Vineyards

Part of our series highlighting destinations in France for a short- (or longer-) stay with recommendations on where to stay, eat, visit etc

Why Eastern Burgundy? An opportunity to get the best of both worlds - within easy distance of the classic treasures of Burgundy and the famous Burgundy vineyards whilst also exploring some of the lesser-known delights of the region which most visitors by-pass on the way south.
This is a wonderful area. Burgundy is rightly world famous for its wines and countryside but try the Jura. Most people have only heard of it through Jurassic era rocks & Jurassic Park films. John & Carolyn Scallan fell in love with it. Join them, you won’t regret it.

Where to stay: Le Bourg B&B in Sens-sur-Seille (71 Saone-et-Loire) is is run by John & Carolyn Scallan who are English but happy to live in France, - a good job as they’ve been here for 6 years now.
4 bedrooms, all en-suite, and each with their own individual design welcome you. Two doubles, one twin and a family room for up to four. Evening meals can be arranged using as much as possible from theirur own garden.! Breakfasts with home made jams and PROPER marmalade, served on the terrace when fine.

Nearest Town: Chalons-sur-Saone (40km); Arlay (16km), Louhans (18km)

Where to eat? If not at the B&B, then the Hotel St Germain in nearby St.Germain du Bois (6 kms). Good French restaurant, very popular with the locals and ex-pat Swiss who always know good value when it is around. Salads and good main courses. The 24 Euro menu is always great. It MAY JUST be possible  to give you a lift and pick you up later to help you “enjoy” the meal.

Where to eat (gourmet):
Les Trois Colombes just 300 metres from us. Run by two Swiss ladies this is a real treat. High quality food in calm and beautiful surrondings. The menu featuring “les trois filets” is superb.

Where to eat (value for money):
La Siesta Pizzeria in Bletterans (10 kms) Good value, great atmosphere and an all round enjoyable time. Proper size chips as well, not the thin “allumettes”. The Chicken Liver salad as a starter sets the tone. They do takeaways as well and, the height of nouvelle technologie they’ve got a “Pizzamatic”! A genuine Hole in the wall Pizza machine! Credit card in, choose your pizza (or two etc) and wait. Three minutes later the first will arrive and so on piping hot and in it’s own box - the wonders of technology!

Local food:
This region of France is called the Bresse and is famed for it’s poultry. Poulet de Bresse in Vin Jaune with Morilles is the region’s signature dish. Featuring the chicken (specially reared, free range chickens) and a sauce made of local mushrooms and the stunning powerhouse wine of nearby (4 kms) Jura.

Local wine:
Obviously Burgundy. Beaune is 40 kms away and could lead you into serious trouble with your bank manager but it would be worth it. For a more affordable Burgundy try the Hautes Cotes du Nuits and Hautes Cotes du Beaune or the Cote Chalonnaise. The owners have contacts in all. For something different; head eastwards into the Jura and try their wines. The Vin Jaune (see above) is one of a range of amazing and highly individual wines from this smallest of wine regions. The owners of the B&B have contacts with several winemakers and can easily arrange tastings. The local Cremant (champagne but not allowed to call it that) from friends the Chevassus is stunning. Try it.

Local markets:
St Germain du Bois (6 kms) on Saturday Morning (0900 - 1200) is a traditional morning market. Fruit & veg stalls, clothes, cheese (the B&B gets its cheese from here) butchery etc etc. The rotisserie chicken lady does a mean chicken with onions, tomatoes & gravy and a loaf of bread from either of the bakeries in the town with perhaps something naughty for pudd………..
Chalon sur Saone on Sunday morning. Mainly food market in the St. Vincent square. The cathedral dominates the sqaure and the market bustles along throughout the morning. Take a stroll through the old town, have a drink and watch the world go by.
On Monday morning, Louhans has the largest market in the area, taking up the whole of the town centre, with food, clothing and household goods and livestock too.

