurel</span></td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We then headed back in the direction of Nyons, stopping in Buis-les-Barronies. It was a much larger town than we expected, and didn’t seem that attractive on the outskirts, but we parked just outside the old center and walked inside, and it turned out to be quite lovely. We walked around the entire center, including the beautiful arcaded central square and the tree-lined road that circled the center.<br />
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After leaving Buis-les-Barronies we drove back to Nyons for the evening. Eventually, our friendly cat, who we had not seen for awhile, showed up to have aperitifs with us.Bob Rossihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08349830722788278723noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5992421545125150231.post-50139114352196836112017-05-05T03:28:00.000-04:002017-05-05T03:28:02.958-04:00Thursday Market in Nyons and a Visit to Vaison-la-Romaine<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Thursday morning we walked into the center of town for the market. The market stretched throughout the center, along several side streets and in the large parking area next to the town hall. There were lots of food vendors, but also sellers of cloths, pottery, clothing and other non-food items; hundreds in all. We bought cheese, snails with garlic, butter and parsley, raviolis, and vegetables, and also stopped at a socialist-leaning bakery in town to buy one of their whole grain baguettes. On the way back to our gite we stopped at the butcher shop and picked up our roasted pintade.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Tower High Above Nyons Market</span></td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The cat greeted us as we approached our gite, and waited around for lunch. It was a little too cold to eat outside, so we had our lunch in the dining room and gave the cat his plate of pintade in the courtyard. He devoured it, so we gave him a second plate. With the pintade we had the Grand Cru Chablis that Ghislaine had given us at the start of our trip.<br />
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>In the afternoon we headed off to Vaison la Romaine again, which looked very different without the market occupying all the streets in the center of the village. As the name implies, Vaison was a Roman settlement, and its Pont Romain (Roman Bridge) actually dates from Roman times, having been built in the 1st Century, as opposed to the Pont Roman in Nyons, which was built in the Roman style in the 14th Century. We spent a lot of time wandering around Vaison, starting at one of the Roman excavations and the ancient cathedral in the lower town, then crossing the Pont Romain to the upper part.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Views of Vaison-la-Romaine</span></td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>After leaving Vaison, we headed towards Nyons and stopped at a couple of little villages that I had wanted to see. First up was Entrechaux, with an ancient tower and church high above the town. The church was abandoned in the 1800's when a newer church was built in the lower part of town, which is where we parked. We walked up the hill to the upper part, which had great views of the surrounding hills and the lower part of town.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Entrechaux</span></td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Our next stop was Mollans-sur-Ouveze, a small village on the Ouveze River. Once again we parked in the center of town and walked up to the top of the village. The chateau at the top of the village was privately owned, and clearly included a residence within its walls.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Mollans-sur-Ouveze</span></td></tr>
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<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>After leaving Mollans we drove back to Nyons, and parked at the parking area near the river so that we could stop at the ice cream shop connected to the lavender distillery. We picked up some rosemary ice cream, left the car in the lot for the night, and walked back up the hill to our gite., where we had aperitifs (no cat this time) and then dinner.Bob Rossihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08349830722788278723noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5992421545125150231.post-52002531237432192682017-05-03T13:33:00.003-04:002017-05-03T13:33:50.593-04:00More Provencal Villages and a Winery Visit<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Tuesday evening we had a late dinner at the gite, then took a walk up into the medieval center again a little before 9 p.m., shortly before it got dark. The cat that had greeted us in the dark the night before was again around, this time in the daylight, and he followed us around his “domaine” for awhile.<br />
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The next morning we got an early start to try and visit one village on the way to the 11:00 appointment I had set up with Christelle Coulange of <a href="http://www.domaine-coulange-rhone.com/fr">Domaine Coulange</a> in the Ardeche departement, on the other side of the Rhone from the Drome. On the way we stopped at the village of Saint Restitut and took a stroll around town.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Saint Restitut</span></td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We then continued on to Bourg Saint Andeol, the town where Domaine Coulange is located. There was a market going on in the center, and also some construction, which made it a little difficult to find our way, but we finally made it to the winery. Domaine Couange has been in the family for several generations, but until 1996 it sent all of its grapes to the local cooperative to be vinified and bottled. That year, Christelle and her father Maurice decided to start bottling their own wines, which have the appellations Cotes du Rhone and Cotes du Rhone Villages.<br />
