Burgundy Region, France
It was dark so I didn't see much of the country side or the town on the way in, but when we got to Richard's house it was a sight to see! It's a beautiful house filled to the brim with all sorts of trinkets, art, books, weapons, world currency, puppets, souvenirs, and scores of great items from countries all over the world. Richard and his family have traveled to many places and they have such great things to look at from the trips it's like a museum. Very cool! Richard's father doesn't speak any English so we haven't really been able to talk much besides Rich's translating for us. He had dinner waiting for us though which was great. Fresh pheasant he had just hunted that day, potatoes, vegetables, fresh bread, and...epic wine. His Dad is a French wine connoisseur and opened a bottle of red for us that can only be described as mind-blowing. I wish I could tell you what it was, it was a 1999...something. He picked it out to go with the meal and I must say it was absolutely awesome. The best wine I have ever tasted. Dinner was followed by a fresh apple tart made with apples from their garden outside, and a nice cup of coffee.The next morning we woke up to breakfast where we had fresh croissants, coffee, and fresh bread from the local bakery. Got ready to go out and spent the first part of the morning hiking through the forest and a local field of Corbigny. One of the local fields has a large monument in a farmer's field where a plane crashed in 1934.
We explored the monument a bit and then went for a walk through the forests behind it for awhile, it was partially raining and cold as hell but it sure is nice to see TREES for the first time in awhile. And I don't mean palm trees or the ones you find in Paris, I mean a real forest. The kind that you could start walking through and not ever find your way out. There weren't any leaves on the trees though because of, well you know...Winter...but it was great anyhow. Stumbling upon old tree houses and the like, reminded me a lot of my child hood growing up on Cape Cod and doing the same sort of thing. The climate and geography here are much like the Cape in a way.
Not all that exciting, but...trees!After the forest we headed back to the house for lunch where we had one of the best steaks I've ever tasted, a glass of wine from a bottle that I probably couldn't afford with a week's paycheck, mashed potatoes and some fresh bread. This is lunch by the way. (I love this place!) Next we left off on a thirty minute drive to visit the nearby town of Vezelay. Vezelay, France is an amazing town located on a large bluff overlooking the surrounding Burgundy region. It contains one of France's oldest and most famous Romanesque churches, the Basilica of St. Mary Magdalene. We visited the church and got to explore a crypt underneath before walking the grounds and seeing a fantastic view of the surrounding valleys from atop the bluff. Here is a photo I found of the city.
Vezelay, France
I picked up a souvenir from Vezelay before we headed back into Corbigny for another epic dinner at the Adenot House. That night we had a meal known as Croque Monsieur/Croque Madame. It's essentially a grilled ham and cheese sandwich, the latter with a friend egg on top. It was great! The combination of French cheese, ham, butter, and eggs delivers just an exquisite taste. All natural food, probably from a farm right nearby. Richard's father uncorked another epic bottle of red wine from his wine cellar and we enjoyed a great meal. For dessert we had a fresh apple pie, yogurt, and coffee.
This morning we woke up and after another breakfast of fresh bread and croissants we hopped in the car for an hour ride to visit Richard's aunt and uncle on their farm. The farm is so big it stretched from one horizon to the next it seemed, their house sitting atop a great bluff overlooking the farmland spread out for miles (kilometers, har har) in all directions. They didn't speak any English either, so again Rich was the translator for us. His aunt greeted us with a glass of "Porto" which I can only describe as a ridiculously potent wine. Your glass is filled up with only about as much as a shot in the States (an ounce or so), it tastes sweet and rich like a sweet red wine but has a much higher alcohol percentage. It's tasty, heh. While waiting for his Uncle to finish work, we got to spend a half hour or so on their Four Wheeler romping around their land in the woods. So. Much. Fun. Haven't been on one of those since I was probably 16-17 or so. We finished up, cleaned off (some of) the mud, and went back to the house. For lunch we had fresh salad, another steak, scalloped potatoes, and fresh bread. Yeah...this was lunch again, they eat well here! Some apple cider and a yogurt for dessert.
We spent awhile at the house and then decided we would drive to Magny Cours, a large F1 circuit about 20 minutes away. We wanted to go there to do some kart racing on the kart circuit they have and got lucky when we arrived and were the only ones there. We had the course to ourselves! We paid roughly 60 euros each for 5 tickets, (5 runs each) which was about 30 laps over the course of two hours. This was my first time ever driving a kart on a real circuit, and it was some of the most fun I've EVER had. It had rained that morning so the track was wet still, so I started off pretty slow while I got used to it and we got the tires warmed up. I think my first lap time was something around 1:28 and by the end of the day I had a lap time of 1:10:967. 18 seconds shaved! Richard has done this a hundred times and his best time was 1:10:300 so I was really happy with my lap time for my first day. I really want to try it again once I get back to Los Angeles. My body is sore, my head hurts, I'm tired, and I can't wait to do it all over again.
This is the kart circuit at Magnys-Cours.
