The retired traveller: Tuesday, May 17, 2022

The Grands Crus (translates as best vintages) are considered the best wines in the Burgundy region. The Route des Grands Crus is a signposted route that winds through the vineyards of the best wines of Burgundy. It travels from Dijon in the north all along the Côte d'Or through Beaune and heads farther south, a total of 60 km. It is the oldest wine route in France. We plan to start in Dijon and follow it as far as Meursault just south of Beaune where Clark has arranged a 3 pm tasting.

Route des Grands Crus

The road winds us through lots of little wine villages,, all of them charming and filled with uncountable domains many of which offer "dégustation" wine tasting and "vente" sales to individuals. The villages are small with narrow streets and many signs for "Domaine" indicating a grape grower-wine producer. Between the towns are endless vineyards to right and left of the road, climbing out of the valley and up onto the hillsides. The vineyards are also dotted with white vans which have brought workers out to the vineyards. They work slowly, patiently along each row. It must be back-breaking work as they inspect each vine.

please forgive the quality of this photo - I was shooting out the window of a moving car - vineyard workers on right side

Can you see the baby grapes on the vine? One thing wine growers must do is pick off some of the grapes, keeping only one or two bunches on the stem. This is because there are limits to how much wine can be produced from each hectare (2,500 bottles of wine per hectare).

The Michelin Green Guide has a tour that follows the Route des Grands Crus telling us not-to-be-missed sites along the way. Our first stop on the tour is the village of Fixey. We tasted wine there a couple weeks ago and took a photo from the wine cellar of the colorful steeple of the church of St. Antoine. Today, we parked near the church to visit. The church sits above the town with vineyards reaching right up to its walls.

Janis & Clark in vineyard by church

The bell tower is covered in enameled tiles in black and gold

St. Antoine church, Fixey

Inside, the 10th century Romanesque nave is dark with its wooden beams and small high windows. A bell tower and choir were built at a later time and are much brighter.

St Antoine church, Fixey, view from nave looking to altar

Dave standing in side aisle of St. Antoine church, Fixey

dove cote behind the church

Towns are only a few kilometers apart, each one surrounded by its vineyards. In France (and most of Europe), it's the norm for farmers to live in villages or towns and drive out to their fields. This holds true whether the "crop" is cattle, grain, or grapes. Tractors en route to their land are common sights here. (And in town, the farmer's house will include a stone house, most often attached to another building used for housing animals and/or equipment.)

We next come to Gevry-Chambertin, stopping briefly to photograph its church and 10th century castle.

castle

church

The Route des Grands Crus sends you through the center of all the villages on the route and of course, there's always a picturesque church in the Place d'Eglise (church square) in the very middle of town. This church is in Morey-St. Denis.

church in center of Morey-St Denis

In Ruelle-Vergey, Janis noticed a public bathroom sign. Dave's Rule Number 2 is that you never pass up a bathroom when you find one. You never know how far away the next one may be. So, while we all took turns using the toilet, we took a few pictures of this little corner of France.

on the back side of this agricultural building is where the very nice handicapped toilet was located

town hall in Ruelle-Vergey

inside the arcades on the ground floor of the town hall is the old lavoir (town laundry). The drain pipes from the roof cleverly send their water into the lavoir

On the road again, it's time to look for a spot for lunch. Nuits St. Georges is a reasonably sized town. We spotted a park with picnic tables and as a bonus, there was a parking space right next to the park.

Janis and Clark waiting for a picnic table to clear in this town park

close up of tree below - beautiful flowers

tree at picnic area

Once lunch was over, we explored the church in the center of town, St. Symphorien. The church is circled by its walled cemetery, which on approach looks abandoned. But a sign explains that in this oldest part of the cemetery, the land has been allowed to go back to nature which is ecologically more sustainable.

St Symphorien in Nuits-St-George

The church was begun in the early 13th century in Romanesque style. Of course, it suffered in the wars of religion and was repaired in the 17th century as we've seen with so many other churches.

this narrow stairway goes up to the organ loft

backside of the circular stairway

the salmon and white paint in this church make it very light and bright

part of the cemetery that has not been allowed to "go natural"

On the way back, I was pleased to see this sign (across from the church) for a domaine owned by a woman. While we've learned about many women involved in the wine industry, it is rare to have a woman's name associated with a domaine.

On the road again (makes me want to sing that Willie Nelson song), we followed the road through vineyard after vineyard, finally arriving at our 3:00 appointment in Mersault. The domaine Clark had chosen was modestly sign posted, but our GPS Navigator, Claire, got us to the right spot easily and, as luck would have it, there was a typical French parking area right across the road.

French cities often have off street parking lots that are shaded by double rows of trees, I'm not sure why, but it's a good idea

The vineyards behind the domaine do not belong to the domaine as indicated by the field sign carved in stone.

A vineyard that belongs to the monks of Citeaux Abbey

But the tasting was well done by an enthusiastic hostess who spoke good English. We bought 6 bottles of wine - 3 white, 1 Pommard, a rosé, and a crémant (bubbly) rosé.