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Christelle greeted us, opened the tasting room, and poured their entire range of wines. We tried the white and rosé Cotes du Rhone, a red Cotes du Rhone, and 2 red Cotes du Rhone Villages, the last of which is the only oak-aged wine they make. The white is a blend of 4 grapes, including the Viognier and Roussanne that are so prevalent in the northern Rhone; the rose and reds are Grenache/Syrah blends, except for one red that was all Syrah, All were very good, but we especially liked the reds, and bought the 3 reds we had tried. They also make another red Cotes du Rhone, called “Mistral” after the fierce wind that often blows here, which is imported into the U.S. by Ansonia Wines and which I had previously ordered from Ansonia by advance purchase. After the tasting, Christelle gave us a tour of the winery, which was having work done to expand it to add more room for ageing wine and a bottling facility.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Garden at Domaine Coulange</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Domaine Coulange Vineyards</span></td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>After leaving Domaine Coulange we drove to the village of La Garde-Adhemar, where we had stopped about 10 years ago. La Garde-Adhemar is one of the designated Plus Beaux Villages de France (Most Beautiful Village of France), and it definitely deserves the designation. We spent some time wandering around the village, and took a walk through the spectacular botanical gardens.<br />
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>From La Garde-Adhemar we drove back to our gite for a late lunch, continuing to try and make a dent in all the cheese we bought earlier in the week. Our wine collection, on the other hand, continued to expand. We had a bottle of Apremont from Le Cellier du Palais in the Savoie with lunch, but having purchased 3 wines at Domaine Coulange, our cellar increased by two.<br />
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>In the late afternoon we took a walk down to the Eygues River in Nyons, and walked along the adjoining path for a bit. We then headed back into the center of town, and stopped at the butcher shop we had been frequenting to see about getting a pintade for tomorrow. They have a small rotisserie, and the butcher said if we bought the pintade they’d roast it for free. So we ordered one to be picked up late tomorrow morning. Thursday is market day in Nyons, and it’s possible there will be a rottiseur there, but pintades seem to be in demand, and we might not be able to get one at the market, so it made sense to order one from the butcher.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Pont Roman from the Riverbank</span></td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>When we returned to our gite, we encountered our friendly cat down the street, and shortly after we got to the gite he joined us. We had aperitifs in the courtyard, and the cat joined us, sharing the cheese with us. He also hung around for the next course, and he seems to be waiting for dinner.Bob Rossihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08349830722788278723noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5992421545125150231.post-47938337079018317222017-05-02T11:57:00.006-04:002017-05-02T11:57:45.030-04:00The Drome Provencal<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>After a day of Ferme en Ferme, we were fully settled into the Drome Provencal, the southern part of the Drome departement that is the northern reaches of Provence. While it rained heavily during the night on Sunday, Monday morning started out cold but with brilliant sunshine. I took my usual morning walk into the center of town to pick up some breakfast items; it was May 1st, a national holiday, but a number of shops were open in the morning. After we had breakfast, the friendly cat from yesterday afternoon arrived for his breakfast. After breakfast we took a walk around town (without the cat) and picked up some provisions at a butcher shop, and a Provencal tablecloth to bring home. We hung around the gite for awhile until lunch, when the cat rejoined us.</div>
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>In the afternoon we decided to visit a few villages not far from Nyons that looked like they would be worth taking a walk through, particularly since the weather had surprisingly turned out to be beautiful. I had also made a list of some of the wine producers in the villages we were planning to visit.<br />
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Our first stop was Rousset-les-Vignes, which, as its name implies, is surrounded by vineyards. It also has a beautiful old village center surrounded by walls into which houses have been built. We took a stroll through the old center and around the walls. We also took a walk to Domaine la Bouvaude, a wine producer about a quarter mile from the center, but they were closed.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Rousset-les-Vignes</span></td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>After leaving Rousset we drove to Taulignan, another village that I had found through a web site that has information about some of the most beautiful villages throughout France. Like Rousset-les-Vignes, Taulignan was spectacular, with a wonderful old gate leading to the medieval center. Again, we spent a fair amount of time walking throughout the center of the village, encountering several friendly cats.