After racing we drove to another place yet again where Richard wanted to show me his land. His father had given him a large spot of land nearby and we wanted to hike out through it and look around. Rich hadn't been here in while so he wanted to walk through, but also it was fun just to explore and see everything. We walked awhile and came across a large river flowing through the middle of it, skipped some stones, hung out a bit then headed back when it got dark. We came back to the house again in Corbigny after that, where we just had yet another epic dinner. Beef, sausage, vegetables, potatoes, bread, and what was described to me as "the best bottle of white wine you will probably ever taste in your life." Even Richard's father was apprehensive about opening this one. For dessert we had the Adenot Family's secret recipe Chocolate cake. So good! After dinner his Dad showed us his wine collection, which was unbelievable. He had several bottles from the 1950's and probably a bottle from every year in between. I can't properly describe how awesome this is. Just believe me.
After dinner his dad wanted to show us his hobby, collecting rare old documents related to his family's history. He has documents dating all the way back to the 12th century. Un-freaking-believable to see and touch these. Eight hundred year old pieces of paper, err, leather I should say, just in a folder we can see and touch and read. He had traced his family's heritage and history and built a family tree reaching back to the 1500's. He said it has taken him over twenty years to complete what he has done so far. Stop and consider that for a moment. It's amazing and inspiring.
Here I sit now in front of a warm fire, watching Star Wars and writing to the world. Tomorrow will be a relaxing day filled with more great food, alcohol, good stories, and who knows what else.
Vezelay, FranceI picked up a souvenir from Vezelay before we headed back into Corbigny for another epic dinner at the Adenot House. That night we had a meal known as Croque Monsieur/Croque Madame. It's essentially a grilled ham and cheese sandwich, the latter with a friend egg on top. It was great! The combination of French cheese, ham, butter, and eggs delivers just an exquisite taste. All natural food, probably from a farm right nearby. Richard's father uncorked another epic bottle of red wine from his wine cellar and we enjoyed a great meal. For dessert we had a fresh apple pie, yogurt, and coffee.
This morning we woke up and after another breakfast of fresh bread and croissants we hopped in the car for an hour ride to visit Richard's aunt and uncle on their farm. The farm is so big it stretched from one horizon to the next it seemed, their house sitting atop a great bluff overlooking the farmland spread out for miles (kilometers, har har) in all directions. They didn't speak any English either, so again Rich was the translator for us. His aunt greeted us with a glass of "Porto" which I can only describe as a ridiculously potent wine. Your glass is filled up with only about as much as a shot in the States (an ounce or so), it tastes sweet and rich like a sweet red wine but has a much higher alcohol percentage. It's tasty, heh. While waiting for his Uncle to finish work, we got to spend a half hour or so on their Four Wheeler romping around their land in the woods. So. Much. Fun. Haven't been on one of those since I was probably 16-17 or so. We finished up, cleaned off (some of) the mud, and went back to the house. For lunch we had fresh salad, another steak, scalloped potatoes, and fresh bread. Yeah...this was lunch again, they eat well here! Some apple cider and a yogurt for dessert.
We spent awhile at the house and then decided we would drive to Magny Cours, a large F1 circuit about 20 minutes away. We wanted to go there to do some kart racing on the kart circuit they have and got lucky when we arrived and were the only ones there. We had the course to ourselves! We paid roughly 60 euros each for 5 tickets, (5 runs each) which was about 30 laps over the course of two hours. This was my first time ever driving a kart on a real circuit, and it was some of the most fun I've EVER had. It had rained that morning so the track was wet still, so I started off pretty slow while I got used to it and we got the tires warmed up. I think my first lap time was something around 1:28 and by the end of the day I had a lap time of 1:10:967. 18 seconds shaved! Richard has done this a hundred times and his best time was 1:10:300 so I was really happy with my lap time for my first day. I really want to try it again once I get back to Los Angeles. My body is sore, my head hurts, I'm tired, and I can't wait to do it all over again.
This is the kart circuit at Magnys-Cours.After racing we drove to another place yet again where Richard wanted to show me his land. His father had given him a large spot of land nearby and we wanted to hike out through it and look around. Rich hadn't been here in while so he wanted to walk through, but also it was fun just to explore and see everything. We walked awhile and came across a large river flowing through the middle of it, skipped some stones, hung out a bit then headed back when it got dark. We came back to the house again in Corbigny after that, where we just had yet another epic dinner. Beef, sausage, vegetables, potatoes, bread, and what was described to me as "the best bottle of white wine you will probably ever taste in your life." Even Richard's father was apprehensive about opening this one. For dessert we had the Adenot Family's secret recipe Chocolate cake. So good! After dinner his Dad showed us his wine collection, which was unbelievable. He had several bottles from the 1950's and probably a bottle from every year in between. I can't properly describe how awesome this is. Just believe me.
After dinner his dad wanted to show us his hobby, collecting rare old documents related to his family's history. He has documents dating all the way back to the 12th century. Un-freaking-believable to see and touch these. Eight hundred year old pieces of paper, err, leather I should say, just in a folder we can see and touch and read. He had traced his family's heritage and history and built a family tree reaching back to the 1500's. He said it has taken him over twenty years to complete what he has done so far. Stop and consider that for a moment. It's amazing and inspiring.
Here I sit now in front of a warm fire, watching Star Wars and writing to the world. Tomorrow will be a relaxing day filled with more great food, alcohol, good stories, and who knows what else.
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