Tasting a Premier Cru pinot noir in Volnay (Côte d'Or)
Tasting a Premier Cru pinot noir in Volnay (Côte d'Or)
Day 1-July 27 (48 km): We had a 4 hour delay at Mirabel (Montreal) because of a refuelling problem with the aircraft. As usual, we flew Air Transat, a Montreal based charter company, because they fly direct from Montreal to a variety of French destinations and have no penalty for an "open-jawed" trip (i.e., into one city, home from a different one). We arrived at Charles de Gaulle aéroport, just northeast of Paris, at about 11:30 AM. Normally, when we fly to Paris, we are faced with the problem of getting from the airport into the city with our bikes - an onerous experience involving bikes on staircases, escalators, trains and in downtown Paris traffic. It's always an exciting way to start a trip - and it's the reason we rarely choose Paris as a destination. However, I knew that our flight would be using Terminal 9 at CDG at the far eastern end of the airport. It looked like we could cycle away from the airport to the east and avoid the huge urban/suburban sprawl of the city. Within 4 km of the terminal, we had escaped the fairly busy road by the airport and were on a small country road and heading southeast. It had rained that morning - there were still puddles around - so our delay in Montreal was probably a blessing. We cycled through rolling countryside with lots of grain fields, crossing the Marne just south of Meaux. After we climbed steeply from the river, we found shelter under some trees in Quincy-Voisin as a sudden short downpour swept by. We saw a small hotel and decided to stop because it was 4:30 (local time) and we had been up for nearly 24 hours. We asked madame la patronne if there were any restaurants in the village. No! However, she had a group of 9 English workers staying at the hotel while they were involved in the construction of a large aquarium near the EuroDisney site less than 10 km away. Since she provided them with an evening meal, she would be willing to do the same for us. "Cuisine familiale", she said. (Home cooking) It was a new experience for us. The food was fine but if it was "home cooking" then I guess the French eat much better in their restaurants than they do at home. We had a pleasant stroll around the village after eating. A good start.
Day 2 (91 km): We started off under overcast skies, stopping after 25 km in Coulommiers for breakfast. We always have café au lait and usually a pastry like pain aux raisins. As we neared La Ferté-Gaucher we opted for a small road into the town so that we could avoid cycling along the route nationale with its high speed traffic and many trucks. Typically, this alternate route turned out to include a very steep climb and descent, both of which were unmarked on our Michelin map. (Normally, Michelin marks the road on the map with a "chevron" - like this > - to indicate a climb of 5 to 9 %, >> for 9 to 13 % and >>> for over 13%. Of course, meeting these "chevrons" in the opposite direction would indicate a descent. However, these markings are often missing on the maps for the smaller secondary roads.) By the afternoon it had become sunny and 28°C (82°F for that little island of antiquity, the USA). We continued over rolling countryside, lots of grain fields, past the nuclear power plant and into Nogent-sur-Seine. There are some interesting old buildings in the centre of the town, especially a 19th C factory which had been built over the Seine to utilize the river's flow to drive its machinery. We had an excellent meal at our hotel (Beau Rivage) including a very nice bottle of Chablis from the nearby town of the same name and a tasty soft cheese from Burgundy that was new to us - Époisses. (We like to drink the local wines and eat the local cheese. You may have seen bottles of wine (?) in North American supermarkets labelled "Chablis". Trust me! There is only one real Chablis and that comes from the area around the small town of Chablis in northern Burgundy and it is as different from the supermarket "Chablis" as a Mercedes is from an old Ford Pinto!) Since we had done little training before the trip (spending too much time with our 3 year old grandson to get out on our bikes), this was a great day of cycling.
Day
3 (76 km): We had breakfast in the town
square across from the old theatre. The sky was sunny and
cloudless except for the long trail of steam from the nuclear plant.
On the road again we were back into the endless fields of wheat,
barley, colza (canola), etc. The big combines, like oversized
Zambonis, strip the fields of grain, leaving long ribbons of straw
behind them. I can't imagine what they do with all the straw after
they've taken the grain.
They
roll it up into those giant circular bales, littering the fields like
so many monstrous Weetabix, but what do they do with it? At St.
