Beaujolais to Borgogne

After a quiet night we went to find some bread from one of the two boulangeries - but they were both closed as they are on holiday. We also noticed that every one of the 5 pizza shops in town were also on holiday to the end of August.

We then got on the road to the viewpoint Mont Brouilly. The first viewpoint explained how the different terroirs of land were formed over millions of years.

The views over the vines were amazing. You can sometimes see Mont Blanc from here - but it was too hazy.

We went to the top of the hill where there is a chapel. There is a big celebration here on September 9th about the time when the harvest is designated to start - all defined by strict rules.

Glenn liked the immature pine cones on the fur trees.

We then continued on our journey continually looking for boulangeries that might be open.

It was Monday - so a day that many stay closed even if they are not on holiday.

We stopped in the big town in Fleurie but all that was open was a grocery shop with no bread - so I bought Glenn some toast crackers for his lunch - I have a salad.

We continued to the famous old windmill from 1450 in the Beaujolais.

We met 4 Aussies there - only the 2nd group of Aussies we have come across accidentally.

They had traveled to the Belgium Formula 1, the Spain for a wedding and now we’re doing wine. They had already met their carry on allowance back to Australia so had to drink what they bought - a good plan!

We then had a van lunch overlooking the vines.

Glenn had his toasts which were very like rusks - but tasty.

When we were finished and ready to leave 2 coaches arrived. People started streaming out of them and down the road while Glenn was reversing the van and I was trying to get people not to walk behind the van. This was like herding cats - they were all elderly and I’m sure many had Alzheimer’s as they kept walking towards the van. I had to just about push one old chap out of the way before he realised he was about to be run over.

We managed to get out of there without hitting anyone and set off for near our night spot which is in Burgundy - or the new name Bourgogne . So we needed to do another wine tasting. We found the tourist office who advised us to go the the L’Atrium - who produce selected wine from the Pouilly-Fuisse area of Bourgogne - all from Chardonnay grapes. Even though I don’t normally drink Chardonnay, I quite liked these versions which were left in different sizes of oak barrels for around 12 months - so not too oaky. They are quite fresh with a lot of difference between them.

A German couple were on the same tasting who had just done a house barge trip - with no experience - and enjoyed it.

After tasting 6 wines we chose 3 and headed off to our overnight spot with great views to the Rock of Solutre. The views are very good. The base of the car park is very solid with lots of rocks. I found out it’s part of the Roman road from Lyon to

We drank one of the wines we had just bought to make sure we liked it!

It was well up to scratch and we enjoyed our quiet night in.