Our Grand Tour of Europe

Saturday, September 11

Today is a day of remembrance—the third anniversary of September 11th. It’s also three months since we left home on this grand tour and the day of our departure from Paris. Today we are headed south to explore a new region of France—Burgundy, one of the most famous wine regions of the world.

We got up early to finish packing. Charley wasn’t feeling well at all—he coughed a lot during the night and didn’t sleep much. He said there was a man coughing in front of him on the train to Brussels yesterday and perhaps he caught some kind of cold.

We had our last breakfast of wonderful croissants and bread from the boulangerie. While Charley packed up the kitchen (one cooler bag of cold stuff and the Harrods bag of cabinet stuff), I walked over to the internet café…. I got there about 8:30 am and had plenty of time to catch up on e-mails. We have no idea how easy it will be to access the internet in Burgundy, where we will be staying in a rural area. It’s been very easy in Paris, especially since we found the little hotel with the internet café right around the corner.

I had arranged to stay in our apartment till noon since it’s only a three hour drive to our rental in Burgundy and we can’t check in there until 4:00 pm. Charley wanted to leave early, though, to avoid the traffic in Paris. About 10:00 we made our first trip over to the parking garage on the Avenue de l’Opera… dragging our three big duffel bags. Fortunately the garage wasn’t too far away. We made one last trip to the apartment, used the bathroom, and then carried our backpacks and other hand luggage over to the garage. It cost us 23 euro to park for what was considered a full day. We have a little Peugeot station wagon that we have leased for the next 165 days, and it was extremely tight with all our luggage. Kelly was frustrated by little bit of space she had in the back seat, and we reminded her we’ll only be making three trips with all our luggage. In just two weeks, our luggage has multiplied considerably over what we had when we arrived in Paris by train.

Despite Charley’s concerns, there was almost no traffic on Saturday morning… even close to 11:00 am. We actually made our way out of Paris quite easily, turning left at the Louvre and driving along the Seine. We missed just one turn, recovered easily, and were on our way to Burgundy.

I have a reputation in our family of being a very good navigator. I had a small problem with the directions for this trip. We were headed to the Château de Créancey in Burgundy, where we had rented a small cottage on the grounds of an old castle that’s now a B&B. I had directions to the village of Créancey from the internet—printed off before we left Knoxville—but I realized just a few days ago that I didn’t have the specific directions to the château. Somehow I hadn’t printed the attachment to the owner’s e-mail. My sense was that Créancey was a very small village, and so I was sure we would easily be able to find the château that must be an important building in the village of the same name.

By 1:30 pm we were within 30 minutes of Créancey. We weren’t supposed to be there to check in until 4:00, so we needed to kill some time. We decided to stop for lunch in the pretty village of Arc-en-Barrois—lots of beautiful old buildings and flowers everywhere. We found a hotel that was still serving lunch. There were some nice-looking tables out in a garden area, but the waiter insisted on seating us in the bar where we were the only diners. Perhaps the other people eating out there were a private party. I had the plat du jour… a big serving of mussels (moules) in white wine… only ten euro and wonderful. Charley still wasn’t feeling great and just had an omelette. Kelly had ice cream. We’d packed a little lunch for Kelly, so she had already had a sandwich in the car—she just had ice cream. I also had sorbet. I thoroughly enjoyed my meal.

After lunch we decided to go ahead and locate the château—we could then explore the area a bit more until our permitted arrival time of 4:00 pm. We arrived in the village of Créancey about 3:00 pm. It was really kind of a run-down farming village with lots of deserted-looking buildings…. not what I had envisioned as the community for our château. “The château looks really great on the website,” I insisted. Charley and Kelly looked doubtful. We’d been pleased with every place I’d picked for us to stay on the trip, but perhaps my luck had run out here in Burgundy.

We drove all around the village… even up on the hill above the village—no château anywhere. And when I looked at the map, it also seemed much farther from Dijon than I had expected. Charley had wanted to be near the wine region—we seemed a long way away from any vineyards. We drove down the main road to Châteauvillain (which appeared to be the largest neighboring village) to look for a phone—we now need to call Madame de Wulf at the château for directions. The public phone required some type of phone card, which we didn’t have. The information in the phone booth said we could purchase the card at a tabac, kind of a newsagent that sells cigarettes and other sundry items. The tabac in Châteauvillain was closed, but a grocery store was open. While Charley went inside the grocery store to see if they sold the phone cards, I looked over all my information again. Suddenly I realized that the postal code for Créancey on the ViaMichelin internet directions was different from the postal code on the address in an e-mail I’d received from the Château de Créancey. Uh oh—could there possibly be TWO Créanceys in Burgundy?? Charley came back from the store (which didn’t sell the phone card), and I hesitantly voiced this possibility. Kelly spoke up from the back seat—oh yes, she had looked in the back of the map book a few days before to see where Créancey was—and there were two Créanceys listed. We were—unfortunately—at the wrong one.

In a way I was glad, since the area around this Créancey wasn’t particularly appealing. One of Charley’s specific requests for the trip was to stay near the Burgundy wine region, and we were quite far away from both Dijon and Beanue where the main wine region was. But I was also mortified…. I’ve prided myself on the great planning and organization of this trip, and here I had led my family to the wrong village! I realize now that I had been working on the ViaMichelin road directions very late at night in the few days before we left on the trip—there must have just been too much going on. I had typed in the name Créancey and must have been offered multiple choices… I just picked the wrong one.

