Vacation - Final Chapter

Finally, the third and final chapter of our vacation. When we last left you we were in Athens, Greece. On Monday, September 16 we flew from Athens to Paris, with a one hour layover in Madrid. We had a one hour layover however, our luggage spent the night.

After spending a few hours trying to arrange to get our luggage delivered, we got to our hotel for about five hours of sleep before catching a train the following morning to Macon. In Macon we met up with Kent and Heather- friends we met in the Bahamas and with whom we watched the solar eclipse back in 2017.

Kent and Heather have a canal boat in France and had invited us to visit on the way home from Greece. Or maybe we invited ourselves, I'm not quite sure. Anyway, we spent the good part of four days on their boat on the Saone River. We started in Macon and moved up the river to La Truchere where we spent the first night. Wednesday we stopped in Tournus for lunch and sightseeing before moving on to Chalon-sur-Saone that afternoon. When we arrived at the marina in Chalon-sur-Saone we met back up with our luggage. Hooray!

Thursday Kent had rented a car so we headed out see (and taste) some of Bourgogne (Burgundy). Our first stop was a wine co-op in Buxy where we tasted several wines from small vinyards in the area. From there we found a boulangerie where we got some sandwiches to go before stopping at the Chateau de Rully for a picnic lunch.  We had one more wine tasting scheduled for later in the day so we drove around amongst the vinyards and stopped to watch two different techniques for harvesting grapes.  Our last wine tasting was at Feuillat-Juillot in Montagny. Camille was our sommelier and is the daughter of the owner. As an aside, since we met her, she ran the New York City Marathon in 3 hours and 6 minutes. It probably goes without saying, but the wines were fantastic and our pallets don't do it justice.

All in all, we had a great time, ate great food, and thoroughly enjoyed France. Thanks to our hosts Kent and Heather for showing us their France. If anyone is interested in chartering a canal boat and traveling around the rivers of France, Heather has written a practical guide you'll want to read. You can find it at... https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Guide-European-Canal-Charters/dp/1495468038

Now for some pictures.

Kent and Heather's canal boat, Apres Ski

Not many but an occasional barge

Our first lock, where Heather went ashore, knocked on the door
of the lock master's house and then helped him open and close the gates

Chateau de Rully

Brian and Susan after our picnic lunch

Kent and Heather

Kent found some grapes that had been missed. Yummy!

Grapes for table wine can be harvested by machine

Better quality wines require the grapes by harvested by hand

Domaine Feuillat-Juillot

Chalone-sur-Saone

Our route on the Saone

That's all for now. Take care.

Brian