Maurice-aux-Riches-Hommes ("St. Maurice of the rich
men" - where do they get these names?), we entered Burgundy.
We had a beautiful day of long climbs and descents. At
Villechétive we happened upon the wrap-up of an event of the
Federation Française de Cyclotourisme (FFCT). They had been
cycling a variety of routes (45 km up to 140 km) in the area that
Sunday morning. They welcomed us and offered us a cold drink. We
chatted for a while and then continued on through a quiet forest and
then descended to Migennes. The hotel we had planned to stay in was
out of business! We found another near the station which was just
closing up - their restaurant was closed Sunday evenings so unless
you were already a guest at the hotel (with the code to get in and
out of the place) you couldn't get a room because there would be no
staff present. We just made it! Later, we learned that there was only
one restaurant open in the town - a Chinese restaurant! So we had
Chinese food that night - a new experience for us in France. We
learned that night why there's a locomotive on the town's coat of
arms. The rail yards at Migennes are busy all day and night! However,
it was another fun day of cycling.
Day
4 (61 km): We stopped in the post office to buy stamps before we
started off in the morning. Once again this year we found it cheaper
to buy the postage-paid international envelopes than it was to buy
individual stamps so our postcards home went inside envelopes! We had
a surprisingly pleasant ride into Auxerre on a small road paralleling
the major routes south into the city. We bought our lunch groceries
and ate beside the Yonne river. We had our first Roquefort cheese of
the trip. This wonderful blue cheese made from sheep's milk - the
world's best cheese in my opinion - costs about 75 francs a kilo in
France while at home it's about 250 francs a kilo. Needless to say,
we rarely have it at home! The Cathédrale St. Étienne
in Auxerre has beautiful tall stained glass windows with intense rich
colours. There are many fine old half-timbered houses and a splendid
clock tower in the old centre of the city. We should have stayed
in Auxerre instead of Migennes.
We
followed the Yonne south out of the city and had a pleasant ride to
Mailly-le-Chateau where we had phoned ahead to book a hotel - a good
decision when planning to stop in a tiny village. The Hotel
Le Castel is a beautiful old building in this very pretty little
village high above the river. We had a splendid meal there in a grand
old dining room. There is a chateau in the village but
it is a private residence. Another great day - sunny, 28°C
(82ºF), mostly on quiet small roads, nice
inexpensive hotel, great meal, wonderful wine. It's no wonder we keep
coming back to France every year!
Day
5 (85 km):
We
took a different route out of the village. The lower village below
the chateau was also very nice. Mailly was one of the prettiest
little villages we saw on this trip. We crossed the Yonne and had a
fresh ride up through the forest before descending back to river
level at Mailly-la-Ville where we had breakfast. Carol discovered she
had forgotten her journal so we had to climb back up to the hotel to
retrieve it. (I need it to produce these web pages when we return to
Canada.) We saw a great field of
sunflowers near Avigny. We cycled through
about 15 km of forest with a few steep climbs and descents before
getting back into the grain fields near Lucy-le-Bois. On to
Montréal for our usual picnic lunch. Très
valloné. (Rolling hills.) Montréal is an
attractive little village. We carried on into Semur-en-Auxois,
passing through the village of Époisses (source of our newly
discovered cheese) en route. It was a steep climb on
pavé (cobblestones) from river level into the
old centre of Semur. (I recall a cyclist saying that
he thought pavé must be an abbreviation for
pas vélos - no bikes!) The temperature
had reached 32°C (90ºF) that
afternoon and we had done over 80 km so it was a relief to shower and
sit with a cool drink. We toured the medieval centre of this old town
before deciding on a pizzeria for supper - we can't eat 3 or 4 course
meals every night! We ordered kir, the apéritif
of Burgundy, before dining. It was
wonderful! (Kir is made with 3 parts aligoté wine - the lesser white wine of
Burgundy, chardonnay being the greater - and 1 part crème de cassis - a liqueur made from black
currants.) Then we split a 4-cheese pizza and a large salade de gésiers confits (a
favorite - salad with pieces of specially conserved duck gizzards.