The “right” Créancey looked close on the map, but it was an awkward route… it took us about 1-1/2 hours to get there from the “wrong” Créancey. The countryside changed as we drove, and we liked what we saw much better. We also passed some interesting and picturesque towns and villages on the way. When we finally reached “our” Créancey, it was a much better village—more active—though it was really an agricultural and residential village, and there weren’t any shops. Charley stopped in the one commercial establishment—a bar—to ask about the château, which turned out to be behind a wall right on the main road on the way into the village. The main entrance was from a tiny lane around the back… across from the village school. We finally arrived about 6:30 pm. It would have been an easy three-hour drive from Paris… we were just five minutes from a motorway exit.

The château was big and beautiful…. just like I’d seen on the website. As we drove up, we saw a woman in an apron around the side of the château. I also heard some dogs barking. I got out of the car and asked if she was Madame de Wulf (who according to the website is English), but this woman was French and turned out to be the housekeeper. She spoke absolutely no English and incredibly rapid French. She and I walked down a gravel driveway around the other side of the château, beckoning Charley to follow us in the car.

Fiona de Wulf had left a note welcoming us and saying that she and her husband were away until Friday. The caretaker Henri (the housekeeper’s husband) would be able to help us with any issues. The housekeeper showed us quickly around the cottage and then said that she would send down a woman who spoke some English. We didn’t ever see the housekeeper again during our stay on the property. A friendly young Frenchwoman came down to meet us. She apparently helped at the B&B occasionally on weekends and did speak some English. Between her English and our French, we got some basic information about the house and—important!!—the location and hours of local grocery stores. I also asked about the dogs and said that Kelly loved dogs.

The château grounds and the cottage are absolutely wonderful—I more than made up for taking my family to the wrong Créancey to begin with. On a side table in the living room we found quite a bit of information—and even some magazine articles—about the property and the restoration. The château was built in 1650 by the Mayor of Dijon… apparently on the site of a much older château. The De Wulfs bought it in 1994 in total disrepair and have been working a major restoration project that is still ongoing. They’ve gotten some grant money and also won some recognition for their restoration work. They have five B&B rooms in the main château and this one little cottage—La Petite Maison. Part of our cottage—the section that now includes the kitchen and the master bedroom above—was an old medieval tower from the 14th century… associated with the earlier castle. In the oldest part of our cottage the windows are just tiny slits with holes… where they once shot arrows (!), and the open ceiling in the main bedroom has beams connected with wooden pegs.

The cottage is very rustic with lots of attention to detail. According to one of the magazine articles, Fiona de Wulf used to be with Southebys, the big auction house. The lower level has just two rooms—a country kitchen and then a living/dining room. There are big wooden beams, thick walls, and a stone tile floor like our new kitchen floor at home. The kitchen has everything we need… except an oven. There’s an oversized toaster oven like we had in Paris. However, we have a refrigerator (bigger than we’ve had in most places we’ve rented), a stove, microwave, dishwasher and clothes washing machine. (We’ll hang the wash on the clothesline out back.) The cupboards are covered with little green fabric curtains and there are open kitchen shelves and pegs for some of our day-to-day items and old kitchen brocante.

The living room has a big stone fireplace and two big comfortable chairs. There isn’t a couch, which seems surprising. At the far end is a big wooden dining table with wooden chairs and a bench, and there’s also a big wooden desk. The dishes, glasses and table linens are kept in a large armoire in the living/dining room.

There’s not a lot of light downstairs—we always need light because we read so much. There were lots of candles though. We moved a lamp downstairs and tried to configure the chairs for reading. The doors leading outside from the kitchen and the living room are both big wooden doors, but the top halves open separately and the shutters can be opened for more natural light during the day.

Curvy wooden stairs lead upstairs under the open eaves where there are two bedrooms, a toilet room, and a shower room. The shower is an enormous tiled room with its own window. Five or six people could comfortably shower at once! It’s at least three times bigger than our elevator in Paris. Our bedroom has a comfortable double bed, and Kelly’s room is very special—it has two twin beds, one of which is tucked in an alcove and is very cute. The beds are covered with quilts and big comforters. Kelly’s room also has a decent library… on a shelf up above the alcove bed.

A moat (!) winds its way through the grounds, traveling just past our back terrace before it dumps back into the little stream outside the château walls. On the other side of the moat—across a little bridge—is the old dovecote or pigeonnaire. The pigeonnaire is a gorgeous old building… a round tower with a peaked roof and little cubbyholes inside for a couple thousand birds. Charley and Kelly were excited to see several ducks swimming in the moat. Kelly was also interested in the little rowboat pulled over to a small dock.

Our cottage sits on the side of a big courtyard… the main château (just beautiful) faces onto the courtyard, with a separate wing extending down the side across from our little house. It looks like that wing must have been utility/farm buildings, and there are other detached farm buildings over on that end of the property.

“Mommy, this is sure a lot different than Paris,” commented Kelly. She was absolutely right—we were in another world compared to the big city of Paris that we’d left just this morning! And with the de Wulfs out of town, we were apparently the only residents on the property other than the caretaker and his wife who lived somewhere across the courtyard. Kelly went off to try to find the two dogs we had seen earlier… one of the dogs growled at her, and she came rushing back into the cottage horrified. Henri and his wife have visitors this evening, so we’ll try to make friends with the dogs in the morning.

We carried our bags into the cottage living room and headed out immediately to the grocery store. We’ve learned on this trip that shopping hours vary and that we often can’t buy groceries on a Sunday. According to the young woman, there was a Shopi grocery store between Créancey and the larger village of Pouilly-en-Auxois, and we had about an hour until closing time. The Shopi was just five minutes away… kind of a general store/small supermarket with pretty much everything we needed to tide us over for a few days. We didn’t have time to make a list, so it was a little hard to coordinate with the three shopping together. Normally I split the list in two and let Charley and Kelly shop separately from me.