Must see:
The Hotel Dieu in Beaune is spectacular, open all year from 9am to 6pm (closes for lunch only in mid-winter).
The Chateau d’Arlay is open during June to September for visitors or all year long for it’s wine.
The Burgundy winerouteTouristique des Grands Crus) is like driving through all the most famous names on a wine list!
(Route The Jura countryside whose stunning scenery, including lakes, rivers, waterfalls, caves, vineyards, abbeys and castles.

The Jura Wine Route (route des vins de Jura) - “stretching over the 80 kilometres of sunny slopes called “the Revermont”, you will find an area rich in character that will reveal to you all it’s treasures. Exceptional wines, beautiful countryside, enchanting villages, gastronomy of the highest order and many other activities which promise all manner of good things.”

The hilltop village of Chateau Chalon.

For something very different, how about lunch, a bit of culture, shopping and something for the kids all in one place? Sounds good? It’s at the local motorway service station!! No kidding! Just ask for details!

A bit of culture?
Chateau de Pierre de Bresse has a local museum and lots to do for a morning or afternoon.
The photography museum in Chalon sur Saone is worth seeing for some of it’s temporary exhibitions.
The Hospice de Beaune (see above) is really well worth visiting
La Maison de la Haute Seille is a new museum of the region aound Chateau Chalon with lots to do (open Sat & Sun from 9 to 12 and 2 to 6) . They are slowly getting the English translation sorted out for all of the panels and, hopefully, the audio side of things.
The abbey at Baume Les Messieurs….. we could go on and on!

Somewhere for a walk?
Loads of quiet roads, paths, and marked routes. There are details of some in the Jura and a lot of local maps at the B&B

Something for the kids?
Lac Chalain about 30 kms. Beaches, entertainment and the like.
The Aurochs farm (www.ferme-auroch.com) ,(auroch= an ancient breed of cattle) near the Cascades des Herisson about 40 kms. Rare breed cattle, bison, Aurochs and, somewhat bizzarely, Dalmations.
Visit a snail farm. Bet you didn’t expect that! July & Aug are best for this, it can be arranged by the B&B
Or how about a river cruise on the Saone, with commentary by the English speaking captain and co-owner

Getting there?
Car is best. (more room to take the wine home.) The B&B is about 410 miles south of the Channel ports. From Calais etc, head for Reims, then Troyes, Dijon. Take A36 to the A39 and come off at junction 8. Remember a map or the GPS co-ordinates above. Otherwise, Sens-sur-Seille is between an hour and a half and two hours from both Lyon and Geneva airports, with low-cost flights from all over the UK

Getting around:
A car, frankly, is essential here. There are bikes available for hire so that the fitter amongst you can get a healthy buzz. If you let the B&B know the day before they can arrange a picnic lunch and recommend routes which are quiet and relatively flat to amble along. Should you be of a more Tour de France disposition there are longer routes of over 100 kms as well!

When to come?:
June through to September is best with the Montgolfiades Hot air Balloon festival in early June
Chalon dans la Rue festival of street theatre in July
Jazz festivals; Water festivals and a whole range of other festivals taking place over the summer months.
Late september is usually harvest time and the vineyards are alive with people picking grapes.
October things start to quieten down a bit. In November there is the release of the Beaujolais Nouveau in Beaujeu (about 75 mins away). Great fun and the wines is usually very good. The weekend after that is the Beaune wine festival where the great and the good get together to sort out the price of this years vintage Burgundies. The first weekend in February is the big wine festival in the Jura where about 80 winemakers gather together and celebrate the new vintage Vin Jaune (it’s had 6 years maturing in its barrels and is adjudged ready). Lots of other smaller festivals dotted around the year

For a longer stay?:
Louhans (about 10 miles away) has a market on Mondays all through the year. In summer it totally dominates the town. All the usual items plus hardware, fashion and livestock. Get there fairly early to get a good parking spot!
Go wine-tasting at a local producer (or two). John & Carolyn have lots of contacts in the business and can set these up and sometimes accompany you. Visit the Jura wines website www.laroutedesvinsdujura.com for information on lots of small events in the region.
There’s a tasting evening every Tuesday in season in nearby Lavigny that’s great fun but best if your French is fairly reasonable.

