we leave the comforts of home....

During lunch we passed a few more locks- including the one called Epoisses (Phil's favorite cheese from the region) -

then after the fabulous lunch - we all gave some thought to napping - but decided to visit a few of the sights of this amazing wine region of Burgundy!

and so, we are off on our little bus- CB manages to nap as well as travel- LOL- to the Cote d'Or - and its famous southeastern facing slopes...

our first stop is the Chateau at Clos Vougeot- and the home of the Chevaliers du Tastevin- (from Wikipedia)

Originally founded in 1703 as the Ordre de la Boisson (Order of the Drink), and resurrected under its current name in 1934, the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin (translatable as Brotherhood of the Knights of the Wine-Tasting Cup) is an exclusive club of Burgundy wine enthusiasts. It is headquartered in the twelfth-century Château du Clos de Vougeot in the Côte d'Or region of France. It maintains chapters (called Sous-Commanderies) worldwide, but because of its Gallic origins, its name and many of its ceremonial titles are always rendered in French.

we take a brief tour of the facility - and hear some of the history of the wine-making process from the middle ages (by monks in the monastery/abbey)

here are just a few photos-

not that they look silly or anything - and they seem to be singing the song we refer to as the "burgundy song"- LOL

and here is the burgundy song- no need to have working knowledge of French - this one is one you can sing along no matter how many bottles of fabulous wine you have imbibed! LOL

but the day is getting shorter and we have wine to taste! so on we go to Domaine Pierre Amiot to meet with the fifth or maybe the sixth generation of wine makers there and try some of their wines-

now- I may not have mentioned this but we are supposed to be on a moratorium from wine buying until we can get all the cases of wine out of the aisle of the wine cellar and all the wine in the bins (LOL- who is saying "fat chance" out there? I heard you! ...) so we arrived at the Amiot winery to TASTE!

after a cellar tour- brief and painless - we head into the "cave" to taste and Mrs. Amiot pours us some wonderful wines and makes us an offer Phil can't refuse so after tasting all their high end wines we go upstairs and buy three cases (yeah the guy in the back who barked out "fat chance" was 100% on the money! LOL)

the good news is we convinced CBGB to go in on part of it - so it won't all end up in the former aisle of our cellar- LOL

daylight is fading as we make our way back to our luxury digs and dinner from Chef Cyrille!

a fabulous veggie soup!

lamb and ratatouille- of course it sounds better on his menu in French- LOL

the cheeses and an incredibly good dessert-

and evening falls on the canal just outside Longecourt- where in the fields in the morning a hot air balloon (Montgolfier) will be waiting for five of the 12 of us to go ballooning in the morning on a beautiful sunny day- and one so clear they will see the French Alps!

so more to come! as tomorrow we actually do visit Dijon and while we don't buy mustard we do have some great hot chocolate and enjoy browsing in the fabulous market!

hours since our last meal

LOL- only kidding- having gotten through our first lock (55) we continue down the canal and see various light industrial buildings on the outskirts of Dijon, as well as many trains that head to the nearby station and even a bit of air traffic from the air base near the canal.

I googled the distance of the first day's journey and google told me that it was a 23 minute drive from Dijon to Longecourt (the evening docking destination) LOL

sorry for the glare I took a photo of the computer screen- but maybe this gives you the idea of the pace- we spent one full day on a 23 minute journey- LOL

and here is how we whiled away the hours- first we went through and out of industrial Dijon-

even when there are no locks - at certain points the canal gets narrow - about the width of the boat- and the tolerances are very close (see later photo)

we pass under RR tracks and see the trains go by- some of them TGV (train gran vitesse- high speed)

the lock keeper's no longer live right at the locks but use the access path and motor scooters to shuttle between them - here one awaits our arrival-

this is lock number 56 (our second)- but don't worry I won't show you every one of them- - - each is nicely marked - some have nice yards and some have been abandoned and are graffiti covered - but every one is identified and numbered so you know where you are-

this old bridge spanned the canal and when we passed under it you could see the age - it is built on brick arches rather than steel girders-

the next lock cottage had an unusual fence arrangement - covered in shells from executed garden snails?

there were two types of gate opening devices- this style was much easier on the lock keepers - they would lean against it with their back and back the lever around using the weight of their bodies-

this type was more back breaking as it entailed rotating the wheel by hand and some bending over-

as I mentioned the tolerance is very very very close- here a shot of the wall of the canal and the side of the barge- if the pilot isn't heading in 100% straight there is a lot of touch up painting to do when the trip ends!

almost out of town-

finally looking less urban and more country-

CB taking cell phone photos of me taking photos of him- LOL

they look like they are having a good time!

our buddies await - you can see one of the scooters on the left side of the photo parked on the tow path-

poppies along the way-

and more flowers to brighten our day-

a sign we frequently saw at points along the tow path when there was a route into a town or village -

water below the lock swirling out as it is emptied to bring the boat to the level below-

at each lock bikes and people get on and off - all have instructions that lunch is at Lock 61 or 62 so to be back on board by then-

below the pilot (on the left) talks shop with the lock keepers-

as we get closer to lunch the scenery turns more lovely-

CBGB waiting for their ship to come in- LOL

the mistletoe in the trees is quite striking- they look like nests of some sort but are simply a parasite like Spanish moss is to our live oaks in Florida...

our first traffic- LOL

we start our lunch time drinking a bit earlier than lunch- but we aren't driving - or cooking and have no schedules to meet...

and lock 61 arrives - the signal for feeding time- LOL

Marie gets off and cuts some fresh rhubarb and waves as she passes us on the way back to the kitchen-

Cyrille introduces lunch- each day will follow the same pattern- we will have three outstanding salads, a quiche and a protein main - today it is ribs.  Then we will have a cheese lesson from Marie or Teresa and there will be at least two wines for the mid day meal-

my plate of yummy lunch! the ribs were heavenly and I loved every salad Cyrille made this week - even the carrot one (which is not usually among my favorites)

then we had the cheese course - which must have been so fab I forgot to take a photo- this was some fruit to accompany the cheese!

here are the cheese from Monday lunch- one of our favorites from the last trip- the Abbey de Citeaux (Just try finding that in the US!)  and on e of my favorite blues the Fourme d'Ambert - all excellent! -

so now you get an idea of how the mornings will generally go - so from this point, not so many lock mechanics photos... in the afternoons we usually had an activity and on this day we go to visit the home of the Chevaliers du Tastevin and the winery of Pierre Amiot... so stay tuned for the second part of Monday's touring!