'BURGS' PART DEUX

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It has finally happened; I did not jinx Bradley Wiggins with my comments and he has become the first British winner of the Tour de France. It was an emotional afternoon as the Union Jacks flags fluttered and the French joined with the British supporters to will on “Wiggo” as he completed the final circuits of the Champs-Elysées in brilliantly fine weather wearing the famous maillot jaune. We watched on the TV with French commentary, which I hasten to add I do not quite understand but it all added to the occasion. On the basis that he could not be beaten on the last day we had promised ourselves a “Bradley Wiggins’ Dinner”, which Mark dreamed up and cooked. We wore our best Tour colours and even DWRs very British towel was on show.

The menu was: Homemade Gnocchi with wild mushroom fricassee followed by Veal with spicy yellow potatoes and a Lemon Surprise for dessert.



The 2012 race was the 99^th edition and this year took in three countries; France, Belgium and Switzerland. The more I watch of the race the more incredible it becomes and the scenery never ceases to amaze. It has also been interesting to gauge how the French follow it. There is a real sense of national pride. These emotions flow down to regional pride if your city or town is on the route, or better still an arrival or departure city. When we visited Macon (more moules frites at a wonderful little restaurant) it still had the banners, posters and large paintings above the route they followed on the banks of the Saone. There is still some mistrust to the athletes involved and one man yesterday told us that he could not support as it was still widely known that all the participants were ‘juiced up’. That aside, the bum blistering race covered 3496.9km in 20 individual stages. Wiggo’s winning time was 87hours 34 minutes and 47 seconds, which placed him just over three minutes ahead of fellow Brit Chris Froome. It is mindboggling to see them winding their way up through the Alps and Pyrenees with an ease that defies the effort they must be putting in. There is now no rest for them as in less than a week they will be in London to compete at the Olympics – Bradley Wiggins was training around Lancashire less than 24 hours after his victory. I would hope that would be to clear the champagne from his system as I am sure he would have had the key to many a bar in Paris.



For legal and family reasons I did not mention a missing signet ring in my last blog. Our good friend DWR has a habit of misplacing his signet ring in the strangest of places and each time it somehow finds its way back to him. When he stood up in the gardens on our visit to Cormatin and asked me whether I knew if he had been wearing it earlier I knew we could be in big trouble. He hoped that he had left it at home but with CSI like photographic investigations we deduced that he had indeed been wearing it and it was now ‘somewhere’ within a 60 square metre area of long French grass. So on our hands and knees we went, but after an hour of searching we realised the magnitude of our problem and knew we were in need of Neil Price’s metal detector. Not having said detector readily to hand and the sun quickly slipping beneath the trees we made the brave decision to leave it and return at a better time to continue the search. That moment came two days later when we encouraged the gardeners to mow the section of grass so that we could carry on our quest for the signet ring, a move that Bilbo Baggins would have been proud of. The Cormatin gardeners were slightly apprehensive at first, which we put down to the unwarranted belief that we wanted to sit under the tree, sip Pimms and peel grapes while they searched for it. Once they had seen that we were keen to get our hands dirty and they had signed off any number of French ‘elf and safety papers they got the mower out and mowed the area. We then set to work and scoured the now much shorter grass with our hands until in a brilliant piece of Anglo-French relations we were supplied with a large leaf blower. It was not just your ordinary leaf blower. This was a contraption that Ghostbuster fans would have been proud of. It had a back pack and four settings – the highest of which was only slightly less than Hurricane Katrina. For the next hour and a half DWR and I systematically went over every blade of grass blowing all manner of insect life, swan poo, dirt, lolly wrappers, Roman coins, bones, fossils and dust from the lawn – but no signet ring. It appeared that the ring had used up all its luck and insurance claims would be processed, a thought that brought a feeling of dread to David. Even with cold beers beckoning I urged DWR not to give up and within moments we were rewarded with a glint of gold. There sitting amongst the grass roots was the signet ring. We screamed, we whooped and we high-fived, which we were able to do without the embarrassment of the gardeners watching as they had knocked off for the day at 5pm. The signet ring had returned. It was such a relief to DWR as he had not had a good day – the gear box on his car had packed up and on the way back we had to stop off to pay the €950 to the local garage. Shame we found the ring actually as the insurance pay out would have easily covered that!



