Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Today dawned cool and sunny – a welcome sight. 

Yesterday afternoon, the sun finally came out, and we moored in a town called Vincelles.  After lunch, Anna took us on a brief ride through some beautiful villages (Bially, Citra, and Irancy) with a stop at an overlook.

 Getting out of the car, I was assaulted by the aroma of crushed grapes.  It was a throw-back to the days of my father ‘s wine making days in the basement!  We had a spectacular view of the valley of Chablis, the village church (St Claire) and the adjoining winery, Jean-Marc Brocard.

At the winery, Pierre was our guide and wine master.  So much information to process – wines of Chablis (the area) draw their typical minerality and freshness from clay-limestone soil – shell fossils in the earth adding the salty (or citrus) flavor to the wine.

The tasting was great, and we had a number of side splitting laughs – all stemming from my uncanny ability of “mimicry”!  Lenny thought I was going to take Pierre home with us (he LOVED my accent!)!  After the tasting, Anna took us to an old quarry, which has changed operations over the years.  From quarry, to food storage during the war, and now it is a storage facility for 6 million bottles of champagne.  The sparkly is fermented in the bottle and turned daily.  This was reminiscent of the Porcupine’s Lair in Umbria (see 2010).  Getting out of the car in this cave, I was once again reminded of the wine making days of my father.  This underground grotto of molded we stone, smelled like the wine room of Hollis when I was a kid!!  In a matter of seconds, I was eight years old again!!

Dinner was again a beautiful affair, right down to the cheese and salad plate BEFORE dessert!!  Gotta stop eating like this!!  While on the topic of food, Pierre gave us little popover type knosh called GOUGERS.  They were much needed after all that wine!

Today, the plan is to drive back to Auxerre to tour the churches, shop and mill about.  We hope to bike a little while stopped at the locks.  Great day!!

Well it’s 3 in the afternoon, and most of the group took the ride into town.  Len and I opted out to update the blog and relax on the barge to enjoy the quiet.

This morning we rode about 5 miles from the second lock to our mooring in Accolay.  Lenny was once again the leader with map and GPS.  However, we were having such a good time, stopping for Kodak moments and riding from lock to lock, that we missed Accolay. 

 Not knowing that we passed it, Len and I took an off canal path and found the town via backroads.  We hooked up with the rest, and waited for the Luciole to arrive.  Got all the bikes back on board and relaxed topside til lunch.  Lunch was an extravagant affair of escargot, salads, grilled veggies and an outrageous potato salad.  Of course it was paired with a wine (don’t remember the name).  Cheese was not a part of dessert, BUT, we had a fantastic warm bread pudding (made from all the croissants, and pastries left over from Sun) topped with delicious vanilla ice cream.  I’m trying very hard to only have a taste of said yummies but it’s very hard!!

Dinner was a delicious sea bass, lemon crusted potatoes and snap peas.  Can’t remember (HA HA) what dessert was, but it was something crunchy and chocolate.  We can’t seem to agree on what we had!!