For more info on Le Bourg B&B see  Le Bourg B&B or use the enquiry form below.

For more info on the local area see the local tourist office websites at Tourisme Jura or Tourisme Saone-et-Loire

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Map showing the location of Sens-sur-Seille

Part of our series featuring places to stay and explore for a weekend or longer with recommendations on where to stay, eat, visit etc – recommendations from personal knowledge of people who know the local area well.

Why Entraygues-sur-Truyere? Entraygues-sur-Truyere is a picturesque riverside village, where two rivers meet, the Lot River and the Truyere.  Entraygues was founded in the 10th century and its fortified castle was built between 1278-1290.  Entraygues is located in an area with 10 of the, “The Most Beautiful Villages in France,” more than any othe region! (and rightly so! (Ed))

Where to stay: Sweet French Cottages,enchanting stone cottages for rent in the Lot Valley, Southwest France

Nearest Town: Entraygues-sur-Truyere, 12 Aveyron, Midi-Pyrenees

Where to eat (recommended by Raine Heron of Sweet French Cottages): Le Mejanessere, a beautiful rustic restaurant with stunning views. Also a vineyard and an organic farm.  Food is farm fresh and set menus often feature roasted pig, sausage in walnut oil, potatoes with wild mushrooms, green salad with edible flowers and herbs and dessert.  Delicious bread baked on premises.  Wonderful apéritif menu and local wines from vineyard.  Mostly open during high season (some mid season hours).

Where to eat (gourmet): Auberge du Fel.  Delicious, fresh, often regional food beautifully presented.  The Executive Chef, Mme Elisabeth Albespy, is the Mayor’s wife and the Sous Chef is their son, Mathieu.  The Mayor is often on hand to serve up their traditional as well as inventive dishes, including a vegetarian prix fixe menu.

Where to eat (value for money): La Casa.  Oven-fired thin crust pizza, pasta dishes and fresh salads.  Make your own pizza (our favourite is goat cheese, chestnuts and fresh tomatoes) or try the duck and Roquefort pizza, among many others on the menu.  Good table wine and tasty desserts.

Local food: Aubrac beef, duck, lamb, trout, foie gras, charcuterie, aligot (whipped potatoes with cheese), truffade, cabecou, fouace, honey, walnut oil, fresh chestnuts as well as chestnut vinegar, flour and chestnut butter, farcous, wild mushrooms

Local wine: Entraygues– Le Fel wine, which has recently had a come uppance when one of our Entraygues wines made it s way onto the menu at Michel Bras, a regional restaurant which ranks one of the top ten restaurants in the world.  There are also several local aperitifs including “Pelou,” consisting of chestnut liqueur and local white wine and “Rascalou,” consisting of walnut liqueur and local white wine.  Both are wonderful.

Local markets: Farmer’s Markets are held every Friday morning throughout the year.  In high season, there are two Farmer’s Markets, on both Tuesday and Friday mornings, and a local producer’s market (Marche des Producteurs de Pays) on Wednesday evenings with banquet style dining and live music.  All of the markets are held in the village square or along the river in Entraygues.

Must see: Poterie du Don, a museum-quality contemporary ceramic center in an architecturally-significant building.  Ceramics include traditional salt glaze tableware and ceramic creations by the gallery owner, Suzy Atkins, to ceramic sculpture and flatworks by many well-known European ceramic artists.

A bit of culture?: Since the  area is unspoiled and rather timeless, you definitely feel immersed in the French culture on a daily basis, particularly if you frequent the butcher, the baker, Farmer’s Market and mill around the villages.  With regard to museums, one that stands out is the Musee Fenaille in Rodez with the oldest and largest collection of statues-menhirs in France (think small, carved Stone Henge).

Shopping?: There are charming shops in Entraygues, as well as many lovely shops and cafes on pedestrian-only streets in the old town section of nearby Aurillac.