I mentioned Macon earlier as we have grown accustomed to traveling there over the past few days. It is the nearest big city to us and is about a 40 minute drive away. The reason for travelling there has been to see how after-sales service works in France. Basically I had signed my iPhone up to a SFR pay-as-you go contract, which gave me 20 free days of internet and a €10 credit for €25. Bargain! Well it would have been a bargain if I did not have to drive back to the shop four times to get the system to work. My first lot of 20 days lasted 2 hours and the second lot lasted all of 1 hour. The 10 euros went west as I was leaving the shop. Driven to the point of exasperation by a shop assistant who told us it was ‘nothing to do with him’ we finally found a nice French Chinese girl who then spent an hour on the ‘phone (not mine) fixing the problem. That happened twice until we finally got it all done – and thanks to her arguing our case with Customer Services I got €20 credit free. Any credits that I built up with DWR by finding his signet ring have been long cashed in as he patiently assisted with translations and acted as a buffer when he thought I may be going to have a sense of humour failure with the little Moroccan twat in the shop. I was aware that DWR stopped translating for me at that point…anyway, we got there and to this point all systems are working. You would think that a country that managed to fly their spies half way round the word to sink a ship could manage to link a phone with their own system but maybe that is just me being disparaging of a wonderful nation. Even after all this hassle I certainly cannot, and will not, fault their ability to put excellent wine in bottles and outstanding food on plates.



On Friday night Mark and John arrived. Mark had made the trek over from Manchester via Windsor to pick up John, and then managed to get through the Chunnel in good time. The trip was made all the easier as they had not brought any of the items we had asked for. Their week old copy of the Observer was not well received. However, their arrival has put in place an even better kitchen team and culinary offerings have only been enhanced. With our new arrivals we moved into the house next door, which is slightly nicer if I may so and has given us a much bigger bedroom. It was nice for Mark to arrive in good time to celebrate Philip and Pat’s wedding anniversary, which began with a visit to the Cluny markets to buy the vegetables, cheese and meats. There is something magical about farmers’ markets and the Cluny ones are no exception. There are various stall holders set up in the shadows of the old abbey all selling their produce and we went back to the houses with bags overflowing ready to celebrate the big day. There was another reason to ‘remember’ and that was in toasting an absent friend. On previous visits to Burgundy we had been joined by David Thorpe, who sadly passed away two years ago. On this night ‘Thorpey’ was toasted on the terrace with a couple of bottles of his Premier Cru champagne that Philip had been given. He would have treasured that moment and he would have loved the meal we sat down to afterwards. The menu was: Scallops with orange and a shallot cream sauce followed by roasted lamb with potato gratin; and individual petite desserts. We have enjoyed excellent food since arriving in Burgundy. I could go through the menus individually but I think the two that I have mentioned highlight the standard.



Burgundy is really turning it on this week. The weather has been stunning and the temperatures have been as high as 32 degrees in Cluny. It is such a unique environment and I could never tire of the scenery in the region. The valley we are in is agricultural in nature with farmers tending to their livestock or, to use an old colloquialism, ‘making hay while the sun shines’. Go over the hills behind us and that scene is transformed into a hinterland of vineyards that stretch as far as the eye can see. Drive through the area and it is quick to see who gets priority – the roads give way to the vines meaning you drive on winding lanes that virtually corkscrew their way down the slope, and in places are only just big enough for two cars. You also get the sense of importance that wine has to the local workforce. Locals work alongside family members tending to the grapes in a simplistic style. A lot appears to be still done by hand and we watched the horses drag the tiller through the soil alongside the modern elevated vine cutters that drive over the rows. We visited one of the vineyards at Chiroubles - en Beaujolais. Here we sat with the wine maker Alain Passot and tasted his latest vintage. It is so different to NZ and Australian tasting in that the wine maker joins with you while tasting – he explains the wines, gives the low down on the terroir, and listens to your feedback. The tasting room sits beneath his home, which has the most incredible views back over the region and gives you the easiest of access to the vines as they stop right next to the driveway in. Alain was a happy man by the time we came to leave with boot space being taken up with numerous case buys.



