Burgogne is a region known for beautiful wine country, rolling hills to bike through, and being massively drunk at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. And why is that? Because of the wine tasting.
Ellwyn wanted to go down to the biking area and taste wines and virtually combine his two favorite things. So, with Pierre Parent in tow, we rented an Audi to seat the 5 of us and headed down to Burgogne, about a 3 hour drive southeast of Paris. On the way down there, we had a lovely time laughing and joking around about the drive. Some of the countryside was covered in sunflowers, but the flowers didn't all seem to face the same direction. Pierre suggested that sometimes they turn away from the sun if they don't want to get burned.
Pierre as the voice of the Lead Sunflower: "Come on ladies, let's turn around!"
On our drive we had lovely snacks to split. The toll booth even gave us a little care package! Inside it was some magazines, a water and this nasty tasting mint drink in a bottle. Imagine alka-seltzer blended with mouthwash, and drink. Gross!
So we finally headed into Beaune around 10:30 that night. After stopping at a pub to ask for directions, we followed our way out into the country to the Golf Estate. Let me clarify: our hotel was not connected in any way to a golf course, but was simply geographically close to one. Thus, it borrowed the name and claimed it was a Golf Hotel. Wrong. It was really nice except there were 2 showers and only 1 toilet for the 5 of us, and the toilet was placed in the middle of the entire apartment. So much for privacy.
The following morning our parents wake us up at 5:39am, or what feels like it and we head downstairs for breakfast. I think everyone in the hotel wanted to eat at the same time and it seemed like it when there were not nearly enough dishes to go around.
After brekkie, we headed into town to rent our velos, or bicycles. I made t-shirts for our tour, but the luggage was STILL lost, and so only Ila and I had ours. Burgogne Bike Brigade 07 was underway. After we rented the bikes (which only took about an hour of waiting around) Ellwyn took two pedals and realized he had a flat/low tire. So we had to wait some more. We cleared that up and headed to the Casino... which is the grocery store.
We picked up food to make a picnic at a castle with a prince! So finally we head off into the hills. A few kilometers later, we are at our first Domain. It had a large chateau on it and the wine cellars. Our tour guide, Emilie, was fantastic! She was the typical beautiful french girl, and she was in love with wine. We tasted and tasted. And tasted and tasted. In total, I think I remember tasting 12 wines there...before lunch. We were all tipsy. We managed to pull out our food and assemble it into a lovely picnic, with another bottle of wine. Holy cow. After we ate, Ila and I took a nap.
We woke up shortly after and decided to bike to the next Chateau. We made it, and only got lost a couple of times. I blame the vin. The second tasting was in this intimidating building that imposed on the countryside. We went down to the cellar and tasted a few wines. The second tour guide was not as good. She wasn't as obsessed with wine as Emilie was. So, I called that my limit and we headed off to see a beautiful view. This is where the biking began to get interesting. We went to a neighboring village, took one look at the steep road we were supposed to climb and decided to wait at the bottom for the boys. So what did Ila, Gayle and Carla do while they were huffing and puffing up the hill? We fell asleep. My mom fell asleep on a rock.
After our little siesta in a field somewhere, we don't know, we biked back to Beaune. We were lost a few more times in little villages, but it didn't matter. With Lafayette (Pierre) in the lead, we were sure to find our way back to the Bike Shop.
We cruised into town a few minutes before it closed and dropped off our noble, somewhat uncomfortable steeds. After we went back to the hotel and got cleaned up, we decided to eat in Beaune at this nice restaurant in a wine cellar.
Little did we know, the meal would be outstanding! The French Madame who owned the place was ridiculously friendly, and I actually ordered my meal in French for the first time! I ordered the special, Boef Burgogne, from the region. We seriously ate so much we were stuffed to the gills. For dessert, my sister, my mom and I ordered Creme Brulee. It was a 3 selection creme. The first was with fruit, the second flavored with plant, and the third flavored with flower. Nobody liked the plant. And we ate geraniums, we found out later.
We rolled ourselves home and were gearing up for the next day.
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