Really! You'd have to try it!) A long but lovely cycling day.
Day
6 (76 km): It was overcast and much cooler. Carol iced her knee
when we stopped for breakfast in Venarey-les-Laumes after a couple of
long climbs and descents. She wears braces on both knees when she
cycles but they sometimes flare up nonetheless. We turned southeast,
following the Oze river and the railway tracks. Lots of trains - this
is the main Paris - Dijon line. After about 30 km of very easy
cycling we turned east away from the river. Two long steep climbs put
us in the forests above Dijon near Pasques and then we had a long (8
km), speedy descent to the Ouche river just west of Dijon. We found a
bike path along the river - a nice way to get into the city. By 2:30,
we were in centre ville and had found a nice hotel - Le
Sauvage. We cleaned up and headed into this old city to check it out.
However, first we went to the train station. There is no good cycling
route from Dijon to Beaune, 40 km away, unless you choose a very
roundabout route. The direct route involves cycling along the route nationale. Because of this we had decided to take
the train to Beaune the next morning so we went to the station to
find out which trains allow bikes to be transported free as bagage à main (carry-on luggage). We bought
tickets for the 9:12 train (which would arrive in Beaune at 9:35.)
There are many fine old buildings in the old centre of Dijon. The
stained glass in the 13th century église
Notre Dame was very impressive. The sun finally appeared at
about 5:30 - there had been a threat of rain all day although we
never felt a drop. We had a marvelous meal at the restaurant Les
Moules Zola near our hotel. As you would expect, they specialized in moules (mussels) and we ordered the
spécialité maison : "Moules Zola" - mussels
in a wonderful sauce of whole grain mustard (Dijon, of course), cream
and tarragon. I wonder if I could get Bon Appétit magazine to
get the recipe. The ride today turned out to be easier than
anticipated. Could we be getting into shape? (today's
route)
Day
7 (31 km): We picked up a pastry along the way and had our coffee
at the station. The train started in Dijon so it was sitting there
early, making the loading of the bikes an easy task.
(Most times we only have about a minute to do this
because the train is usually arriving from someplace else.)
The tourist office in Beaune is in the same square as the 15th
century Hotel Dieu - the centrepiece of Beaune's many
attractions. The roof of the building is very different. Beaune is
very turista. There were many guided tours being led around,
each in a different language. That was almost as interesting as the
buildings. The église Notre Dame has a beautiful long
tapestry behind the altar and an attractive cloister beside the
church. As soon as we left the city we were into the vineyards, first
Pommard, then Volnay. We rode up into Volnay and stopped at a
vintner's. We tasted a 1996 Premier Cru Volnay that was already
exquisite even though it will probably improve in the bottle for
quite a few years. We bought a bottle to bring home - at only 105
francs it was a great bargain. It seemed worth it even though I would
be carrying it for another 1500 km on the bike.
There
are vineyards everywhere as we climbed and then descended through
Auxey-Duresses. We left them briefly as we climbed to Rochepot but
they reappeared as we coasted down into Nolay. We had booked a room
in the Hotel
de la Halle which I had discovered on the web. Nolay is a
charming little town with a wonderful covered
market and old church, tiny streets and old houses. Although it
was a short cycling day we had an interesting mix of activities,
including dinner in a restaurant where their credit card machine
wasn't working. They didn't find that out until after dinner.
Fortunately, we had enough cash to cover the meal.
Day
8 (82 km): We had breakfast at the hotel. Hotel breakfasts are
terribly overpriced (just like in North America) so we rarely do it.
When I booked the room she gave me a price which included breakfast.
It was only after we arrived that I realized I had the option of
not taking the hotel breakfast but I am so Canadian (never
make a scene of any kind) I didn't object. We started off with a
lovely ride through a forest and along side a creek to
Sampigny-les-Maranges and then headed southwest beside the Canal du
Centre for 18 km to St. Julien-sur-Dheune. The locks on the canal are
all no more than a kilometre apart along this stretch. Since it takes
at best about 45 minutes to get through each lock, travel by canal
would be very slow going. It would require a different
personality than mine, I'm afraid. We left the canal and turned east,
climbing for 4 km to Les Baudots. We stopped to pick mûres (wild blackberries) in the hedgerows. They
were luscious!! Once again in rolling hills all the way to St.