One of the regular vists for DWR and PAW is to Domaine Gonan. It is not the easiest of drives from Chiroubles to Vergisson (appellation d’origine controlee Pouilly-Fuisse) and once again there is no direct route. With our convoy failing to stick together we ended up following quite different routes to the vineyard and were only 45 minutes late to meet with Monsieur Gonan. Thankfully after many a year visiting he is quite relaxed with the British timings. Here we met with under the cliffs of Roche de Vergisson in the most beautiful of surrounds – Vergisson’s sister the Roche du Solutré dominates the other direction. Monsieur Gonan set us up with five tastings in a small room off his bottling area, and they were stunning. This area is recognised for its fine white wines and we could not fault the ones we tried. His Pouilly-Fuisse 2010 was one of the nicest wines I have tried in a long time. His explanations were very helpful too – especially when he wanted to use his English. With the dominant grape used being Chardonnay he chuckled with the negative comparisons to the buttery and heavy Australian ones – he said in a very inoffensive way that there was five generations of his family and land in that bottle. With his son studying to be a Mechanical Engineer in Lyon I do hope they find the sixth generation to continue the line. I am not sure if it was the sun or the wine but the purchases here were certainly up on the previous vineyard – DWR blithely bought up wine without even a consideration of the money in his wallet; hence the hasty passing of cash over to him so he could settle his debts!



It is not all drinking wine and relaxing in this region. To break up the monotony we booked lunch at Lameloise in Chagny. This 15th century coach house inn lies right in the heart of the town and is now one of the finest restaurants in Burgundy. Since 2007 it has held the prestigious 3 Michelin Stars, one of only three restaurants in the region. To say that this was good would be like saying New Zealand got ‘a little bit excited’ during RWC 2012. It was quite possibly the most incredible food experience I have had. I have certainly never eaten at a 3* restaurant before and unless I win a lottery sometime soon I doubt it will become a weekly event. From the moment we arrived to the time we left the service did not falter in any way, and it was all done with the least amount of fuss. What the kitchens were like is anyone’s guess. We chose the Menu du Déjeuner (€75pp including 2 glasses of wine on a Monday) and so began a seven-course lunch. It is worth looking at the website www.lameloise.fr to see what I am talking about. There are generations of family members who have worked there and continue to do so today, although they have brought in Chef Eric Pras to allow for a succession. I had the escargot tarte to begin with (WOW) and followed that with a chicken dish that was served on two plates – the hazelnut encrusted potatoes were to die for. Narelle had the starter of Fois gras de carnard and the Lieu jaune de ligne, which involved a perfectly cooked piece of fish. As dessert was included I even managed to pick all the chocolate off and eat the raspberries, the sorbet and the gold leaf. The rest of my dessert was shared with Narelle. Throw in canapés, an amuse bouche, café au lait and unlimited mineral water and I have no idea how they do it for that price. It was a treat of exceptional standards and now NLS has the taste she is busy attempting to find others we could go to in the next few weeks.



The London Olympics are now only 48 hours away and the excitement is building. There are still the mundane press stories about long queues, traffic jams and insufficient staffing levels for the security details but there is no escaping the fact that come Friday it is ‘show time’. It was most probably not the best time for the latest economic figures to be posted. A 0.7% drop in the GDP means Britain is now in the midst of its longest double dip recession on record. It is the steepest fall since the first quarter of 2009 and has been exacerbated by a 5.2% decline in the construction sector. Economists are finding all manner of excuses and the best ones seem to be the extra public holiday for the Diamond Jubilee and the record rainfall levels for April and June. I am sure that both have had a contributing factor but it is fast becoming apparent that Europe is far from over the credit crunch and all it brought. There are daily stories on the weak economies of Spain, Italy and of course Greece; but what is also troubling is that the so called ‘safe’ economy of Germany is facing a downgrade of its credit rating. It is far from a settled economic zone and many commentators are predicting a break-up of the Eurozone in some form. Britain’s Chancellor, George Osborne, has been told that he must activate “Plan B” to halt all manner of economic doom; cynics seem to be questioning whether there is a “Plan B”, and if it is actually going to be any different to the multiple “Plan A’s” that they have already tried. Anyway, with that press inspired mundane rant now attributed to me I should go back to the positives of the Olympics. I cannot wait to watch the Danny Boyle choreographed Opening Ceremony and to see who will light the flame – for me it can only be Sir Steve Redgrave - and to watch the NZ Team march into the stadium. I have no idea who will carry the flag for NZ but expect it will come from within the group of Valerie Adams, Mahe Drysdale or the old warhorse himself, Mark Todd. I am thinking he has done it before but I am not sure of the protocol in regards repeat opportunities of being flag bearer – Chris would know. In Burgs we have an Olympics Dinner being cooked up by NLS, DWR and Mark. As with most opening day celebrations it is all pretty ‘hush hush’ but from what I have gleaned from NLS it should be fantastic. It will be our final night in ‘Burgs’ and a great way to celebrate London 2012, say our final goodbyes to this part of the trip and to some really special friends.

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