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Taulignan</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Cats of Taulignin</span></td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Our final stop was Grignan, which we had visited about 10 years ago. It was a larger town than the previous two we visited, but no less impressive. The town is on several levels, with the top level being higher than we walked, and there is an impressive chateau part way up to the top. We also found a friendly cat, but he didn’t want to pose.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Grignan</span></td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>After leaving Grignan we dove into the Vaucluse Departement and through the larger town of Valreas, a center of the local wine trade. We were looking for Domaine des Grands Devers, and we eventually found it, but alas, it was also closed. I suspect that most wine producers were closed because of the holiday.<br />
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We then drove back to Nyons, and as we arrived at our gite, our visiting cat came running down the alleyway towards us, and then entered the courtyard. We sat in the courtyard and had aperitifs; the cat joined us. He eventually left, and this night he didn’t return for dinner. But after dinner, when we took a walk through the medieval center after it got dark, a friendly cat suddenly appeared on one of the high walls and greeted us.<br />
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Tuesday morning, I took my usual early morning walk to pick up croissants and other breakfast items in town. As I left the gite, a black cat we had seen a couple of days before came running towards me to say hello; our friendly visiting cat was also nearby. While we were having breakfast, he jumped up onto the ledge outside the kitchen window and peered in.<br />
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>After breakfast we drove to Vaison-la-Romaine in the Vaucluse departement, one of the larger towns in the area. Vaison has a huge weekly market on Tuesdays, which stretches throughout the town. There were a lot of food vendors, but at least 3/4 of the stalls were selling non-food items such as tablecloths and napkins, cooking utensils, and clothing. We bought some fruits and vegetables, but were unable to get one of the items we were looking for — roast pintade (guinea hen). One vendor had various spit-roasted birds, but when Ann asked about getting a pintade, he checked his list and said that all of them had been reserved.<br />
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>It had started to rain while we were in Vaison, which accounts for the lack of photos except for the one below of the Roman ruins just outside the center, and it got heavier as we went through the market. We left the market after an hour or so, and headed towards the well-known wine village of Gigondas, where I had contacted one of the wine producers - Domaine les Goubert -- about a visit. I was somewhat familiar with this producer, having bought a bottle of their Sablet red in Massachusetts from their U.S. importer, Ansonia Wines. When we got to Goubert, the woman at the tasting room, who was the co-winemaker with her father, opened several bottles, and we got to try their white Cotes du Rhone and Cots du Rhone Villages (including one that was 100% Viognier), as well as their red Cotes du Rhone, Sablet, and Gigondas wines. They were all very good, but the 2 Gigondas were spectacular. Gigondas is generally considered the 2d best Southern Rhone appellation after their well-known neighbor, Chateauneuf du Pape, and a good Gigondas can rival almost any Chateauneuf du Pape.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Roman Ruins in Vaison-La-Romaine</span></td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>After leaving Domaine Les Goubert, we headed back to our gite for a late lunch. Having failed to get a pintade, we had some charcuterie, cheese and a salad, with a bottle of Altesse from Domaine Grisard in the Savoie. The cat was hanging around, and came over for lunch. We rested a bit after lunch and then took a walk around and through the town, crossing the 2 bridges again and admiring the views.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /><span style="font-size: small;">Eygues River in Nyons From The Pont Roman </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Pont Roman (Built 1340-1409)</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">View of Tower in Medieval Center</span></td></tr>
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<br />Bob Rossihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08349830722788278723noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5992421545125150231.post-40166690250332194252017-04-30T15:59:00.000-04:002017-04-30T15:59:55.999-04:00From the Bugey Region to the Drome<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>On Saturday morning we left our gite in Lhuis and headed to Nyons, in the Drome departement in northern Provence, about a 3 hour drive. We said goodbye to some of the local cats, and au revoir to the gite and other sites in the village. Lhuis was a fantastic place to stay, and the gite was terrific.<br />
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This was the weekend of La France de Ferme en Ferme, the equivalent of Maine’s Open Farm Day, in several departements. Both the Ain departement and the Drome, along with several other departements throughout France, have their Ferme en Ferme events this weekend, and other departements have their open farms the following weekend.<br />
