TravelStream™ news feed for member namalee on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/namalee en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sun, 03 May 2009 17:14:09 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/namalee/7/1241377980/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/namalee/7/1241377980/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/namalee/7/1241377980/tpod.html Sun, 03 May 2009 17:14:09 -0400 The Thames Path

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London, England, United Kingdom

19kms
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London, England, United Kingdom

Start of the trip
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Maligny, France

There were a number of tasks to be achieved today - the main one being the celebration of my birthday. But before we could put our minds to that properly, we had to go and visit "my" vineyard which goes by the name of Domaine Seguinot-Bordet, and is located in Maligny in the Chablis region.

We arrived there around 10.30am and, after ringing the bell a few times, were let in by Jean-Francois who is the owner and winemaker. He gave us a quick tour of the winemaking area (I'd seen this the last time I'd visited about 2 years before). They were emptying out one of the tanks of all its wine to put it into a different tank - the technicalities were a little beyond me, but I now understand what about a bathful of 'wine-in-the-making' looks like (very frothy!).

We had a chat and a taste of the 2006 vintage (apparently another good year for Chablis, as was 2005). After telling him that we were going to be driving back to Calais via Champage, he suggested that we go and visit one of his friends Champagne Houses in a place called Pierry, very near Epernay. Then we collected my 24 bottles of 2005 Domaine Seguinot-Bordet Chablis and an extra bottle that Diane bought and headed off to Champagne.

We missed Chateau Michele Lenique on the first attempt, but managed to turn ourselves around and looked to do a tasting. The woman (whose name I forget) started off very aloof and very French, until we told her that Jean-Francois had recommended that we visit her and then she opened up...well as much as her English and my French enabled her to! Having purchased two bottles of Champagne (one by me - it was my birthday after all!), she told us about a walk that happens in Champagne in June every year. Sounds like a fun thing to do and I'm trying to be able to make it.

Then it was lunchtime, but I was getting a bit concerned that we were running late and still had a fair amount of ground to cover before the ferry sailing. So, we popped into a nearby supermarket (a fairly large one) and stocked up on lunch supplies. The weather wasn't very conducive to a picnic outside, so we had lunch in the car in the supermarket carpark! But what a lunch! Hot pork, potatoes dauphinoise, bread, ham, cheese and all topped off with a slice of a yummy, fudgy, chocolate cake ("birthday cake") that I had bought in the Chablis market the day before.

And apart from random 'rest stops', the rest of the afternoon was pretty much driving to Calais - a bit of an adventure trying to find a petrol station to fill up the car before we dropped it off, but we managed to find a petrol station on the side of a roundabout in the middle of town. The journey back to the ferry terminal was more than a little interesting - took the wrong exit out of the roundabout and ended up in the truck loading area. Obviously we weren't the first car drivers to be caught out in that way - just as we were getting a little panicky about what to do, there appeared an 'Exit' sign, which seemed perfectly designed for car drivers who were lost!

We managed to get on an earlier ferry crossing than originally planned, but still had some time up our sleeve. Which we used to good effect by finishing off the cake and an open bottle of Chablis that we had been carrying around with us. Dinner (if that's what it should be called) consisted of bread, brie, ham and Rose Champage from Maison Michele Lenique! What a great way to end my birthday!!

Got back home just after midnight after an enjoyable, but tiring trip.
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London, United Kingdom

End of trip
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Dover, United Kingdom

Dover on return leg
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Calais, France

Ferry terminal
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Calais, France

Calais on return trip
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Troyes, France

Brief stop
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Pierry, France

Chateau Michel Lenique
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Chablis, France

Morning stop in Chablis
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