France and Switzerland 2014 - Day 8

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August 7, 2014 (Actually posting from Zurich because of poor internet connection on the barge.)

Our field trip today was driving along the ‘Route des Grandes Crus’ and through the vineyards of

the Côte du Nuits. These vineyards are incredibly old. This marker is from 1723.

We stopped at the Château of Clos de Vougeot, which was the perfect setting to learn about the importance that wine played in Burgundy’s history. Clos de Vougeot is a wine farm established in the 12^th century by monks. In the 16^th century a chateau was built. It is not a working vineyard now but it now is a museum with the original wine-making equipment.

 We then went to experience a wine tasting at the Domaine Rion Bernard. It was really

interesting to taste the different classes of wine Burgundy produces.

 When we returned we were served a lovely lunch and the spent the afternoon on the deck cruising until dinner. (I will post a page of photos of our meals when we get home and have better internet. They were a gorgeous as the pictures of nature!) What a life!

Among the beautiful trees and meadows we observed, we were curious about trees we have

seen along the way. They seem to have ball-shaped growths. I don’t know the name of the trees they grown on or if they are not picky about what trees but Jim told us that they are Mistletoe and are parasitic on the trees. I always thought Mistletoe was cultivated. Go figure!

Dinner was another adventure in dining for me. We started with salad niceoise with scallops and black pudding. The black pudding actually was little black disks that were delicious. I totally ignored the fact that when we asked what they were made from we were told it was blood sausage. I thought they were made from quinoa, which I really am not fond of, so I ignored what they were!

The salad was followed by duck prepared two ways; one shredded and deep fried to a crunchy texture and the other sliced with a sweet and sour sauce. This course was followed by a sticky toffee pudding in a butterscotch sauce. We listened to Segovia while dining. Very civilized!