Gengoux-le-National. Pretty old town. We may make it a destination
next time. On the road again, we drafted a tractor for about 4 km. He
was going too slowly but it was a good time to relax. We left him at
Cormatin. Just outside of Cormatin we happened upon a bike path on an
old railway right-of-way. I guess they have a "rails to trails"
program in France as well. We followed it all the way into Cluny -
about 11 km. It was a nice easy way to finish a sunny day of cycling.
We found a hotel in this very turista town and set out to see
what all the fuss was about. At one time, Cluny was the most powerful
centre in the western world - after Rome. The abbey housed the monks
who ruled (through the church) a huge portion of what is now western
Europe. Only a small portion of the abbey remains now although there
are remnants in the town which mark its
original immense boundaries.
Day
9 (56 km): After breakfast we stopped to phone the hotel where we
had planned to stay the next night. It's always prudent to phone
ahead for a Sunday. We learned that the hotel was no longer in
business and it had been the only one in that town. It was time to
demonstrate my amazing flexibility. I decided to alter our route so
that we would be in Lyon instead on Sunday. I was confident that at
least one of the dozens of hotels in the city would be open. So we
headed for Belleville, a town about half way between Cluny and Lyon.
Once we escaped the route nationale about 5 km south of
Cluny we had a long climb and then descended past the chateau across
the valley at Berzé-le-Châtel into Sologny. We went
under the main highway and climbed through the pretty little village
of Milly-Lamartine and began a series of descents and climbs, first
through forest and then into the vineyards of Pouilly-Fuissé.
It's very hilly here, vineyards everywhere. At some point we must
have crossed a boundary of some kind because we were suddenly out of
the white wine Pouilly-Fuissé region and into the red wine
Beaujolais. As we neared Romanèche-Thorins, the skies were
getting ominously dark so we abandoned our plans to cycle through
some of the Beaujolais villages we had missed our last time through
here - you may recognize them as the names of some of the Beaujolais
cru's: Fleurie, Chiroubles, Morgon, Moulin-à-Vent. We could
see the old wreck of the windmill that gave the last of those its
name as we looked west in our sprint to Belleville. We got on to the route nationale about 7 km north of the town and flew
along a paved shoulder with the wind at our backs. The pavement was
wet, so a shower had already passed through here. At about 1 km from
the town, the rain hit! We raced through the downpour and found a bus
shelter to huddle under. We had needed only 2 more minutes. The
shower passed by after a few minutes and we went into this
unattractive town and found a hotel - l'Ange Couronné. The
remainder of the afternoon was marked by scattered showers. I had a
nap; Carol worked on her cross-stitch. It
was a disappointing day after such a lovely start - 56 km. However,
we had a pleasant surprise: the dinner at the hotel was excellent!
Day 10 (53 km): It was sunny and warm as we left Belleville and crossed the Saône to the east. Suddenly, no more vineyards. I guess the river is a sharp boundary between grain and wine. The Sunday morning sound of church bells greeted us in Montmerle where we picked up stuff for lunch. The boulangeries and alimentations (bakeries and grocery stores) all close at noon on Sundays so we took an early opportunity to stock up. We had a pleasant ride through gently rolling farmland but then rolled into the suburban sprawl of Lyon. We entered the city on a very busy multilane road which we were able to escape when we spotted a bike path along the east bank of the Rhône. Somewhere in that scary ride along that highway we must have crossed the Rhône but neither of us remember it. We ate our lunch and then followed the bike path for a couple of km before we crossed the river again and headed across the big square with the tourist office and the statue of Louis XIV and continued down to the Hotel Azur near the Perrache station. We've stayed in that hotel several times before. It's not special but it's a dependable choice. Big city hotels can be either very expensive or creepy. This one falls nicely in between. We wandered around Vieux Lyon, narrowing our choices for a restaurant for the evening. We picked a good one: le Restaurant des Arts where we had a nice salmon in sorrel sauce with a half litre of white wine from Crozes-Hermitage. Another restful day.
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