Somewhere for a walk? – There are 10 “Petites Randonrres” (small walking paths) in Entraygues totaling more than 100 km.  There are also longer walks, some taking 2-3 days, and more than 250 km of trails in the area.  There is also a 30-45 minute historic walk through the medieval streets of Entraygues, guided by sign posts.

Something for the kids? – There is kayaing, canoeing, river rafting and horseback riding in Entraygues, as well as several animal parks and farms open to the public in surrounding areas.  Also, the Micropolis (insect) museum and the Millau Viaduc (the highest bridge in the world) is not far from us.

Getting there?:– Driving across France is always a scenic pleasure.  By air, our nearest airport is Rodez-Marcillac Airport (only a short 1-hour flight from Paris) Ryanair fly from Stansted to Rodez.

Other airports in the area include Toulouse International Airport, Montpellier Airport and Limoges Airport.  Trains arrive at either Aurillac or Rodez stations

Getting around:– Buses and taxis are availabie in town, and the area is frequented by cyclists (including the Tour de France!).  There are train stations in both Aurillac and Rodez - and tickets direct from the UK can be booked through Rail Europe

When to come?:– There are festivals every weekend in mid and high seasons in Entraygues or nearby villages.  The better known festivals, however, are “Les Mediaevales” (Medieval Days) on 12 and 13 Sepetember 2009 featuring jugglers, musicians, medieval costumes, banquet-style lunch, wine, beer and several artisan booths. “Fete des Champignons” (Mushroom Festival) is held the last weekend in September and features folkloric museum, dancing, costumes, lunch and everything mushroom.  “Foire de la Chataigne” (Chestnut Fair) will be held on 24 and 25 October 2009 and is large festival with music, food, wine and everything chestnut.

For a longer stay?:– Take a day trip (and perhaps, stay one night) in Cahors or Gaillac or Cordes sur Ciel, or just take cat naps, go for walks down to the river or next to the local vineyards, through the historic villages, or just sit on the terrace while reading a good book and sipping wine, taking in the fresh air, views and sound of the flowing river.

Recommendations kindly supplied by Rain Heron at Sweet French Cottages

For more info on the local area see the local tourist office website

Part of our series featuring places for a short stay in the in France we visit the Gers, South West France.

Le Weekend in…Eauze

Where to stay? Domaine de Lauroux at Manciet. Domaine de Lauroux, situated 2km from the town of Manciet.where Karen and Richard Kitchener run a wine and Armagnac domaine in the Cotes de Gascogne. Manciet is close to the charming market town of Eauze. Lauroux is a 100 acre award-winning vineyard offering self catering and B&B accommodation together with evening meals

For more info see www.tourisme-gers.com For more info on the accommodation see http://frenchduck.com/latest/archives/2008/04/bb-or-gite-in-the-gers.html

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It was in the hot days of late June that we had the chance to call in on Caroline and Sean Feely at Chateau Haut Garrigue in Bergerac (24, Dordogne, Aquitaine), a warm and welcome memory on cold miserable winter days. An unlikely combination of Ireland, South Africa and rural France has created an organic vineyard which is rapidly gaining a reputation for the quality of its wines - and an innovative approach to promoting both the appellation and the organic ethos.

Also running under the banner of Wild Earth Vineyards, Caroline is passionate about encouraging people to appreciate and understand her organic wines. With a delightful gite (holiday rental accommodation) enjoying stunning views over the Dordogne valley and the vineyards, regular vineyard walks (which include other local organic vineyards), tutored wine classes (in Bergerac and Ireland!), longer vineyard walking holidays in Bordeaux, St Emilion & Bergerac - and other wine experiences which include trying your hand at being a winemaker for a day! - they offer plenty of ways of getting to know the wines and vineyard well.

