Day 4 & 5 – Soaking it all in

Monday morning rolled around and our first stop of the day was at the Patisserie. We purchased some fresh bread and sweets for breakfast and picked up some sandwiches for lunch later in the day. The walk over was quick and the town was pretty quiet. This isn’t a big tourist town, but the visitors who do make it here usually don’t do so until the afternoon.

It’s fun taking a different route each day so we can see a little more of the town, especially the residential streets. There are also many little shops and businesses tucked into the nooks and crannies.

Before heading back, we made a quick stop at the Chablis Bar to get a couple of coffees to go. When we arrived back at the house, we enjoyed our selection of goodies for a quick breakfast.

We all did our own thing for a little while afterwards – naps, reading, reviewing photos and blogging. Once we were all back to being chill, we decided to take a ride to see the vineyards and check out the harvesters. We started with a drive up Grand Crus Hill.

The views on the way up were beautiful. Most of the grapes had already been harvested, so we didn’t run into any machinery or pickers or get in anybody’s way. We made our way up to the top of the Les Clos climat and found a little park. You could walk through the woods to an observation point, but we chose not to go. Instead, we chose to turn around and head back down.

Another of the Grand Crus climats is called Les Blanchots. As we approached, we could see a few clusters of grapes still hanging on the vines. We stopped to take a few pictures before continuing on.

We returned to the main road and headed towards some of the Premier crus vineyards in search of some harvesting action. We had a little luck when we reached Vaucoupin. It actually appeared as though they were just finishing up when we arrived. Oh well, maybe a future harvest.

We drove back home and this time, with the help of my lovely assistants, it was an easy shot through the gate and into the driveway.

We opened the house up and let the warm breeze flow through the windows and doors. They were predicting a little rain later in the evening, but that would have no effect on us, so we could chalk up another beautiful day.

With some music playing, we brought out our cheese, sausage, nuts and bread and opened a bottle of wine. That became our dinner and we just chatted and had a pleasant evening.

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We woke up Tuesday to another beautiful morning: sunny, blue skies – always a welcomed sight. Nancy and I walked over to the boulangerie to get some breakfast treats. Without exaggeration, everything is within a ten minute walk from us, with most only about five minutes.

On this day I was hoping to find some pain au chocolates (croissants with bits of chocolate baked in) but they were not to be found. Luckily, there are a million other fabulous pastry items that were calling out to us. We bought some tigrès, a chocolate beignet, a viennois au chocolate and a couple of madelines and then headed across the street to get a couple of coffees before making our way back home with our own bountiful harvest.

Everything was delicious! The overall favorites were the tigrès. They are a cross between a pound cake and lighter pastry, with chocolate chips baked in and then topped with a layer of chocolate ganache. They’re decadent, but delicious.

This afternoon we have a wine tasting and tour planned at Domaine Long-Depaquit, so we have a little time to relax before walking over.

When the time arrived, we took a slow walk over to the domaine.

Our hostess/guide for the afternoon was Maureen and she was a delight. We started with a short walk through the facilities. Since there was still work being done, we just peeked into the press room. We then moved on to see the newly filled fermentation tanks and finished with a look down in the barrel room. Maureen was answering our questions and just talking about the winery in general.

And then it was time to taste the fruits of their labor or the labors of the fruits, no matter – it was wine time!

Our tasting included a Chablis, two Premier Crus and two Grand Crus. The premier crus were from Les Beugnons and Les Lys, while the Grand Crus were from Les Vaudesirs and Les Blanchots. All were different, all were good and some went home with us.

We made our way back home to relax for a while before dinner. Tonight we are returning to Les Bistrot des Grands Crus with a 7:30 pm reservation. While we were relaxing, we could hear a commotion out front.

There is a tradition here where once the harvest is complete at a winery, the pickers will parade down the streets honking tractor horns. Some will have drums or a trumpet of sorts. The pickers will whoop it up and sing and just celebrate with their weary bodies the end of the harvest. Many will wear laurel wreaths made from grape vines and there is usually a “Bacchus” or two among the revelers. You can always tell when someone has finished as the horns and chants can be heard throughout the town.

As one such group made their way down our street, Sue and I walked out to watch. A couple of the young men were passing out glasses of some of the first pressed juice and came over to share some with us. We congratulated them on a job well done. It was really cool to interact with them. If only I knew the words to their song…

A quick change of clothes and we were off to the restaurant. It’s only a 7 minute walk, so we had plenty of time. We started with an aperitif on the terrace while we waited for our starters. The restaurant was quite busy with couples and groups of people scattered throughout. We assumed that many of them were in town for the harvest. The three gentlemen seated next to us looked a little bit hammered and had a bit of instability in their gait on the way to the mens’ room.

No matter – they were well behaved and we were there for dinner. We had a good mix of meals around the table. Michael started with the gazpacho followed by the duck breast, Nancy and Sue both went with the pork tenderloin in a mustard cream sauce with linguini and I started with the tomatoes and burrata followed by the boeuf tenderloin with mashed sweet potatoes. Sue and I did partake in dessert: she had a mille feuille and I had a creme bruleé. We paired the meal with a 2022 Chambolle Musigny red burgundy.

With full tummies, we strolled back home. It was a crisp, cool evening and the moon was shining brilliantly. It felt like a perfect fall evening for a walk.

We stayed up for a while listening to music and chatting about life before heading upstairs to get a good night’s sleep.