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>On the way to Nyons we stopped in the town of Crest, which is not particularly picturesque, except that it has a beautiful setting across the Drome River with picnic tables and a view of the donjon in Crest. So we stopped there and had lunch and took a few photos.<br />
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>After leaving Crest we saw a sign for a Ferme en Ferme participant, and decided to see what type of farm it was. It turned out to be a fantastic place, and it was very busy. The farm raised the Moulard variety of ducks, and made all kinds of products from ducks, including foie gras, duck breast, and rillettes. We got a tour of the farm, followed by a tasting of their products, many of which we bought.<br />
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We eventually arrived in Nyons and checked in to our gite. The gite is in a building that’s built into the ancient town walls, and it took awhile to find it. But with a little help from some residents, we eventually found it. After unloading our suitcases and everything else we brought from Lhuis, we talk a walk through the town and packed up some pastries and a few other things for dinner.<br />
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>On Sunday morning we first walked into town to pick up a few fruits and vegetables, then headed off to visit a few more farms that were participating in Ferme en Ferme weekend. On the way we stopped at the small village of Cornillon-sur-l’Oule because it looked like there would be a good view of the valley. The view was great, but we also noticed a shop that was having an art exhibit that was ending that day. The exhibit, which featured paintings by local artists gong back to the 1950's, was put together by the shop owner, who said that she often had art exhibits at her shop. The shop also sold wines from local producers, and had a very interesting selection. I wound up buying a bottle of a red Cotes-du-Rhone Villages from Domaine Louis Tourtin, partly because of the story the shop owner told me: that Thomas Jefferson, when he was Ambassador to France, brought wine from this domaine back to the United States to give to President Washington.<br />
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>After leaving Corrnillon-sur-l’Oule, our first farm stop was Ferme Monge near the village of Arnayon, a farm we had visited 10 years ago, which raises goats and makes goat cheese as well as walnut oil and fruit juice. We picked up several goat cheeses, then headed off to the next farm, La Ferme de Pracoutel in Vesc, which also raises goats. Like Ferme Monge, this farm makes goat cheese, but also makes various goat meat products. They were serving a lunch that included the cheeses they make as well as goat sausages and salami. We ordered the lunch and sat at a picnic table on the farm overlooking the hills. Before leaving we bought some more goat cheese and some goat milk.<br />
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The next stop was Les Cochons de Dieulefit, a pork producer in the town of Dieulefit. We took a stroll around the farm, viewing all of their pigs and piglets. We then stopped at the stand they had set up for the weekend and bought some of their sausages and rillettes. The woman who waited on us said that the man who makes the sausages makes the best sausages in the world. We’ll see.<br />
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We then drove back to our gite in Nyons, and after unloading our purchases we took a walk around the town and down to the river. We crossed the river on the 15th Century bridge, then walked to the modern bridge, where we had a great view of the old bridge. On the walk back to our gite we made a few stops, including at a still-operational lavender distillery.<br />
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>When we returned to our gite, there was a cat who had walked into the courtyard through one of the gates. The cat was very friendly, and also hungry. We gave it some pork products and then some cheese, which it happily devoured. When we sat down in the courtyard for aperitifs, the cat joined us. When we went inside, the cat followed, then went back outside. After we shut the door, the cat jumped up to the kitchen window, looked inside, the curled up and went to sleep.<br />
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The cat eventually left and presumably went home. As part of dinner we had the sausage we had bought at the farm in the afternoon, and whether they're the best sausages in the world might be subject to dispute, but they certainly were very good. And so was George Washington's wine, which we had with dinner.Bob Rossihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08349830722788278723noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5992421545125150231.post-34286385846570450312017-04-28T15:22:00.001-04:002017-04-28T15:22:18.205-04:00More Villages in the Bugey<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Thursday was a far more leisurely day than Wednesday had been, and a little bit colder. Of course, I started the day with a walk to Favier Tradition, the boulangerie in town, to pick up breakfast items. After breakfast we headed out for a short drive. I first had to find a place to get gas, which can be tricky in rural France, but I remembered from our last visit that there were self-service gas pumps at a grocery store just outside the larger town of Belley (particularly in rural France, most gas pumps are at large grocery stores and are self-service). We headed there and found it without any trouble.