La Grappille

We are now in the Rhone Alp district of France in the Beaujolais wine area. We are staying at a beautiful B&B called La Grappille. It is in a renovated old farm house perched up in the hills overlooking the expansive valley and village of Villie-Morgon. Unfortunately for us it has been raining since we arrived yesterday and is completely overcast this morning. There was a short break in the skies yesterday and, Wow!!!, are we missing out on the views!!!! Pauline, the B&B owner, tells us that on a clear day you can see all the way to the Alps and can see Mont Blanc. This is a very impressive area of France. While we are very ready to return to Canada it would be nice to be able to spend some time exploring this area as well. The drive here from Villers-la-Faye was very lovely -- along country roads through many more beautiful villages and towns. We stopped in St. Georgeaux du National to explore the remains of a medieval part of the village and stopped in Cluny (a larger town with a university) for our lunch.

Our B&B hosts are a very hospitable young couple, Pauline and Bruce, who have lived in the farmhouse for the past 1 1/2 years after spending 9 months renovating it. It is a very impressive building with tremendous views. The B&B aspect of the building is very accommodating with two upstairs rooms, a communal sitting room/kitchenette and another private bedroom with ensuite which is where we are sleeping. The bedrooms are very nicely decorated and the bathrooms have very modern fittings. Lovely bathrobes hanging for their guests and a big, comfy bed! Nice spot to spend our last two nights in France. Pauline told us this morning at breakfast that the farmhouse was originally owned by a family with 11 children and they all lived in the space which is now their living/dining room which had been separated into two rooms, plus they had the small kitchen area. All the rest of the house was work rooms, etc., for the farm. During the renovations several of the children of the family came by as they were very pleased to see their old home being preserved. Also, last Mother's Day (whenever that is in France) the children of 6 of the remaining sisters bought them each a night's stay at the B&B plus the catered dinner option which Pauline provides. They are to come next weekend for their stay and it is sure to be an emotional weekend for these 6 ladies. What a wonderful story!

We are not sure what we will be doing today -- we are waiting now for the skies to clear a bit. There are some local "caves" to visit for tastings, a wine museum in a nearby village and a castle in a park. Last evening, during a break in the rainfall, we took a walk through the vineyards. One is quite free here to walk through the vineyards as Bruce explained there are various plots owned individually and therefore it is not possible to restrict access through the vineyards. A beautiful rainbow appeared across the skies while we were out! We think the cycling here would be amazing and there are terrific hiking/walking routes -- we just won't be able to partake of any of it. We have had a fantastic French adventure. We fly home tomorrow via Lyon and Frankfurt. A bientot. Au revoir France!!

Final Week in France

This is Tuesday and we leave La Maison des Chaume on Thursday morning. We will spend 2 nights in a B&B in the Beaujolais district before flying home on Saturday. It has been a memorable time here in France. We have enjoyed our cycling immensely although we did not get to do as much as planned -- rainy days!! Our sightseeing and exploring this part of France has been rewarding as well. We came to experience life in a small village in the French countryside and our time here has been very peaceful and relaxing. Following our great cycle on Friday we decided to return to Beaune Market on Saturday and schedule another cycle for Sunday. Sometimes you wish you can predict the weather -- as it turns out Saturday was a gloriously sunny day and we woke up Sunday to buckets of rain!!! One more cycle day off the calendar! Sunday ended up being an in-house day with Louisa cooking (leek and potato soup and a luscious leek quiche). The truffle sellers were out at the Saturday Beaune market so we got to taste some oils and vinegars and spreads made with truffles. Our photo below shows one truffle for sale for near $20 Euros! Expensive little things! Monday was to be rainy as well but it did clear by mid-morning. As planned we drove down to Louhans through the Chalon sur Saone to their huge Monday market. This was highly recommended as on the first Monday of each month the farmers bring in their live animals for sale. This consisted of mostly birds (but all types of birds from large turkeys down to pheasant and pidgeons). There were also rabbits and puppies for sale. The buyers were able to take the live birds out of the cage for inspection before purchasing. One could see several people carrying their cardboard box with air holes with their live purchase inside. This was the most interesting part of the market. Although it is a huge market, it is not unlike any of the other markets we have seen here or elsewhere. But it definitely was a BIG event!! The most interesting bird we saw we called the "poodle poulet". It was all fluffy and looks like a poodle. Don't know what type of bird it is. The landscape during our drive changed completely again. The rolling hills gave way to flatter land which was obviously farmed for vegetables or grazed with cattle. Lots of corn growing along the way. The buildings changed as well, especially the pitch of the roof and the manner of construction. Old ruins exhibited the use of half-timber or cross-timbering with bricks. There were some exceptional old farms and barns with this construction as well as a few very beautifully restored residences which had maintained the architecture. Really impressive. Our photos are not that good but some do show the cross-beams and bricks. We stopped in Beaune at a Brasserie for a late lunch. Escargot! Bouef Bourguignon! Luscious tarte de pomme! Ricardo had beef but in a different form -- any guesses! But we did share the escargot. Today was to be our last cycle day as the bikes will be picked up tonight -- but guess what?! It's raining again and cold and windy. So we will have to be satisfied (which we are) with the cycling we have done. We will have to use Wednesday to pack up for our trip home as well as perhaps take one more lunch at an outdoor cafe (weather permitting)! But this is our last post from Villers-la-Faye. Au revoir mes amis! thanks for following along on our experience of being Homeless in France. We may post from our B&B, La Grapille, in Ville-Morgon in the Beaujolais.

