Arbois

We emptied and loaded Gus with water and did the short drive to Arbois. We parked Gus up in a school playground that was authorized by the town council to be used for motorhomes during school holidays and weekends - what a great idea!

We walked down to the house of Louis Pasteur who lived here from when he was 5 until he left home - and then again after his father died and he inherited the house. Unfortunately it was lunchtime so it was closed until 2pm. We therefore went on the marked out Pasteur route.

It took us along a lovely creek with some very productive gardens.

We then arrived at the cemetery where Louis Pasteur’s family and friends - subjects of some of his paintings are . Louis is buried in the Pasteur Institute in Paris.

Here was Louis Pasteur’s father with 3 of Louis’ 5 children who died at ages of 22 months, 9 and 14.

2 died from typhoid contracted at a boarding school.

There are also the Roch family who posed for Louis’s paintings. He was a good artist when he was younger.

We then carried on to the Saint Justin 12th century church opposite - another previously defensive church built into the city walls.

The centuries old harvest festival of pinning bunches of grapes from different chateaux onto a large oval shape called the biou and carrying it down the street to the church still continues. One of the modern windows is based on this.

There were seashell fossils in the stone on the floor.

The Virgin Mary is a famous 12th century sculpture from Belgium.

The pelican is a symbol of Arbois as a ruler in the 1400s owned one. This big sculpture outside was impressive.

It was lunchtime so we went for a snack and drink. We got a small platter with the local Comte cheese and a bit of pork saucisson. The Comte is a nice gentle Gruyère type cheese and the sausage was made just up the street by the butcher. We had local beers. I had a sour apricot one and Glenn had an IPA. These are the remains of the Comte and saucisson.

The streets were very old and interesting. We dropped into a lithographer with an exhibition in an old tower.

We then arrived at Louis Pasteur’s house which had now reopened after lunch.

We paid at the reception desk then we had to go to the next front door which is the original house.

Everything is original apart from wallpaper replacements. His favourite original billiards table with no pockets is there with an array of cues.

The kitchen was below so there was a dumb waiter to bring up the food.

He had his office and bedroom upstairs.

After he inherited the house he had bought next door and built his laboratory in there. You just walk between the houses upstairs.

Insects related to wine are in one of the displays including phylloxera that decimated this area’s vines in the period 1879 - 1886. Louis had become interested in wine in the early days when his friend lived across the road in the Vercel family winery - still there and the main driver of creating the Biou for the harvest procession. He found out what caused the fermentation process and maybe this got him interested in chemistry and microbiology.

He had many test tubes and bits and pieces. He had a laboratory oven and small versions of what he had in his large laboratory in Paris. We then went out to the backyard seeing all the balconies and then out the front.

We then had to go and check out the wine museum - Arbois other claim to fame.

There was a large sculpture outside showing the carrying of the biou. The museum is in an old chateau and the main exhibits were down in the cellar area.

The special wine here is yellow wine - made from Savagnin grapes and stored for 6 years and 3 months in oak casks - and it’s only due to the layer of mould that forms in the top that it doesn’t become oxidized. It is not topped up during this time so loses about 40% liquid and becomes more intense. It is supposedly only due to an accident of finding a mislaid cask after 6 years that this wine came into being.

At one point vines were protected by the community and had guards with big pikes.

After checking that all out we went to taste the wines of the area. We liked the sparkling Chardonnay and a Savagnin white wine - but not the yellow wine - which we think tasted a bit like sherry or wine gone off. At least we had done our research.

We left and went back to Gus in the school playground.