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We then drove through a number of small towns, stopping at Arbignieu and Conzieu, two tiny villages that we had visited two years ago. By now it was getting close to lunch time, and we had decided to try a restaurant we had noticed on our last visit when we stopped to admire the impressive waterfall in Glandieu. The restaurant is called La Cascade, after the waterfall that it faces. La Cascade is very charming inside, and our meal was excellent. I even got to try a wine from Crépy, a nearby region that I’m barely familiar with. Crépy is part of the Savoie AOC, and is a very small appellation. It’s very close to Switzerland, and, like the principal Swiss white wines, Crépy whites are made from the Chasselas grape variety. After lunch, which lasted over 2 hours, we headed back to our gite.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Arbignieu</span></td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We relaxed for awhile, then took a walk through Lhuis and stopped at the boulangerie again to pick up bread and pastries for later. In the early evening we drove to the nearby tiny village of Groslee where the owner of our gite has his winery and had agreed to meet us at 6:00. Patrick Charlin started his winery, Domaine Patrick Charlin, in 1980, in what was his family’s property. It’s a very small operation, but recently his wines were discovered by Becky Wasserman, an American who has lived in Burgundy for many years and who exports French wines to the United States. She was justifiably enamored with Patrick’s wines, and now exports some of them to the United States, probably in very small quantities. Patrick poured us several reds and whites, and the wines were exceptional. We had had his Altesse the day we arrived when he stopped by and gave us a bottle, and we wound up buying as bottle to take with us. He also poured the current vintage of Mondeuse, the 2015, which was very good. He then brought out a 2006 Mondeuse which he had just opened, and it was exceptional; probably the best red wine we had had on the trip so far. We bought the 2015 Mondeuse, but Patrick also gave us the open bottle of the 2006, which we had with dinner. The last wine we tasted was a late harvest wine that was a blend of Chardonnay and Altesse, picked in November 2010, and we also bought a bottle of that.<br />
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>When we returned to our gite we had a glass of sparkling wine from Le Cellier du Palais in Apremont, and a glass of Mondeuse Blanche from Caveau Bugiste. We then decided to take a long walk through Lhuis and up into the hills above the village before heading back for a dinner of various cheeses from the Savoie that we had picked up yesterday, plus pastries from Favier Tradition in town.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Views of Lhuis</span></td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Friday morning I took my obligatory walk into town to pick up croissants and brioche. After breakfast we decided to take a drive high up into the hills about ½ hour from Lhuis. We first stopped in Montagnieu, a grape growers’ village that we had visited 2 years ago when we stopped at Domaine Peillot. We parked in the center of the village and took a short walk through the town.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Montagnieu</span></td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We then headed towards a few sites that we wound up either not finding or not getting close enough to get a good view of, including an old private chateau off the road and a chartreuse, both of which I had read about that morning. However, surprisingly we stumbled across a farm I had read about earlier and had hoped to find – Le Ferme Chasser, which raises pigs and sells pork products out of their small shop at the farm. We stopped and bought a slice of their pork terrine, and a salami. We then continued on and stopped at the town of St.-Sorlin-en-Bugey, which we had visited 2 years ago. We parked in the center and took a stroll through the charming streets of the town, encountering a cat that was not particularly scared but also didn’t really want to be photographed. After leaving St. Sorlin we drove back to our gite for lunch. With lunch we had the Chignin “Vielles Vignes” from Domaine Andre et Michel Quenard, which we had visited a couple of days earlier.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">St. Sorlin and its Cat</span></td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>After lunch we took another long walk into the countryside around Lhuis. In the late afternoon we made the half hour drive to the town of Yenne in the Savoie. We had stopped there a couple of years ago looking for a goat cheese producer, but everything was closed then and we never found it. It looked like a charming town, so we decided to go back; we were also looking for the shop that made the ice cream we had tried in Chanaz earlier in the week. This time Yenne was bustling, and we took a walk through the center of town, stopping to get some ice cream to bring back to our gite, as well as a Gateau de Savoie, a light cake that is a local specialty; the shop we bought it at bakes it the traditional way, in a wood-fired oven.<br />
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<br />Bob Rossihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08349830722788278723noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5992421545125150231.post-65263101458993535262017-04-26T14:32:00.000-04:002017-05-10T17:58:48.869-04:00More From The Savoie<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>On Tuesday morning we decided to do a little less driving, and went to the Bugey town of Vongnes to visit Le Caveau Bugiste, the principal wine cooperative in this area. They make a wide range of wines, including some from the very rare indigenous grapes Mondeuse Blanche and Mollex. We tried a number of whites and sparkling wines, including their wines from those rare grapes. Everything was quite good, and we bought the Mondeuse Blanche, a sparkling wine, and a delightfully sweet late harvest wine made from Chardonnay. Next to the caveau is a wine museum which we visited; it has a huge collection of old implements used in grape growing, harvesting, and vinifying wine.<br />