Happily, all this “tourism” is secondary to the main focus, which is to produce great wines - and they do. We were hugely impressed by their clean, bright aromatic dry Sauvignon Blanc, but their other whites, rosé and seriously good red wines are also excellent and rated highly in the press and elsewhere:

‘Its gorgeous’ is what the Irish Times says of our La Source red wine. We also have our methode traditionnelle sparkling (the real thing) and 2006 saussignac available to you.It’s not just the taste that is superb. When you buy from us you are supporting:
- organic farming giving you a healthy product that does not have herbicide/ pesticide residues
- a very low carbon footprint (we do much of our vineyard work by hand, we favour natural processes rather than intervention and we have an oak forest to offset our CO2 emissions) giving us all a better future.

Well worth a visit if you are in the region, you can also order online for delivery to your door in the UK and Ireland. If you order by 8th December 2008 you can get UK delivery in time for Christmas and indulge with good wine direct from the winemaker!

Interestingly many of the small independent vineyards in the Bergerac appellation are going organic - and not just for the “feel good” factor or as a marketing ploy - sustainable vineyards and a healthy environment are needed to support the complex combination of factors (e.g. soil, climate, rootstock and people) which have to come together to produce consistently good wines.

For more info:-
Caroline & Sean Feely  E: caroline@wildearthvineyards.com
Chateau Haut Garrigue
24240 Saussignac
France
Tel: +33(0)553227271

On the border between Provence and Languedoc and known as the birth place of denim (”de Nimes”), Nimes is a popular tourist destination due to its rich history dating back to the Roman Empire.
Amongst the important remains that can still be seen today are the Roman amphitheatre, built at the end of the 1st century AD and considered to be the best-preserved Roman arena in France.
The Maison Carrée, is one of the best preserved Roman temples anywhere. In recent years, the city has enjoyed a new-found energy and direction, enlisting the services of modern architects such as Norman Foster who designed the Carré d’art (1986), a museum of modern art.
Nearby are the vineyards of the Costieres de Nimes AC -

The wines of Costières de Nîmes, in great southern tradition are vinified according to the principle of skilful blending of varieties. The proportions are defined by each winemaker in order to bring out the best expression of a terroir, to demonstrate the style of wine from that domaine or
cellar but also to best express the profile of that vintage. The reds and rosés are made using Syrah, Grenache, Mourvedre, Carignan and Cinsault.

For more info on Nimes see www.ot-nimes.fr/
For more info see www.costieres-nimes.com for the local wine

Recommended vineyard visit - Chateau de la Tuilerie

Amanda Lawrence’s new bookWhite Stone, Black Wine: focuses on part of deepest South West France, and although subtitled ” Life Among the Ancient Vineyards of the Quercy Blanc” it is about so much more than wine, as important as this is. Quercy is the ancient name for an area which includes the departements of Lot (46) and Lot-et-Garonne(47) in the Midi-Pyrenees, with the town of Cahors at is heart. The white limestone of the area gives the landscape and buildings of the area their distinctive style. Much of the countryside is and was covered with various types of oak trees (latin:quercus) and the predominant wine is the deeply coloured (black) wine of Cahors.

The Quercy Blanc - named for its white stone - is a wild and sparsely populated area of rural France, squeezed between the great wine trading port of Bordeaux and the fizzing city of the south, Toulouse. It’s home to the goose and the grape, sumptuous foiegras, the mysterious black truffle and world famous Agen prunes. There are miles of walnut groves and, most important of all, acres of vines. The author introduces us to some colourful local characters, freezes from the kneecaps down whilst braving the famous winter truffle market in Lalbenque, throws herself with Gallic gusto into numerous fetes and uncovers traces of the luminaries who once called this place home. From Champollion, who translated the Rosetta stone, to the illustrious Eleanor of Aquitaine, whose marriage to Henry Plantagenet brought the area to the English crown.

Ideal winter reading in the UK, conjuring up the warmth and richness of life in South West France.

For more info - White Stone, Black Wine: OR get an Amazon Gift Certificates.

The Truffle Market in Lalbenque (46 Lot, Midi-Pyrenees) takes place every Tuesday from the first Tuesday in December through to mid-March. For more info see www.lalbenque.net

For more on Quercy on FrenchDuck see http://frenchduck.com