La Belle Epoque and the Canal du Bourgogne

Monday, September 27, 2010

As we rise gently in a lock about two miles from Tonnerre, the adventure really begins. The countryside is gently rolling to slightly hilly. Over the hills is Chablis, around and about are the vineyards of chardonnay and pinot noir. The canal follows the river Armançon through the valley, taking a course laid out in the reign of Louis Quatorze. Now the Canal du Bourgogne, though, is only used for recreation. According to the crew it is only open from 8 am to noon and from 1:30 to 5 in the afternoon. All green and lush.

Getting here was easy. All flights were on time, we had a good lunch of andouillette for John and duck parmentier for Ben at the Bleu Express in Gare de Lyons after a five hour Ambien-induced sleep on Air France's 777.










We met the group in Paris: Friends chosen for their abilities to converse and be interesting, according to our hosts Jane and Peter. The discussions never stop, from politics to business affairs to social issues to travels.

We're from all over the country. Jane and Peter from Atherton, Dick and CB from Russian Hill, Ed and Gigi from Portola Valley, all in Northern California, Angie and Bubba from Houston and us, the Washingtonians. Very successful people who have had very full lives. Three of us are British-born but all are now from the USA.

Part of the trip is getting to know local foodstuffs and wines. Emma, the chef, puts on a good feast. Last night we embarked to mushroom risotto balls as one amuse-bouche, and then saucisson, hummos, and roasted pepper. Our first course, with a chablis from a local winery, were scallops with roe attached on a bed of pureed leeks with a sliver of bacon. The main course, with a local Irancy pinot noir, was chicken stuffed with cheese on a bed of white beans and chopped red cabbage. Three cheeses, one morbier with ash, cheaurce, and langres. All are local from Burgundy. Dessert was a crepe stuffed with chocolate custard and entwined with a licorice stick.

As the evening progressed, we found we are a liberal bunch, too. Conversation ranging from perceptions of the president to gay rights to an impending California bankruptcy.

This morning as we moved from Tonnerre to Tanlay, we walked along the side of the canal for several miles. The river Armançon, a few yards from the canal, winds through the fields lined with trees and an occasional weeping willow. The walkway alongside the canal, the home of the donkeys who pulled ancient canal boats, is now the home of little red-brown slugs. Although the staff moans about the poor condition of the canals and paucity of state funding available for maintenance, to us it looks good till the boat rubs the bottom. It doesn't happen often, but the Burgundy regional government isn't doing proper upkeep, they say.

Lunch: to accompany a bourgogne aligoté, cream of vegetable soup, caremelized spinach and feta tart, blood orange salad, rice and bacon salad with mushrooms and pesto. Brie queen of all cheeses—bloomy and creamy.

For dinner we started with a somewhat heavier white burgundy with a touch of oak in it and followed with a light red burgundy. Both were very fitting to go with the goat cheese bonbon that was the starter and the roasted salmon on ratatouille with a polenta stuffed mini poivron. Our cheese selection included a reblochon, an ashen pyramid valançay, and livarot.

Our conversation centered on journaling which is a technique for self-discovery and how it works discovered by Angie, traveling with her friend Bubba, who runs an energy company and maintains a significant interest in her techniques. Both are from Houston.

Our evening finished with a few heading into the hot tub on the deck. Today, we head off for an off-boat luncheon and a wine tasting at a appelation chablis winery.

Tuesday morning, September 28

We are anchored at Tanlay, a petite village with a grand chateau.
On arrival yesterday afternoon we walked through the village to the chateau for a look at the Renaissance castle. It's not really a castle though it does have a moat; it once was a real castle but a variety of owners expanded it into a country chateau. Now the same family which has lived there since the days of Henry IV of Navarre still remain the owners and use about half the chateau. The other half is full of the old antiques and the various awards and paintings colllected by the marquises and counts who have held the domain.

The castle is a collection of towers and gates, spiral staircases and rooms of paintings and frescoes, some of which are magnificent. It's also hosted visiting royalty with pictures of Queen Juliana of Holland and Queen Ellizabeth II of England visibly shown. The last count, father of the current family, was a diplomat around the world and shows off his decorations from countries as different as Laos and Ethiopia, where he had been stationed.

John can note one thing for this trip, the wine flows continuously and it is uniformly interesting and excellent, though from various wineries and vineyards in various styles. The captain, Stephan, clearly knows his stuff and is most helpful.

Yesterday's things to note: light brown slugs, mistletoe, manicured fields, 10 Americans arriving at a pharmacie—the only store open in the village in the mid-afteroon.