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>When we left the Caveau Bugiste it had started to drizzle, so after visiting the wine museum we headed back to Lhuis, where we had lunch at our gite. With lunch I opened a bottle of Altesse from Domaine Dupasquier, which was at least as good as I remembered from the tasting room. We’ve been very impressed with the Altesse/Roussette wines we’ve had so far, and hope to try several more.<br />
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>By the time we had finished lunch it was raining fairly heavily, so we decided to do something that would keep us out of the rain. There was a brochure at the gite about a nearby grotto, so we drove to Les Grottes de La Balme. The grottoes were massive and extensive, and included underground lakes, and bats. We spent about an hour walking throughout the grottoes, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to take any pictures inside; just this photo of the plaque above the chapel outside the grottoes, indicating that the chapel was built in 1310.<br />
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>After leaving the grottoes we headed back to Lhuis. We parked at our gite and took a short walk into town to pick up some veal at the butcher to cook for dinner, and some desserts at the bakery. Before dinner we had the rest of the Altesse wine from lunch, and with dinner I opened the Roussanne from Le Cellier du Palais. Another exceptional wine from the Savoie.<br />
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The next morning it was raining lightly, but I took my usual walk to the boulangerie to pick up croissants for breakfast and a baguette for later. It’s less than 10 minutes round trip to the bakery, and I’ve gone every morning except for Monday, their closing day. As I mentioned previously, the baker has developed quite a reputation in a short time, and everything we’ve had there has been outstanding. Some bakeries we’ve been to in France have made great breakfast items but mediocre pastries, and some have been the reverse, but everything at the one in Lhuis has been outstanding. I can tell from the days that we’ve made multiple visits that they are selling quite a lot during the day, but I wonder how long they’ll be satisfied with running a boulangerie in this little village.<br />
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>After breakfast we headed off to the Savoie for what would turn out to be a long day. We first stopped at the town of St. Pierre d’Albigny, where we though that there would be an outdoor market, but there was none. There was a very good cheese shop though, Fromagerie Demoly, selling many different local cheeses plus others from elsewhere in France, and we bought a couple of Savoie cow cheeses, including the well-known Beaufort, which has an AOP.<br />
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>From St. Pierre d’Albigny we drove to the nearby town of Freterive and stopped to try some wines at Domaine Grisard, which we had visited 2 years ago. Their wines were outstanding then, and were just as good this time. The Domaine makes all of the traditional wines of the region, such as wines from the Jacquere, Altesse and Mondeuse grape varieties, but also has been trying to keep some old gape varieties alive by continuing to make wines from them. These include Mondeuse Blanche, Persan, and Douce Noir, all of which we tried. Not surprisingly, we bought far too many wines.<br />
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>After leaving Domaine Grisard we headed north to Saint Jean de Murrien, a larger town in the Alps. Among other things, this town is known for the Opinel knives, which are sold throughout the world . Opinel was founded in 1890, and at one time the knives were made in Saint Jean de Murrien in a building that is now the Opinel Museum. We took a tour of the museum and bought a few knives. We also took a walk around the town and found a great-looking cheese shop, where we bought some more Savoie cheeses.<br />
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We then left Saint Jean de Murrien and headed back in the direction we had started. We first stopped at Chateau de Miolans, a fortified medieval chateau high above St. Pierre d’Albingy, where we had stopped in the morning. It was closed then, but open in the afternoon, and we spent some time visiting the chateau.<br />
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>After Miolans we stopped in the nearby village of Chignin to visit Domaine Andre et Michel Quenard, a very highly regarded wine producer. It was a little past closing time, but the vigneron was in the tasting room and started pouring us some wines until his wife arrived and took over. She poured us a wide range of their wines, including their three Chignin Bergeron wines, made with the Roussanne grape. We bought one of those wines, plus a couple of Chignins (made from the Jacquere grape) and a Mondeuse from the cru “Arbin.” That finished our long day, and we headed back to Lhuis to try and make a dent in our purchases and have dinner.Bob Rossihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08349830722788278723noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5992421545125150231.post-66356887536799655632017-04-25T07:56:00.001-04:002017-04-25T14:21:32.129-04:00The Savoie Region<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>On Sunday morning we drove to the town of Morestel, in the Isere departement, to do some shopping at their large weekly outdoor market. We spent quite a bit of time there, and picked up a lot of food provisions for the next few days. We then drove back to our gite to have lunch, and tried to make a dent in all the goat cheese we had bought.<br />