Charley still wasn’t feeling well when we got back to the cottage—we are already calling it “home.” Kelly fixed a packaged soup mix and added some noodles. We also had bread and cheese. Sherry Kirchoff had introduced Kelly to Rondele cheese in Paris last week, and Kelly is now infatuated with Rondele cheese… she even had it with her dinner. Sherry and Kelly really connected—I think Sherry could get Kelly to try a lot of new foods.

Charley went onto bed… we decided to do most of our unpacking tomorrow. Kelly and I cleaned up our dinner mess and then read downstairs. She’s reading a New Yorker magazine of all things… there are a couple of New Yorkers in this house and we also found a few in our Paris apartment. I read a London Sunday Telegraph that we bought at a sidewalk newsstand in Paris this morning. There was a good, long article about Ernest Hemingway that I enjoyed.

I decided to sleep in with Kelly tonight since Charley’s sick—he’s hot and has the window open and the fan on. I’d rather share her cute little room where it’s warm.

Sunday, September 12

The upstairs of this house is absolutely pitch dark at night. The windows are covered by little wooden shutters that close from the inside and totally block what little bit of light might be out there. I got up during the night to use the bathroom and could not see one single thing, even when my eyes adjusted. Other than the time I was sealed briefly in a cell at Alcatraz during a tour of the prison, I’m not sure I’ve ever been anywhere quite this dark.

It was a very pretty day today… warm and sunny. We don’t have a real plan for this week and really don’t know all that much about Burgundy. We do want to have a “wine day” for Charley, who has a very strong interest in wine. We also know we want to go to Dijon. I’ve got a guidebook and there’s a lot of information here in the cottage… it’s such a lovely area, I’m sure we’ll have a good week.

We decided to lay low today and enjoy the beautiful surroundings of the château. Charley drove over to the nearby village—Pouilly-en-Auxois—to get breakfast bread, and we had our normal French breakfast of bread and cheese. Charley loaded his croissant up with raspberry jam and brie, as usual. He seems to be feeling much better.

We met Monsieur Henri, the caretaker, this morning. He seemed like a very nice man. We couldn’t really understand each other much, but we all shook hands, smiled a lot, and tried to communicate. The two dogs turned out to be very nice too… an energetic young dog whose name appears to be “Bob” and a more-subdued older dog whose name might be “Brock.” (At least, these are the names we think that Henri said!) The young dog really attached himself to Kelly. Monsieur Henri took us into one of the storage barns on the side wing of the château and showed us where we could borrow bicycles (velos). Kelly will enjoy having the use of a bike.

Charley and Kelly went out with the leftover bread from breakfast, looking for the ducks in the moat. They always enjoy feeding ducks, but these ducks had no interest at all in being fed. Instead, Charley helped Kelly into the little rowboat and she rowed around in the moat. I put on a pair of shorts and sat in a lawn chair out in the sunshine—I read, and worked on my suntan. This is the good life! We ate lunch outside at the picnic table overlooking the pigeonnaire and the moat.

After lunch we went for a drive in the area around Créancey. A little gravel road at the end of the street behind the château points up to a “belvedere” (overlook), and we drove up to the top of the hill to the tower of St. Etienne and a vast view of the surrounding countryside. There was a rocky park up at the overlook. One rock had a plaque in memory of a World War II American pilot—Paul Albert Balough-- who apparently died there in his spitfire plane on September 19, 1944. It even seemed that he might be buried there. We were startled to find this connection to a fellow American up on top of this craggy hill—what had happened? The plaque was erected in 1999—on September 18 (oddly, my birthday)… obviously there’s a story.

We drove down the hill to check out Pouilly, where there are several shops, hotels, and restaurants. This seems to be the commercial center for the area. We walked around the village, though most of the stores were closed by the time we got there. We have learned that most shops are open Saturday morning, but then are closed Saturday afternoon and Sunday. Most shops are also closed on Monday—including the bigger grocery stores! This is all quite different from home, where it seems all stores—at least where we live—are open seven days a week.

We also drove over to the village of Châteauneuf-en Auxois, topped by the ruins of an old castle. We didn’t get out of the car today, but we plan to come back later in the week. The Burgundy Canal passes through this area and looks very interesting. There’s a canal lock not far from us at Vandenesse-en-Auxois. (Auxois seems to be a region of Burgundy… a very fertile agricultural valley.) We also drove over to Panthier Lake, just a couple of miles from Créancey. It appears to be a recreational lake… there’s a nice area with a little beach and boats for rent—this would have been a good day to lounge on the beach.

Although we had a quiet day, we liked what we saw of Burgundy and we especially like where we are living for the week. I fixed pasta for dinner, and we ate by candlelight in our pretty cottage.

Monday, September 13

The weather was substantially cooler this morning. Charley went to a different bakery in Pouilly today since the recommended bakery he used yesterday was closed today. Kelly played with the two dogs and rode one of the bikes around the grounds. The young dog Bob was waiting for her at the door this morning—she loved it. She took a bad spill on the bike in the gravel and needs to be more careful on the gravel drives.

Charley and Kelly rode bikes over to Panthier Lake, where we had driven yesterday. It was about three kilometers each way. We thought we might take lawn chairs over to the lake, have a picnic, and enjoy the beach, but it has become way too cool.

Kelly was very worried that the two dogs had followed them out the gates. When she came back and didn’t see the dogs at the château, she was even more worried. She and I walked outside the château grounds and looked around the surrounding street for the dogs—we didn’t see them. Charley and I tried to assure her that Monsieur Henri would have come over and asked us if the dogs were really missing. Henri had seemed especially concerned about the older dog Brock and the need for Brock to observe an 8:00 pm bedtime.

