If you have a mental image of cycling in France as cruising through vinyards and going from quaint village to quaint village in cool temperatures and bright sunshine accompanied by calls of "Bonjour" to and from workers tending their grape vines and with the smell of wine heavy on the air - that describes most of our day today!!! Absolutely the quintessential French cycle tour today.
The first part of the journey (after packing our bags with morning tea and lunch from the bakery as well as a bottle of Burgundy) - was on a designated bikeway which was actually the original narrow road betwen the villages - made for easy riding just following the signs instead of the usual reading instructions. After about 10 km of this beautiful ride (all through the vinyards) we arrived in the larger village of Meursault where we enjoyed a coffee and our morning tea.
The amount of wine produced here is mind-boggling. As you ride into any small village there will be numerous buildings - usually double storied stone structures with a big courtyard and farm vehicles and other machinery parked in the yard with workers cleaning out vats and unloading trailers of grapes. The smell is incredible - very strong and unmistakably grapes/wine and it stays right through the village.
The route then took us into some of the higher villages - two fairly steep climbs (but each only about a kilometre) up to La Rocheport where there is a large chateau. Lunch at the top of the first climb and some more wine-tasting in Gamay - but still not convinced that the wine here is good value, even just buying/consuming locally - generally over-priced c.f. what we get in Australia. No denying the beauty of the countryside though - today's ride was through some quite spectacular higher areas. The cloud and mist descended while we were in the high country and it got quite cold again - didn't take the warm gloves or sleeves off all day in fact but beautiful for riding.
Returned to the lower country and sunshine for the latter part of the trip and eventually linked with the cycleway again for the trip back into Beaune - treated ourselves to pancakes and coffee as a reward for a'noon tea.
"Last horrah" dinner tonight was classic French - Foie Gras (what else!!!) followed by salmon and chocolate for dessert - beautiful as always. Hard to believe, but our trip is almost over - off to Paris in the morning and going to Moulin Rouge tomorrow night before catching the plane home on Sunday morning. time for summaries later but suffice to say at this stage that we have seen some incredible things over the past 8 weeks!! - Its been an amazing journey
Cheers all
Trivia: Burgundy (La Bourgogne as the locals call it) produces 300 000 H/litres of wine each season. This is small in comparison with Bordeaux where 5.6 million H/litres are produced!! There must be some people out there drinking a lot of wine.
Pictures:
*They treat cyclists well here - this is a picnic stop for cyclists
*Interpret this road sign as you will!!
*The village of Orches in the high country
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