Day 10 - Tuesday, June 26 - Beaujolais region

In the morning we left for a bus tour through the Beaujolais region, passing through many picturesque small towns with very narrow streets. The flat lowlands are largely agricultural, growing corn, soybeans, wheat and oats. The hillsides are covered with grape vineyards. Our tour guide explained in great detail the various "cru", specially designated smaller areas where wine can be designated as coming from those vineyards - and very expensive wine! We are truly impressed with how the bus manages to navigate the narrow roads, especially when there is oncoming traffic. He often gets rounds of applause for amazing feats of navigation!

We stopped at a historic castle where we had a wine tasting of white and red wines from the region. The wine was very good. The wine tasting was in the cellar below the dungeon which still had the iron bars. The castle was nearly in ruins when it was purchased about 30 years ago and has been heavily restored to its early grandeur. A chapel on the site dates back to the 10th century.

Castle Chateau de Perriclos

Wine tasting in the wine cellar

From there we went to the truffle farm. At the truffle farm we had truffle butter on toast which was very good. We had a full lunch made by the truffle farmer (Olivier) with gazpacho soup, beef stew, chocolate mousse and a saffron custard for dessert. All made in his tiny kitchen. His dog, Chinook, kept on peeking up at me between my legs as we were sitting at the dining table. This is the same truffle farm Amy and I went to 2 years ago.

Olivier has a Phd related to fungus and a post-doc from UC Davis on soil agriculture. His wife works as a research scientist in Paris and commutes there every day. Olivier inherited the farm from his grandmother but since it was farmed by someone else for some time, he has to wait under French law until he can get back all the property for his use.

After lunch, he took us to his truffle plantation where Chinook found truffles for us. This time of year the truffles are close to the ground and not very good for eating. The truffle season is usually September - December when they are 6-9" below the surface. Chinook is 14 years old and a new dog is being trained. Without the dog there is no truffle harvest! He is also a believer in diversification so he also grow fruit trees, saffron crocuses and has beef cattle. As the last time I visited, the tour guide had a difficult time stopping - he is so passionate that he could go on talking indefinitely.

Olivier and Chinook finding truffles

We then went to the goat cheese factory (doesn't seem like the right term), where the owner of the goat farm took us in to see the young goats - so cute - and then into the small facility where he makes the cheese. They only have 130 goats and all the cheese is made on the premises, so the quantity was limited. We were able to try cheeses that were aged for different time periods, from one day to 3 months. And yet more wine, the third time for the day.

No caption needed

Cheese-man with differently aged cheeses.

We went back to the ship where Carmen and I had the bottle of rose wine and some cheese that we had purchased at the beginning of our trip in Avignon but hadn't had a chance to enjoy previously. A fine end to our cruise.