After lunch at the cottage, we decided to drive over to Semur-en-Auxois, a picturesque medieval town we’d passed on the way from the wrong Créancey to the right Créancey. It was 35 kilometers to the north (about 20 miles) and a nice drive through lush, green countryside. There’s a lot of farming in this area… lots of cattle, mostly the white cows called Charolais that originated in Burgundy. I read that the Charolais cattle even have pedigrees! We noticed several fields of sunflowers, though the big flower heads are now mostly black—they look so sad all dried out and drooped over. I would have loved to see the fields of sunflowers in full bloom.

We walked around Semur and were a little disappointed. Most of the stores were closed (after all, it’s Monday…). We thought he village looked better in photos and from far away than it looked up close, especially with most of the stores closed and not much activity. Many of the buildings were crumpling and unoccupied. We walked down the old steep cobbled street, through an archway and to the river. We also stepped inside the old Eglise Notre-Dame, which dates back to the 13th century.

Charley had gotten me one of the phone cards to use in the public phone, and so I tried to call the woman in Provence that Cynthia and Ian (owners of our house in Provence) thought might be able to advise us on the visa issue. We haven’t thought about it much lately, but it’s still lurking unresolved in the background. Janice wasn’t there, but I was able to leave a message. Although we’ve agreed to put the visa issue aside for now, I still need to figure out what we should do when we get to Provence.

After our brief visit to Semur, we decided to drive to some other villages I had read about. We ended up doing a driving tour of central Burgundy… at least 50 miles on country roads—we just drove and looked at the lush scenery, while I read bits of the guidebook out loud. We headed first for the village of Epoisses, known for its “aromatic” cheese. The guidebook also mentioned a huge dovecote in the château—we spotted it behind a wall and decided that ours was better! Then we drove to the larger town of Avallon, heading down a steep hill to a river valley beneath the town. We were really just exploring with no specific route in mind, and it was fun. The countryside was just beautiful. Although we’ve been to France three times before, we really only know Paris, Alsace and Provence. France is a big country, and we are finding there’s lots of diversity in its geography, architecture, and cuisine.

I was especially interested in going to Vèzelay, a perched village famous for its magnificent church built in the 12th century. For hundreds of years it was believed that the remains of Mary Magdalene were kept here—of all places to end up… I suppose brought back during the Crusades. Many pilgrims traveled to Vèzelay, and according to the guidebook, the supposed remains of Mary Magdalene are still kept in a shrine. I would have liked to get out and look around the village, but it seemed Charley and Kelly were more in a driving mood. Kelly was engrossed in her book in the backseat and would look up from time-to-time when one of us pointed out something particularly special. Perhaps we will get back to Vèzelay later on this week.

We hadn’t planned to go on such a long drive, and I didn’t bring my detailed French map book. I had a tourist map, but Vèzelay was off that map and I was relying on a small map in my Burgundy guidebook. We took a long complicated way back to Créancey through the Forest of Morvan, a “parc naturel”. This was an interesting but very long drive… lots of hills and forest and agricultural activities. We all agreed this is an absolutely beautiful part of France… very very different than Provence.

On our way back to the cottage, we stopped at the ATAC grocery store in Pouilly for a few provisions. The ATAC is a bigger, better store than the little Shopi. I fixed Kelly’s new favorite—chicken with pepper sauce, potatoes (pasta for Kelly), fresh green beans, and bread. We had a Vienetta ice cream roll for dessert. Kelly played with the dogs before and after dinner—Bob waited for her outside the door while we were eating.

Tuesday, September 14

It was overcast and cool this morning, and there had been some rain overnight. Is this the beginning of fall already? I’m not ready! After spending the summer in England, I’m still hoping to encounter some warm weather. We slept fairly late and were low-key again in the morning. Kelly and I rode bikes to the phone booth in Créancey so I could try to Janice in Provence again, the woman we hope can advise us about our visas. She wasn’t there, and I left another message.

We had a late breakfast and poked around the house. Kelly was disappointed because the dogs weren’t outside. We’ve told her Monsieur Henri may be keeping them inside because it’s cool… we know he is especially cautious about the older dog Brock.

After lunch (which I skipped, due to the late breakfast), we decided to go to Beaune. We took back roads instead of the interstate-type toll road. We enjoyed the pretty drive through the countryside… about 40 kilometers (24 miles). We investigated a bit further in Créancey to begin with. We realized yesterday that the Burgundy canal is just across the main road. Turn left and the canal goes down to Vandenesse, where we had seen the lock a few days ago. In the other direction—toward Pouilly—the canal actually goes underground for several kilometers. We’d seen a sign with the French word “Souterrain” nearby—now we know that means underground or subterranian. We got out and looked at the canal’s entry into the tunnel—we also saw the regularly spaced pipes above ground that must provide ventilation. We have learned how to quickly to spot the canal, since it’s normally lined by trees on either side. The “souterrain” canal has the same two lines of trees—just on either side of a long “hump” with occasional ventilation pipes! The thought of riding in a canal boat through a long, narrow tunnel seems a little creepy to me.

The wine region of Burgundy’s Côte d’Or is actually a very narrow strip of land, between Dijon and Beaune. The northern end (south of Dijon) is called the Côte de Nuits. The southern end—around Beaune—is called the Côte de Beaune. Apparently on these slopes there’s just the right mix of soil, climate and sunshine. Some of the finest wines in the world originate here.