Wednesday, September 29

Imagine yourself on a hill overlooking a premier cru vineyard in appelation Chablis. It's harvest time in this part of Burgundy and we spent the day in and around the wineries of the commun de Chablis.

We learned at a wine tasting at the Domaine Servin the differences between petit chablis, chablis, premier cru chablis and chablis grand cru, tasting each kind and deciding that petit chablis was lovely but light, to the grand cru which can age for many years. The visit in Chablis included lunch at an old moulin converted into a first class restaurant, Cafe Laroche.

Lunch started with a light amuse-bouche of shredded salmon with vinaigrette and fresh dill, followed by a starter of pâté de fois and pain grillé. The main course, a paleron of Irish beef, pork belly and bacon with creamed potatoes was sweet in its red wine sauce, but also slightly peppered. Both wines fit the meals, a chablis Domaine Laroche, and a Mas la Chevaliere, Vignoble Rioqua Bianca from the south of France.

Since the harvest was in process, we hiked the vineyards to see the pickers at work. Then we went up into the vineyard to see the mechanical harvesters moving through the vines. These machines shake the clusters of grapes just enough to loosen and then collect them. Do they use them in California or Texas? A question yet to be answered.

Then dinner, we had chef Emma's repas of pea, ginger and coriander with chili cream, roast lamb stuffed with olive, garlic and lemon, potato daphinoise with red wine jus; orange polenta cake with chocolate custard and cointreau soaked oranges.

This morning we enjoyed a trip to the market at Noyers. Noyers is one of those cute little medieval and renaissance villages that has winding streets, homes from the last five hundred years, and nice, really nice, people. We enjoyed blood sausages, poached in a huge cauldron, a pleasant older French lady who showed us her garden, chickens and honey her husband makes. She asked if we were Dutch!

Coffees in the local bistrot completed the morning. This afternoon we travel.

Lunch,back aboard, warmed Dick's palate with its pate, and those into vegetables with a cauliflower salad and French past dish, crozet with a reblouchon topping and two wines, a sauvignon blanc from eastern burgundy and a light burgundy from near Beaune.

The highlight of the afternoon: Chateau d'Ancy-le-Franc, owned now by an American who is restoring it. The design is strongly Classic Roman, a product of an Italian architect, whose work was mostly in Italy. The interior took many years to complete, but the exterior was done in three (?) years. Many of the rooms were designed to praise Henri III, who never visited. There are paintings that show the face of Henri IV (of Navarre) in place of the actual victim. John wonders how Louis Quatorze reacted to the face of his ancestor beheaded.

Another highlight of the afternoon was Ben's first bike ride since 2002! He managed it beautifully, though John feared he would misengage a gear, topple over and fall in the canal--which is not as deep as Ben is tall, so it would not have been a fatal swim.

We celebrated Peter's birthday last night, chocalate cake and vin mousseaux de Bourgogne. Preceded by cod on potatoes and passion fruit, and a boudin noir tarte with onions. The wines were Loire valley, a chinon and a sauvigon blanc, les Beaux Jours.




Thursday, September 30

Thursday was Ben and John's last day with the group, whose trip would finish on Saturday morning. We arose late to fog, thick fog obscuring the buildings bordering the canal. One thing you can say about canals and barges is -- they are damp...



Our visits during the day were to the Fontenay Abbey, a complex of religious buidlings now a Unesco site, nestled at a junction of two rivers ad built starting in the 12th century. It was deconsecrated during or after the Revolution and during the nineteenth century the nave was used as a paper mill.The Abbey is Cicsterian, an offshoot of the Benedictine monks.
The Cisterians were founded by Bernard of Clairvaux who brought a group of friends into Burgundy where they were given the land the Abbey stands on today.

The buildings are breathtaking in their simplicity. They do not have the ornamentation of a similar vintage church.



Being rather stark, almost Puritan in their stature. Much of the place has been restored by its current American owner. The forge is of particular interest where the monks worked iron with water power and a Chinese water powered hammer by the 14th century.

Along the way, we enjoyed the trout in their ponds and the multihued snails on the walls.Thinking of dinner. We returned to the boat, Ben and John packed and we had a last excellent dinner together around the table where so many conversations had taken place.

Dinner included roast duck breast, a starter of potato blinis, and sticky toffee pudding, which appealed strongly to Jane and Dick! We enjoyed an excellent premier cru chablis 2007 from the Servin winery where we had tasted and a red Givry domaine masse 2007. Both outstanding. This was the Captain's dinner...Stephane, along with this crew, Rudy, Emma the chef, Kaeli the cheese person and Lindsey,newly arrived from British Columbia. The heartfelt thanks went to them, and to our hosts for sharing the trip with us.