A Walk in the Countryside

Monday was "provisions" day -- a quick trip to the market in Beaune in the morning. In the afternoon we set out to walk some of the route we had cycled the day before. It is a lovely walk from here to Corgoloin through the vineyards and downhill to the village. We wandered through the village taking a different route than yesterday (it is very small but pretty) and headed back up the hill. The harvesters were out in force in these vineyards yesterday. This is such a labour-intensive process -- very few of the vineyards can neither afford machinery to harvest or the hills prevent machines from being used. One of the workers asked is we wanted to help to which I answered "Oui". However the 'bossman' was very quickly over there to tell him to get back to work!! We did watch for a while and take some photos. They cut the clusters off at a very precise spot after which they are placed in a basket. When the smaller basket is full it is dumped into a hopper basket which is carried on the back of another worker. This worker then goes to the truck when his hopper is full and climbs the ladder on the side, bends over until the grapes dump out into the back of the truck. I don't know how they harvest in the Okanagan but with the sheer volume of vineyards here (which you can see for miles and miles and encompasses most of Burgundy)it must take months to get the grapes in!! Very hard, back-breaking work from what we can see. We have only seen two harvesting machines so far -- all the rest is being picked by hand. A great walk -- about 10 kms or so. Lovely weather. We will set out on longer walks in between our cycling days.