We came up over a hill toward Beaune, and suddenly there were vineyards everywhere… perfectly manicured rows of vines, rich with grapes. We circled around the town of Beaune to locate parking. Beaune is considered the capital of the Burgundian wine trade. The town has 21,000 people, but somehow it seemed much larger… as European cities with vibrant downtowns usually do. We stopped at Tourist Information to ask about internet access, and found out there were just two places—the Post Office and the Train Station. We walked over to the Post Office, but it had only one terminal that a man was using. I would have had to stand in a long line to buy a card to even use that terminal when the man was done. I decided to try in Dijon later in the week. We miss the internet access we had at the libraries in England.

We spent a long time in a big bookstore/gift shop/wine store and made a couple of purchases. They had a section of English children’s book, and Kelly found a book she’d been wanting. I looked at a French cookbook for a long time, and then decided I wouldn’t fix enough of the recipes to justify the price and the weight.

For our “big” activity, we decided to visit the Hôtel-Dieu, Beaune’s most famous landmark and considered a premiere example of medieval architecture. It’s not a hotel, but an old charity hospital… dating back to the 15th century. Actually, it was a functioning hospital until 1971!

From the outside, the Hôtel-Dieu is nothing special… actually a very plain, uninteresting building. But once we passed into the large courtyard, we were in a different world. The steeply sloped roof is decorated in an attractive pattern of colorful tiles, including a colorful steeple. (The roof decoration was apparently added at the beginning of the 20th century.) We were able to tour several rooms in the hospital. The long Salle des Pauvres was especially impressive, lined on either side with wooden beds draped with red curtains. A beautiful chapel was at the far end of this hospital ward. We were also able to walk through the big kitchen, where the timing of our arrival coincided with little automated show of light and sound. I especially liked the little kitchen spit—turned by a little mechanical man in a colorful costume. The spit was made in 1698 and was a whimsical item in an otherwise very serious place. We also toured the old pharmacy and two museum-type rooms filled with beautiful old art.

After we left the Hôtel-Dieu, we just wandered around Beaune, stopping in several other shops. We didn’t buy anything, but I actually enjoyed just looking for a change—there were good shops in Beaune. Burgundy is known for its hearty food, and I wanted to have a good meal. We found a nice-looking café that served food throughout the day. We ended up having a late lunch/early dinner around 4:30 pm. Charley and I had onion soup and beef burgundy, along with a carafe of wine. Kelly had a kid’s meal of hamburger and fries. Her meal came with a drink and a little dessert and only cost 9 euro. She was disappointed that the dessert was just a little ice cream cup though, as she would have preferred the adult-sized dishes of ice cream that Charley and I got. Kelly ate some of my soup and also tried the beef burgundy. Good for her!

We drove back to Créancey on the fast toll road… only a 20-minute drive. We stopped at the phone booth in Créancey, and I finally reached Janice in Provence. We had a good conversation. She has already made a few inquiries about our visa issue, and told me to enjoy the next few weeks and just not do anything to bring attention to ourselves. I think we can manage to behave ourselves! She didn’t think there would be any problem with Kelly being able to attend the school. I feel better that we have someone to advise us, and we’ll call her again when we get to Provence.

We had a quiet evening at the cottage… reading and writing. I seem somehow to have gotten a bit of Charley’s cold and sore throat… I’m sure I can blame it on the breeze created by the fan. The week is going too fast… I really like this area and wish we had two weeks here. I really like staying here at the château and in our little cottage.

Kelly reminded me this evening that my birthday is Saturday… I’ll actually have my birthday on a travel day. It’s hard to believe that I’m almost 49 years old—at least I’m here doing this now, doing something that’s really important to me, and spending quality time with my husband and daughter. This will be my eighth birthday in another country, not counting my day of birth in Germany. I celebrated birthdays 9, 10, 11 and 12 in Australia, 35 and then also 36 at a health spa in Mexico, 39 in Paris, and now 49 also in France. I’m looking forward to all that lies ahead in this next year.

Wednesday, September 15

It was overcast and cool again this morning—what happened to summer? We originally planned that we would each have a “day” in Burgundy… a day we could take charge of and plan based on our own interests. Earlier in the week Kelly decided that her day would involve biking to the lake/beach at Panthier, having a picnic lunch, sunbathing and maybe even swimming. The weather Saturday and Sunday would have been perfect, but now we realize that we won’t be picnicking, sunbathing or swimming in the new autumn weather. Kelly shifted to a modified plan for her day… she and Charley went for a long bike ride. They went along the narrow road alongside the canal to Vandenesse, then over to Panthier Lake and back. They were gone about 90 minutes and came back flushed and excited—they’d had a good time together. I worked on my blog while they were gone—I’m trying especially hard to capture the unique experience of our Coast-to-Coast walk. I hope we will find internet access in Dijon.

After Kelly had lunch, we drove over to the village of Châteauneuf-en-Auxois… about 5 kilometers away. The village is up on a hill, overlooking the countryside. The old château clings to the side of the hill. Châteauneuf is designated as one of “Les Plus Beaux Villages de France”… one of the most beautiful villages in France. There are 144 villages that have earned this designation that recognizes their uniqueness… some combination of architecture, environment and history. Châteauneuf seems highly deserving—an old historic castle, well-maintained streets, quaint buildings with colorful shutters, and lots of flowers. There are a couple of cafes and gift shops. We stopped at a lookout point by an old calvary (big crucifix)… we could see for miles. A few other tourists were wandering around the village. I suspect this place is mobbed in the summer, but now in mid-September most people are done with their vacations and are back at home.

