La Closerie Beaune

... and she wants me to prepare i think shes expecting a fully structured presentation) and philosophy (which is a snooze fest).
Then i came home a skyped my family which was nice but also a sad reminder of what i miss.
Then Marie took me to a drama lesson. I didn't understand very much of the French but i could understand what the teacher wanted me to do. I participated for a majority of it, mainly in the tableaues (because they are ...

... christmas lights set up above the roads but they do not turn on until the 1st of December. I also saw 2 of the 3 churchs near by but i did not go inside. Lastly Marie's mum took me up onto the roof of their building and showed me where the servants used to live and also the attic.
Questions are asked to me in french but explinations of places or things are done in english because it is very difficult to understand so much. Last night though i found that as i was ...

... really got what, but it all tasted good.

Our trip to Burgundy would not be complete without a stop in Nuit-St. George, where we again employed the "look for the sign of whoever is open" tactic and were not dissapointed. We got to try some excellent Pinot, C******nay, and even some Aligote (a white that they mix with Creme de Cassis for an aperitif) from some of the local producers.
Now its up to Champagne!

... us we all agreed on just a quick stop at a nearby Abbey that was on the way back to Paris. Driving through the French countryside was beautiful but since it was another foggy day it was scary at times on those winding roads. We never actually found the Abbey but we did come across a Chateau. We didn't get out of the car since Angela's mom was nervous about returning the car on time. The ride back to Paris was pretty bleak and boring due to the rainy weather and the one ...

... platform until 15 minutes before and my train was very long, it took almost five minites to get to the last carriage. It was the secnd TGV train I have been on (the first was from Luxembourg to Paris. They are the fastest trains in the world. I have been told that the most recent trial had the train travelling faster than a plane (however the rails couldn't handle it).
From Paris to Dijon it only tok an hour and a half, the Ice trains in Germany would have taken at least ...

... bike (500kg ?) on the back of a camper leaving the site. A quick double-take showed the rack (looking just like ours) had a small road wheel centrally placed. I am dubious and need an engineer, chris, to tell me that this is a sensible idea. If so, we may be swapping the Innova for the Bonneville!.
More torrential rain, thunder and spectacular sheet lightning during the night.

26th July 09, Poinchy, Chablis 47.49'21"N 3.46'32"E
Our ...

Booked a site off the A6 en route to the south of france - again we are the youngest by about 20 years and Lauren is practically embryonic!The site is opp. some sort of manufacturing base but hey the pool is across the river and the wine is great in this region... Talking of pools - Stu was stopped in his tracks and asked to disrobe of his board shorts and don a very tight fitting pair of trunks ...

... them up. We are rolling through grapes and domaines with names so famous even I know them: Mersault,Pulignyu-Montrachet, Pommard, Nuits-St-Georges, Pouilly-Fuisse. I had always wondered about the cote d'or, cote de nuits, cote de beaune. It turns out that cote, in addition to meaning coast or next to, means slopes or hills. So the grand cru vines are planted on the hills next to the Saone ...

... of year. But more than that, the rolling hills, interspersed with quaint villages every so often, revealing themselves unexpectedly like Brigadoon as we crested a hill or rounded a bend, seemed to just go on forever. Such a pastoral expanse is to be expected, I suppose, but the sightlines these hills afforded caught me a bit off-guard. Forevermore, it will be those vistas I will recall when anyone utters the words, "wine country." After a pleasant 30 minute ride through such ...

... 2 of them and some horses and ponies, all part of a traveling with a circus. We loved that the village just let them stop and graze. This lassez-faŭre attitude is a great part of France. You can pretty much do what you like as well as you're not bothering anyone. Oh, by the way, just wanted to let you know the traveling circus is alive and well in France. We saw posters for 4 or 5 different traveling circus' while there. The next day we headed through Dijon ...