The little town of tanlay awoke to a crisp clear morning, We’d chosen to leave at 10am so we arose relaxed ans easy going. Contrary to pretty much everything that’s gone before, we decided to do a day trip to Chablis. It was Judy’s idea but, as the sun warmed our bones and lit up the distant green, we all jumped at the chance to see what lay over the hill.
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| The house of Long Depaquit – one of the place we went tasting |
he whole region works for the vineyards. Some 2500 inhabitants are engaged directly or otherwise with the vines. There is a book, the ROC, that outlines how the vines must be managed down to the number of buds per branch (no kidding) whether you can water, cover, fertilise the vines etc.
We tried the petit Chablis up in the vines then the Chablis, premier cru (right side of the valley), premier cru (left side of the valley) and grand cru, at two different caves (sounds like carves – cellars). If we”d have known we were going to taste 9 wines we might have used the spitoon and listened to some of the amazing explanations from Franc, who lives and breaths the stuff but as it was, we poured out of the van back at the dock some three hours later vaguely aware that the boat hadn’t moved since breakfast, that it probably should be moving, and that we should be on it.
Delightful, shorts and Tshirt sunbaking cruise to Tonnerre (best meal in the universe), where Paul and I jumped off and took the pushies into town to pick up some pastries for after dinner. Some how we had a language kiniption and found ourselves asking and looking for a “lingerie” rather than a “boulengerie” and, failing to locate pastries in the first three stores recommended (though to be fair the stores were interesting), opted for a visual street scan instead. This reaped rapid reward and, now laden with substantial quantities of pastries, flans, croissants and chocolates, we hit the road to re-connect with our colleagues afloat.
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| Scenes along the road on our little country ride |
Took the back streets through country and small towns, eventually finding our way to the canal. The Saint Aignan had just passed by and could be seen rouding the bend in the distance. We raced up the old to path and caught them at the next lock.
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| Dinner by the canal side |
Pulled up at a delightful spot along the canal by a wheat field. It took till after midnight for the sky to be dark enough to see the stars. Jets could be seen high in the sky heading toward Paris.
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| Evening closes over the wheat field |