The old château is partly a ruin, but has been partly restored in a very rustic way. The oldest part of the château was built in the 1100’s, with more work done in the 1500’s. (It’s interesting how I now take these old things so much for granted… we definitely don’t see anything this old in America. Where we live, something built in 1900 is old!) We crossed a drawbridge over the now-empty moat to a big central courtyard. There was one visible employee at the château—a woman in the shop/ticket booth. She gave us a handout in English for a self-guided tour. We had to return the handout when we left. We were able to walk through about ten rooms—a big hall, a chapel, and several rooms upstairs. The rooms were partially furnished. I liked the fact that we could look around on our own—no guards here to make sure we didn’t touch any of the old things! The views over the countryside were fabulous. I’m sure the long-ago guards in this castle could spot anyone coming at least an hour before they arrived!

We spent about an hour at the château, then looked around the little gift shop. On the way back to the parking lot we stopped in a couple of gift shops in the village. I bought two little white cream pitchers in a brocante shop… I was able to negotiate a lower price by buying two. (One is for me and one is for my sister.) We stopped in a little café for dessert. It was a nice place with an open fireplace in the middle—and a fire going on this cool day. The owner was fun and teased Kelly. Charley and I both had crepes with ice cream and Kelly had sorbet.

We went back over to the ATAC in Pouilly to get a few grocery items—I went in by myself this time. (This is always cheaper than including Kelly in the grocery shopping!) I’m still browsing a lot in the French grocery stores, trying to look at the different foods and getting some ideas of new things we might eat. I want to cook and eat some authentic French meals… not just the same food we would eat at home. We seem to be eating a lot of American/Italian food (pasta and pizza) as we tour through England and France! I wish Kelly were more open to trying different things—I’d love to fix some lamb or veal! There’s just so much I can do with unadorned chicken, ground beef and pasta. And it’s too much trouble to fix Kelly one meal and Charley and I something else. This is something I need to work on when we get to Provence.

Tonight Kelly and I worked together to prepare dinner. We fixed a small frozen pizza (Quatre Fromage—four cheese…. not too good). Fortunately we also had pasta, which was very good. Charley made a fire tonight, which we really needed. We enjoyed eating by candlelight with a fire blazing in our old rustic cottage. I’m making good progress with my blog—I hope to post Parts I and II of the walking trip tomorrow.

Thursday, September 16

I hardly slept at all last night. Charley’s fan—that has traveled with us since the third week of our trip and was one of our three pieces of luggage on the Coast-to-Coast walk—has taken a turn for the worse. It’s so loud that I feel like I’m sleeping with a washing machine (in the final spin cycle) in the room. It also creates an uncomfortable chill in the room… Charley likes it, but I’m freezing. (Apparently in his youth he slept in a bedroom with no heat and an open window… perhaps even waking with frost on his blanket.) At some point during the night I felt my way down the dark, dark hall into Kelly’s room and slept in her other single bed for a while, trying to escape the noise and the chill. Finally about 5:00 am, I decided to “wake up” and went on downstairs… I read and worked on my blog. I drank too much coffee and started the day with just a terrible feeling. On a positive note, my eyelids are better… though not yet normal. At this point I’m waiting for Jeanne to bring me my medicine in Provence.

My spirits revived with breakfast after Charley made his morning run into Pouilly. I like our breakfast of bread and cheese. We had melon today and also shared a little quiche.

This was our day to visit Dijon, and we left about 10:30 am… it was sunny and getting warmer. Dijon was only about thirty minutes away… down a beautiful highway. We found parking easily in an underground lot near the center of town. We walked down to Tourist Information to ask about internet cafes. The woman there identified two internet places, one of which was at the train station. The other place was a little internet center about two blocks from our parking garage on a major shopping street… fairly expensive, but a decent place to work. There weren’t any American keyboards, so I pecked along at about half my normal speed trying to remember which letters were different. The numbers and punctuation are very tricky and the @ symbol requires something totally different. I had to tell the American girl next to me how to do an @. I had quite a few e-mails since I last checked on Saturday morning. I especially needed to coordinate with Becky… she, Sherry and Janie are supposed to come and stay with us in Turenne, perhaps as early as Saturday—the day we arrive.

I spent about two hours on the internet. I posted my two blog entries with some difficulty. Charley and Kelly also checked their e-mail, but I needed a lot more time than they did. They went out to run some errands…. they ended up going to a bookstore and then found a Dominos where Kelly could have a pizza lunch. She was very excited about having “real” pepperoni. They really didn’t have anything to report about Dijon.

We wandered around for a while and looked at some old buildings. We went into a shop selling specialty mustards (the signature item of Dijon… after wine) and left quickly, shocked at the high prices. I decided to buy my Dijon mustard at the grocery store instead. The city had the feeling of Strasbourg in some of the architecture—we’re actually not too far from the German border here. I saw a couple of buildings with the patterned tile roofs, like the Hôtel-Dieu in Beaune. We saw lots of students… there’s a major university here. Dijon qualifies as a city—about 200,000 people. We ate outside at a sidewalk café at the Place François Rude. Charley and I shared a croque monsieur and a tartine, and we had wine. Kelly had already eaten at Dominos, so she just had ice cream. For whatever reason, we just weren’t all that interested in looking at old buildings, churches and museums today. Are we in overload?? We decided to head back to our little house instead.

When we got off the highway back in Pouilly, we decided to stop in a couple of shops that specialize in local products. I found a more reasonably priced jar of Dijon mustard, and we bought some kir liquor as a gift for Becky. Kelly bought some spices for pizza, packaged in a test tube.

By late afternoon the temperature had reached the low 70’s, but it felt warmer because it was so sunny. I took a lawn chair outside on the big grassy area in front of the château and read in the sun. Kelly and Charley walked across the big lawn to ask Henri if the dogs could come out and play with Kelly, and she had a good time with Bob and Brock. Bob is such a goofy, playful dog.