et une grande montee a la fin

Yesterday we went on la grande tour de l'auto passing through several villages in the Cote D'or. We found the route in a book on Burgundy found on the house. It was a lovely drive through such pastoral and bucolic countryside. We (well, I) posted this photo on Facebook yesterday (which I called the "money shot of the day"). We loved the fact that we caught the cattle all walking in a row amidst such a peaceful setting.

Today was a reprise of our 10 Villages Tour except we added on one more village near the end (Chorney Les Beaune) -- only an extra 5 kms. Great ride -- we love this route and it was, again, a beautiful sunny day in Burgundy! We were out for close to 4 hours with a couple of stops for coffee along the way. Such fun, but "une grande montee a la fin!"

Chateau de Pommard

This afternoon, after our cycle, we set off to find the Chateau de Pommard in the village of Pommard. The Chateau was constructed in 1726 by Vivant Micault, an equerry to Louis XV. It is now the largest private wine estate in Burgundy which offers cave tours and tastings as well as general self-guided tours through the buildings and grounds. As a point of interest is has just been sold to an American entrepreneur from Silicon Valley. His name is Michael Baum. The purchase price has not been disclosed. The buildings and grounds of this Chateau are spectacular and are right in the village of Pommard. We expected it would be outside the village in the countryside so we did have a bit of a problem finding it at first -- until Lois asked a villager in her "best" French where we could find it. We didn't do the tasting tour as the organized ours were full today, so we opted to self-guide. We got to view the original kitchen rooms which featured a stone wash tub beneath the window with an old wooden scrub board. There was also a wine museum which featured an enormous old wooden grape press (as far as we could determine) plus an old wooden vat and the walls were covered by old tools used in the wine-making process. Very interesting! The Chateau also features an Art Gallery and currently is exhibiting, lucky us, works by Salvatore Dali, Picasso, Miro, and Matisse as well as (for us) lesser known artists and sculptors. The courtyard was full of large-size Dali sculptures, the smaller size of which were contained in the gallery itself. We could take photos in the courtyard but no photos were allowed in the gallery. This is a pity as we got to view all of these spectacular sculptures by Dali, some Dali graveures, as well as original works by Picasso, Miro and one original sketch my Matisse. It was overwhelming to see these works in one place -- quite a treat for us! We were very pleased with what we found at Chateau de Pommard. We are now into our last week at La Maison des Chaume. Time seems to be going by quickly now. We have a few more places we would like to go before we move on to a little B&B called La Grapille in the Beaujolais area for two days before we fly home. La Grapille is also a wine producer so, no doubt, we will get to taste their production while we are there. Chateau photos:

Mid-Week Update

Well, we have been mostly cycling since last post as well as visiting a few nearby villages of interest. Today, in particular, we cycled an excellent route which Richard mapped out. We call it "Le Tour cycliste de Dix Villages de Bourgogne." It has been the best route we have cycled so far and, as noted, it took us through 10 villages: Starting at Villers-la-Faye we cycled country roads passing through Marey-les-Fussey, Arcenant, Meuilley, Nuits Saint Georges, Premeaux-Prissey, Comblanchien, Corgoloin, Ladoix-Serrigny, and after a pretty good climb finally to Magny-les-Villers before returning to Villers-la-Faye. A great cycle and an excellent way to see these beautiful villages!!! It was very warm this morning and sunny -- a beautiful day. We stopped in Nuits Saint Georges for our coffee break. We only have the bikes until next Tuesday evening so will have to try to get in as much cycling as possible before then. Cycling Photos:

On Monday we took a road trip to Nolay which was highlighted as one of the beautiful villages in Burgundy. There is also a small Monday outdoor Market. Small is an understatement as there were really only 2 booths set up -- one selling vegetables and the other selling beer. There were also a couple of food trucks there. But the location of the market in the small medieval square was lovely. We had our coffee break at a little restaurant off the square which was built in the 15th century which beautiful half-timbered walls. We enjoyed a stroll throughout the village looking at all the medieval buildings. Nolay Photos: