Maison du Curé - Blog » 2012

The Blog: Our life in Burgundy

May 30, 2012

The Cortambert Randonnée – next Sunday 3rd June

Filed under: Events,Places,Village Life,Weather — Tags: Cortambert Randonnée, Walks — Mary @ 22:59

The view from the vineyards above Bray

For several weeks Chris has been busy devising the routes for the Cortambert Randonnée to be held next Sunday. There are three circuits of different lengths, 8km (blue), 15km (yellow) and 25km (red) for which there is a charge of 3€, 4€ and 5€ respectively. Registration starts at the foyer rural in Cortambert from 8am. Each entrant receives a map and all start off the same way towards Toury until the first drinks station when their paths diverge. Further on the yellow route will have one stop for refreshments and the red route will have two.

Checking the route with Pascale

The walkers will enjoy a varied terrain of forest, meadow and vineyards. During the last few weeks Chris has checked that the paths are accessible and, as far as possible, keep off road. The walkers will leave Cortambert for Toury and Bray, then the longer circuit goes on to Chissey and back through Culey. Their paths will meet again at Toury to return to the foyer rural at Cortambert, a chance to rest while enjoying further refreshments provided by the foyer rural committee.

Recce with Patrick and Chantal re refreshment tents

It looks like the weather will be overcast and not so hot by the weekend. Hopefully a perfect day for walking on Sunday.

May 26, 2012

You can take a horse to water……but you might end up in the drink

Filed under: Events — Tags: Cluny, Laizé ponies — Mary @ 23:17

Horses are curiously ambivalent about water, which causes endless amusement. In competitions water jumps cause more problems than any other obstacle. We have stood and watched horses wide-eyed with fear, their legs flailing, jumping over water only a foot deep. In the cross country the jump into the lake and out again causes more refusals than the biggest obstacle.

An obstacle in the lake at Laizé

The horses at Laizé often cross the shallow river not far from the stables, and enjoy a drink and a paddle when coming back from a trek. Today it was very hot and after a hectic gallop past the vineyards we stopped at the river. Chris’s horse Damwer decided the water was so inviting he would go for a little swim. Luckily Chris was able to jump off so only his feet got wet.

Damwer goes for a swim

Coming up next weekend there’s a big international competition at the Hippodrome in Cluny. The cross country competitions take place on Saturday and Sunday. If you watch by the ford you will see what I mean about horses and water…..

May 20, 2012

LeTour de Cortambert

Filed under: Events,Places,Village Life — Tags: Cortambert, cycling, Tour de France — Mary @ 18:18

Ready for an early start

The Cortambert Cycle Club met this morning for a 41km ride which went through some of the prettiest villages imaginable. I loved this ride as, like Escher’s perpetual staircase, it seemed to be downhill all the way until the last few kilometres back up the hill to Cortambert.

We headed north via Bray to Lys, then to Chapaize and Champagny-sous-Uxelles, and followed the river to Bresse-sur-Grosne and Sercy, ending up in St Gengoux-le-National. We had an easy ride back along the voie verte past Cormatin before turning off at Massilly for the upward climb back to Cortambert.

The profile of our route

It’s wonderful landscape for cycling. You can stay within the Grosne Valley which is relatively flat, or you can tackle the challenging ascents over the hills into the next valley. And there’s very little traffic. We must have met half a dozen motorists at most during our ride. If you want to keep off the roads the voie verte makes cycling very easy with such slight inclines that you hardly notice.

Preparations are being made for a rather bigger event, the Tour de France, which departs from Liège in Belgium on June 30^th . There will be a rest day in Mâcon and on Wednesday July 11^th we will see the start of stage 10, a 194 km ride towards Switzerland, climbing the 1500m Col du Grand Colombier on the way.

This rather puts this morning’s ride into perspective!

May 18, 2012

The Best of Burgundy

Filed under: People,Places — Tags: Beaujolais, Food, wine — Mary @ 10:48

This week it has been lovely to see my sister Carol from Australia who is touring Europe for eight weeks with her husband and a couple of friends.

Independently they have been out and about discovering many interesting places, the Chateau of Cormatin, Taizé, the medieval church at Chapaize, the castle at Brancion, the Abbeys of Cluny and Tournus, the markets….. But we thought it our mission to introduce them to some of the best things about Burgundy, the food and wine.

On Wednesday we enjoyed a winetasting trip around the Beaujolais. We started at ‘Clochemerle’. This village is actually called Vaux-en-Beaujolais and was the setting of the famous novel written in 1934 by Gabriel Chevallier. It is about the arguments over plans to install a new urinal in the main square and the vicious politics of a small village. Unfortunately for Chevallier he changed the name of the village but not the names of the inhabitants. There was such an uproar that questions were asked in Parliament.

The famous pissoir in Clochemerle

Meandering our way back towards Mâcon we partook of a bit of dégustation in Juliénas, whose cave is a converted church, and Fleurie, which is renowned for its huge mural. Chiroubles also produces one of our favourite wines, a very good year being 2009. But the highlight of the day was a visit to a tiny cave in Saint-Amour where we had the best crémant I have ever tasted.

My sister helping to pour the crémant

Last night we took them to what we consider to be the best restaurant in the region, La Grange Finot at Bray, not far from Cormatin. Despite it being a holiday for Ascension Day we almost had the place to ourselves. The chef, Serge Curtil, presents the best of local French cuisine and the service is wonderful. www.lagrangefinot.fr

Copying Serge's secret recipes?

I hope our visitors enjoyed this week as much as we have. Soon they leave for the Alsace en route to Paris via Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy. Bon Voyage!

Older Posts »

Our Life in Burgundy