When the sun slipped behind the trees, it was cool again. Charley built a fire in our little house. I fixed ravioli for dinner and we had green beans and bread. I went onto bed very early, hoping to get a good night’s sleep. Charley has proposed putting the fan out in the hallway tonight… it turns out that Kelly also finds the sound of the fan comforting. It somehow reminds her of the sound of the dehumidifier she hears at home.

Friday, September 17

It was a cool morning again today—when Charley drove into Pouilly for bread, the car thermometer said 41 degrees! He built a morning fire in the fireplace for us.

Today was Charley’s day. He wanted to go to the wine region and drive along the famous Route des Grands Crus. We drove on the fast highway to Dijon, crossing over the canal that runs along the highway for several miles. We cut off the highway near Velars-sur-Ouche (the Ouche is a river), and turned right up a very steep little road to a pretty agricultural plateau. It was very beautiful. We then headed down the plateau toward Dijon and the village of Chenove, the beginning of the wine route. Dijon looked much bigger from this vantage point than it had appeared yesterday. We couldn’t find our way to the Chenove and ended up on the outskirts of Dijon… all of a sudden there were city buses! We decided to go back up the plateau and come down a slightly different way to reach the wine route.

Suddenly—just like the other day on our trip to Beaune—as we came down the hill, we were in the middle of vineyards… the vineyards of the Cote de Nuits. The vines were everywhere, in neatly manicured rows… literally glistening in the sun and rich with ripe grapes. The harvest (called the vendange) should be in just a few weeks. We stopped in the village of Marsannay-la-Côte—Charley went in the Tourist Office get a map and other information while Kelly and I went in a little shop to buy her a drink of some candy. We continued along the route, passing through the wine villages of Couchey, Fixin, and Gevrey-Chambertin. This area reminded us very much of Alsace—the vineyards of course, but also the surrounding villages that are so much focused on every aspect of wine production and sale. We spent a memorable week in Alsace in late May 2002… a 60-mile walking tour through the grapevines and mountains.

Charley wanted to visit a famous vineyard Clos de Vougeot, which has an old château you can tour. The château was truly lovely, away from any other structures and just rising out of the vineyards. The building was originally built as a monastery… the monks acquired the land in the 12th century and the château was built in the 16th century. Charley was surprised to find that the château is no longer a working winery. The surrounding vineyards that once belonged to the château are now divided among several owners who are authorized to use the name Clos de Vougeot on their label.

We decided to tour the château, even though we wouldn’t see any active wine production. The woman in the gift shop/ticket office at first said we had to go on a guided tour that would be leaving in 20 minutes. The tour lasted an hour and was only in French. We could follow along on a sheet of information in English, but would be required to stay with the group. Hmmm. Since this was Charley’s special day and he had really wanted to see this château, we decided to go ahead on the tour. Maybe we would even understand some of the French. After we paid our money, the woman said we could take the English information and go on through the château by ourselves after all. Maybe she thought Kelly would be disruptive to the French group, I don’t know. We actually finished looking around in the 20 minutes before the guided tour even began! We looked at the big kitchen, the ancient old wine presses (six big ones in a large barn-like room), the fermenting room, and the cellars. A famous wine society—the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin—has several big dinners at the château every year. They have blind wine tastings and evaluate the wines. We saw photos of the dinners, some of the participants in elaborate red robes and hats.

The château was very pretty and interesting, though I think a bit disappointing for Charley because it wasn’t a working winery and there weren’t even any wines for sale. We asked the woman in the shop where we could taste and buy wine, and she directed us just down the little dirt road to a place called Château de Tour that sold wine from the Clos de Vougeot vineyards.

We climbed up a tower to a big tasting room run by a very nice British woman named Julie. (I was worried that this would be like the tasting room we had visited at Châteauneuf-du-Pape in Provence…. a very small cave, an older woman behind a small table, and just room for us. We really weren’t able to have any conversation—about the wine or anything else. And then we felt obligated after the tasting to buy a bottle of her wine, and although it was very good, all the wines were quite expensive. We are still saving our bottle—the least expensive available—for a very special occasion!) At this tasting room we were able to pay five euro each to taste three wines—a white, a red, and then a Grand Cru red. We enjoyed the wine and also the conversation with Julie. We learned that their vineyard is the largest holding on the old Clos de Vougeot land. She showed us a map of how the vineyards are divided—extremely split up, with some people just owning a few rows of vines. We chatted with Julie about our trip and her own experiences. She spoke several languages and had initially come to Burgundy as a host on one of the hotel barges on the canal. We ended up buying two bottles as gifts—one for Cynthia and Ian (the owners of our home in Provence) and one for Kevin and Elisabeth (a couple I’ve met on the internet who live not to far from where we will be in Provence and have been very helpful to us). We didn’t have to pay the tasting fee since we made a purchase. It was an enjoyable experience… even for Kelly. She had taken a book in, expecting to read, but ended up participating actively in the discussion. We offered her a little taste, but she wasn’t interested.

At this point it was about 1:15 and we were hungry. We’d probably been at the tasting room for 45 minutes. We asked Julie if she had a recommendation for lunch. I was thinking perhaps a small café in the nearest village. She immediately recommended a place called La Ferme de Rolle. She looked at her watch, said it was only about 15 minutes away, and that we would have time to get there for lunch—we should tell them that she had sent us. The restaurant was way back up in the hills… not down in a village along the Route des Grand Crus. We wound our way through the small villages of Curley and Ternant, then further back in the country. Fortunately, once we got to Ternant, there were small signs pointing us the right way to La Ferme de Rolle. We would never ever have found this place on our own.

