They do a nice breakfast here in a fabulous dining room that would work nicely as a full time restaurant, if they wanted to go that next step.
As we headed out on today's adventure, we passed many famous wine towns like the one shown above - Aloxe-Corton.
We decided to start off the day in the southern part of the region better known for their white wines and were promptly zoomed by 2 French Air Force Mirages. Some things are the same throughout France. Do these low altitude fly-overs serve to make the French feel more secure or is it simply about too much testosterone in the cockpit.
Stop number one was in Auxey-Duresses at the home of Phillipe Prunier-Damy, shown above - another old haunt. It turns out that Monsieur & Madame were not to be found, so we decided to do a circuit of the area and return later.
We drove up the valley to La Rochepot which is hugely advertised and which we have been to before, but once again it was closed.
This closed thing wasn't looking good. Perhaps anybody fit to work was in the fields pruning, tying up the vines or spraying with something looking pretty noxious - so much for biologique! There was actually as much activity in the vineyards now as at harvest, which surprised us.
Still looking for some place that was open, we drove past the pretty town of St. Aubin, shown above, and into Puligny-Montrachet, a village that is fairly renowned for having the best and most expensive white wines in the world. They are all made from chardonnay grapes of course, but vary greatly from producer to producer and terroir to terroir. Apparently the best terrior in this appelation is the Montrachet vineyard and wines from this small area start in the 300 Euro range. Yikes!
We did taste in their cave, shown in the background of the above picture and came away with some pretty spectacular quaffs and money still left in our pockets. Whew!
We were now ready to circle back through Montrachet to Auxey-Duresses and the housekeeper beckoned the Prunier-Damy daughter, who was minding the shop in Mama and Papa's absence. We were principly looking for whites again although they produce a lot more reds and indeed only their reds are from 1er cru vineyards. Their white Auxey remains a treat!
It was now lunch time and not wanting to waste away, we headed into Beaune fairly certain we could find a good meal. This trip we've gotten either lazier or braver or stupider and drove right into the heart of the old town to find parking, with no difficulty I might add.
We thought we should do dinner for lunch and then pick up some bread and cruditees for the evening a la chateau. So, that's what we did, in a nice place called Restaurant La Fleury, just off the market square. The town was once again full of tourists right off the bus, but we got a seat before they filled the joint.
Dawn started with a mixed salad with Tuscan oil - what, French olive oil isn't good enough? I had snails - I think I'll soon start looking like one - en croute with assorted champignons. Dawn had a salmon fillet in that famous butter/cream sauce again while I had a nice veal stew. For dessert we shared a trio of creme brulees and something called vacherin which is a combo sorbet/meringue dish - a super new find.
After this, we needed a rest, so told Emily to get us back to the chateau, where we happily spent the remainder of the day. Boy are we old farts! But, I mean, look at this place! Kind of a cool place to hang out.
After an evening lunch, we went for a short walkabout the Chateau property. There are a myriad of buildings on the property that appear to have been abandonned and the owner has an eclectic collection of vehicles - everything from an old army truck to an airplane. Of course, he still drives a vintage WW2 army jeep. There is also a permanent event tent - for weddings I suppose - at the back of the property. A couple of the buildings need to meet a friendly bulldozer.
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