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>After lunch, we drove to Chanaz, a lovely town that we had stopped at 2 years ago. Chanaz has a beautiful setting on a canal that runs into the Rhone, and since it was such a lovely day and it was in the middle of school vacation, there were a lot of people strolling around the town. We had come back there partly to visit Le Moulin de Chanaz, a walnut and hazelnut oil mill that we had stopped at 2 years ago but which was closed then. It was open today and quite busy, and we watched some of the production of their nut oils. It was fascinating to watch the small production operation which used old methods of heating and pressing. We bought several bottles of each oil, some to use here and some to bring home. We also stopped at an artisinal chocolate shop; the chocolates were made at a small facility on the outskirts of Chanaz, and the woman who makes the chocolates was selling them at her little shop in town. She gave us some samples, which were delicious, and we bought a few of them.<br />
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>After leaving Chanaz we drove north towards the Chautagne region to try and find the Cave de Chautagne wine producer. We eventually found it, and visited their caveau. We tried a number of their wines, but most of them were disappointing. Some had clearly been open for too many days, and overall there was not much we liked. We did buy a bottle of their Vielle Vignes (old vines) Mondeuse, which we had with dinner that night.<br />
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We then drove to the village of Chatillon, a port town on the northern part of the Lac de Bourget. We parked near the port and strolled down to the water and out onto the pier. After leaving Chatillon we stopped at the Abbaye d’Hautecombe, a magnificent abbaye overlooking the Lac de Bourget. We finally drove back to Lhuis and had a late dinner.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Lac de Bourget in Chatillon</span> </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Abbaye d'Hautecombe</span></td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Monday morning we started by heading towards the Lac de Bourget again, this time stopping at the wine village of Jongieux, which we had visited 2 years ago. Since most of the producers are very small, you can’t always be guaranteed that someone will be available at the tasting room, even if you arrive during listed opening hours, but after one miss, we stopped at Domaine Dupasquier, which had been recommended by the wine writer Wink Lorch, and one of the proprietors was there. She poured us their range of wines, most of them white, and they were outstanding. We bought their Jacquere, a local white grape; two wines from the Altesse/Roussette grape, including one that was from the sub-AOC ‘Marestel”; and their Mondeuse.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Domaine Dupasquier Caveau</span></td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>After leaving Jongieux we headed to Seyssel, which is actually two towns: Seyssel in the Ain departement, and across the river, Seyssel in the Savoie. We parked on the Ain side and walked across the bridge to the Savoie side to go to their weekly market and see the center of town. We had driven across that bridge 2 years ago from the Ain side, and had wanted to come back and see the center of the Savoie side.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Seyssel</span></td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>After we left Seyssel we drove to the town of Alby-sur-Cheran, on the Cheran River. The old part of the town was lovely, with an arcaded center and wonderful old buildings. We took a long walk around the town before heading back towards our gite.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Alby-sur-Cheran</td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>On the way back we decided to take a detour to the Apremont wine region. We got off the highway near the village of Apremont, and when we got to the town I saw a sign for Le Cellier du Palais, another wine producer that Wink Lorch had recommended we visit. An older man was there, and he called his daughter Beatrice, the winemaker, who arrived and opened the tasting room. We tried most of their white wines and one red, all of which were terrific. We bought 6 bottles, then headed back to Lhuis.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Upper Part of Lhuis</span></td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>After unloading our purchases and having some cheese and wine, we decided to take a walk outside the center of the village. There was a farm about half a mile from our gite, and we headed in that direction. Their principal product was goat cheese, but they also had a whole array of other farm animals, including cows, pigs, chickens and turkeys. There was also a friendly cat, as well as a dog that was not so friendly and who attacked me. While we were strolling around, their herd of goats were returning to the barn, accompanied by one of he owners And several young children. Although the farm store was not officially open, the owner said to enter the shop, and his wife was there to serve us. So we got more goat cheese to add to our collection.<br />
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<br />Bob Rossihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08349830722788278723noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5992421545125150231.post-1686813163245882852017-04-23T14:14:00.000-04:002017-04-23T15:54:57.041-04:00Burgundy, and on to the Bugey<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>On Thursday afternoon, we returned to Gueugnon after our morning outing, and took a short stroll towards the center of the town, stopping at the former chateau that is now an arts center. When we arrived at Ghislaine’s house, one of her sons- in-law, Romain, had just arrived with his two children, and we had aperitifs with one of the Cerdon wines we brought, as well as a fantastic Grand Cru Chablis that Ghislaine had picked up when she was in that area. After Romain and his children left, Ghisaline made dinner, and I opened a bottle of Saint Veran that we had picked up at Chateau de la Greffiere, which was outstanding.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Gueugnon on the Arroux River</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Chateau/Arts Center</span></td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The next morning, Ghislaine took us to a few towns to the north of Gueugnon. First up was Bourbon Lancay, which has a magnificent walled medieval center that we strolled around. We then drove to Digoin, which is on the Loire River and also has a canal running through it. The most interesting part was the place where the canal passed over the Loire River. We walked along the canal a bit, and while we were doing so we passed a lock that was just being opened for a boat to pass through. That lock still has a working lock keeper’s house rather than having to be operated by the boat passengers.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Bourbon Lancay</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Loire River</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Canal over the Loire</span></td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>In the afternoon, Ghislaine drove us through a few more small villages, then we stopped to visit her parents, who live in a village less than half an hour from Gueugnon. While we were in Bourbon Lancy we had picked up a cake called Le Beurdon, a local specialty, which we brought with us to Ghislaine’s parents. We had some cake and coffee, then Ghislaine’s father showed us his vegetable garden. He had given us a bag of his potatoes a few years ago, so I knew he had a garden, but I had never seen it. Although he is 86 years old, he still works the garden himself, and it’s extremely large. While we were getting a tour of the garden, Ghislaine’s father cut a bunch of herbs and vegetables, including leeks, parsley, and thyme, to give us to use on our trip, and also gave us a half dozen eggs from his chickens.<br />
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>That night, after a light dinner, we drove towards Digoin to meet Ghislaine’s 3 children and their children for an evening of bowling. It was quite enjoyable; I can’t say I had ever bowled in France before. In fact, I hadn’t bowled in over 40 years, and it showed.<br />
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>On Saturday we left Gueugnon to drive to our gite (rental house) in the Bugey region, where we were going to spend the next week. On the way we made a stop at the goat cheese producer we had visited the day before, and picked up some more cheese there. We also stopped in the town of Cluny on the way, which is famous for its monastery. Cluny was the site of the first monastery in Burgundy, having been started by the Benedictine monks in 910 A.D. We took a walk through the center of town and past some of the old monastery buildings. There also was a market in the center of town, and we wound up picking up some more cheese and vegetables. We then continued on to the village of Lhuis and found the gite where we would be staying for the week.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> CLUNY</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>After getting settled into our gite we took a short walk into the village and picked up some pastries at the boulangerie, and some basic provisions at the little grocery store in town. I had read that the current owners of the boulangerie, a young couple, had taken it over 1 ½ years ago, and had developed quite a reputation. Last Fall they received several awards from a prominent French food magazine. As we were soon to learn when we bought some of their baked goods, those awards were well-deserved.<br />
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The weather that afternoon was glorious, and a little while after our walk we sat outside on the terrace and had some Cerdon wine and goat cheese. While we were sitting there, one of the gite owners, Patrick, came over to say hello, and brought us a bottle of wine. It turns out that he’s a winemaker in the next village, at Domaine Patrick Charlin, and he had brought us a bottle of his Altesse, a synonym for the local grape Rousette, which has the AOP Rousette de Bugey. I read a little about Altesse/Rousette, and some people in this area have claimed that it’s the same grape as the Furmint in Hungary. However, I've since been informed by Wink Lorch, an expert on the wines of this region, that that's been disproved, and that the grape is likely indigenous to the Savoie. In any event, we wound up having that wine with dinner, and it turned out to be very good, particularly with the food.Bob Rossihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08349830722788278723noreply@blogger.com2