We got there about 1:40 pm… it took us longer than 15 minutes, perhaps because we didn’t quite know where we were going. I knew that many French restaurants stopped their lunch service at 2:00 pm. A large, loud group was eating outside on the covered terrace. We mentioned Julie’s name to the waiter. At first he looked at his watch and said no—like, how dare we show up this late. Then he went inside, came back out, and said OK. Perhaps using Julie’s name helped—or perhaps it was our charm and sincere effort to communicate in French. We decided to sit inside the farmhouse—it was very quaint and very French… checkered tablecloths and a big fire with two big hams cooking on a spit. There was one group of six and two or three tables of two people.

Charley and I ordered the set meal of four courses, with the ham as our main course since it appeared to be their specialty. Kelly didn’t want to order the Menu L’Enfant because she was afraid she’d get a tiny, pitiful dessert like she got in Beaune. She wanted to be sure she’d get a big bowl of ice cream or sorbet. Although it’s a lot more expensive for her to order off the regular meal, we wanted her to have a good experience. She ordered chicken with pomme frites (fries). Charley ordered us a pitcher of the house wine.

The first course was a really good salad and great fresh bread. The ham was absolutely wonderful—we each got a big serving, accompanied by pureed vegetables. The ham came with three sauces—mustard, wine and vinegar, and cheese. Mmmmmm! Kelly’s chicken turned out to be a leg and thigh that had been finished on the big grill. She didn’t like the dark meat pieces of chicken too much—it was a lot of work to get the meat off the bone, and she didn’t get much meat. She’s been spoiled by chicken breasts!

A couple at a nearby table came over as they were leaving and told us we’d made a great choice of a restaurant—they were from North Carolina and said they come here every year.

Our third course was a cheese course—the water brought an enormous tray of cheeses, quickly rattled off what they each were, and left the big tray at our table. It was fun to try the different cheeses, though I wish they were labeled so I could remember which ones I liked the best.

We were able to order our desserts off the extensive dessert menu – we all decided to have ice cream desserts. We finished our meal about the time the two groups were finishing, so I didn’t feel we had delayed the staff with our late arrival. We had a really wonderful meal—what I really wanted to experience in Burgundy. Since tomorrow will be a travel day, I said I wanted this to be my special birthday meal.

At that point we were about halfway between Créancey and the wine region. I suggested that we drive back down to the Route des Grand Crus, but Charley decided he’d had the experience he wanted in the wine region—he’d seen an old winery, driven through a few villages and among the vines, had a tasting, chatted with a knowledgeable person about wine, and had a wonderful meal. This was enough for him.

We took a long way back to Créancey through the hilly countryside and along the River Ouche, stopping briefly in the village of Commarin to peek through the fence at the big château there. We liked our own château a lot better. When we got back to our château, we walked up to the big house and meet the owners—Fiona and Bruno. Charley had seen their car up at the front of the château this morning, so they were back from their trip. They were very nice people—she’s English… maybe about my age, but who knows… he’s French and older than her. She said he had once been a farmer, up near Paris—we decided he must have been an extremely prosperous farmer. She talked to him in French, but he also spoke some English. We saw a few of the main rooms in the château—very high ceilings and lots of antiques… beautifully decorated. They had been on a trip to Brittany. We asked a few questions about the château and the renovation. It turned out that our little house had been the first building restored, and they actually lived in our cottage until there was some living space for them in the château. We gave them our compliments concerning Henri’s assistance—he apparently had come to deliver wood and ended up staying on as their caretaker and main resource. You could not renovate and operate a place like this without someone like Henri. We also asked them their opinion about our route down to the Corrèze tomorrow, and Bruno got out a big map of France to help us look at our options. It turns out that the main highways are north-south in France—there aren’t many highways going west-east, perhaps because of the mountains. We decided we’d go south to Lyon, and then cut across the center of France.

Kelly and Charley rode their bikes back over to the little canal road to pick some blackberries they’d seen earlier in the week. When they got back (after some kind of disagreement about the berry picking), Kelly went outside to play with the dogs. Fiona told us the dogs are a Hungarian breed called Vizsla. And their names are Bob and Brock, as we thought we understood from Henri. (You must ideally pronounce Bob abruptly with an “o” sound—not the way we’d say it in America!) Bob is a longhaired version and Brock is the shorthaired version. Kelly sure does like Bob, but she tries also to pay attention to the older dog Brock, who is more reserved.

Tonight I found a magazine in the house with a wonderful article (in English) about Fiona and Bruno’s renovation of the château. I learned a lot more about the château. I had seen the magazine—some kind of British country-living magazine—but hadn’t looked at it. I hadn’t realized it was there because it had an article about our château!

We have really enjoyed this special place… our petite maison, the environment of the château, Monsieur Henri and the dogs, the surrounding countryside, and the villages, vineyards and châteaux. I definitely want to come back to Burgundy again… I’d love to stay at the Château de Créancey again. Charley and I also think we’d like to spend a week traveling by boat on the Burgundy canal.

We decided to raid the refrigerator for dinner since we’d had such a big and late lunch. Kelly had leftover pasta and Charley and I just had bread and cheese. Charley made another fire. After dinner Charley and Kelly had some “secret projects” related to my birthday (!) tomorrow. I decided to go on to bed early and catch up on some of my sleep. Fortunately, Charley has now retired the fan. We sure don’t need it in this weather! We decided to pack in the morning; we’ll be driving almost 350 miles to our next destination—Turenne in the Corrèze.