Oldies On Tour

Thursday 15th September 

No rush today as we’re not due at Andrew’s until 1800hrs, so whilst Christine took the dogs for a long walk I serviced the usual, water etc., etc.   Once she returned with two knackered pooches, we had our breakfast before heading off to “Chateau Cabrieres”, our original Chateauneuf du Pape wine supplier but again, wrong time of the day!!!  This is another “Passion France” site and in the past we’ve used them as a stop-over, but, we couldn’t remember their address other than it was on one of the many roads exiting Chateauneuf, and there are many.   After racking our brains, Christine suddenly remembered that in 2017 whilst I was in New Zealand she raided my “Bodiga” and “purloined” one of the bottles from this vineyard, then sent me a photo of the “incident”  to “wind me up”!!!!!      Anyway, the picture was retrieved from her archive and of course the label had the name of the vineyard so “hey-presto” we  knew where to go.

It was again mid morning when we arrived, not the ideal time to enjoy a wine tasting session but it had to be done.   We tasted several, all very nice and difficult to choose but eventually got there and exited with a couple of cases; more weight, poor Rosie🥵.  Having “enjoyed” several samples, we decided to stay in their car park for lunch, give the wine time to be “digested”, after all we’re all right for time an besides there is a nice run for the dogs alongside the rows of vines.

Time to say good bye to our wine journey, far too short but we have no doubt we will be back, “soon”!!!!!!, as we headed off to Andrew’s.    Being a Friday afternoon the traffic was particularly heavy so to ensure we met our arrival time took to the Peage for the final part of our journey.   

Arriving at Andrew’s hot, sticky and tired we headed into the house and quicker than you can say “”Jack Robinson”” Tom-Tom threw himself into the pool, with Rosie taking a little more encouragement and only when we joined TT in the pool.

Andrew arrived with Elton later in the evening, but by then we had “hit-the-sac”, tired and content,  

Tuesday 13th September 

After a reasonable night with thunder, lightening and heavy rain, we emerged less tired and in the clear “light-of-day” decided to return to our “old haunt” here in Pouilly, the other chap’s loss is “Francis Blanchet’s” gain; we’ve been here many times and just thought we’d give another vineyard a try, ha!!    Of course this plan was quite flawed as we did our “degustation” at 10.30 in the morning, not a good idea as we had to drive after!!!!!    

Francis Blanchet is on the outskirts of Pouilly-sur-Loire and is a traditional vineyard that has been in the family since the 18th century, though their buildings are certainly modern and their equipment looks “state of the art”; this is the first time we’ve been here during the grape-picking season so they were very busy, not to busy to sell of course!!!

Our objective here was to select a white wine for my 80th bash, so after tasting a selection, we eventually settled for “Kristina”, very quaffable and promptly bought 4-cases, should be enough!!!!!  

Prior to leaving, a tractor with a fully laden trailer arrived to discharge the grapes and we were invited to observe.  The operation was quite interesting as the pressing process actually starts in the trailer whilst the grapes are being loaded and being driven back to the winery.    They connect two pipes to the trailer, the lower one sucks all the grape juice that’s just been pressed “au natural” and the other pipe sucks out the un-pressed grapes straight into the crusher after which it joins the other juice and heads into the fermentation vessels.   At this point they drew off some of the freshly pressed juice and gave us a glass; a bit on the sweet side, but very more-ish.

After stowing the wine away, we headed off.  This evening we want to stay at a small family vineyard we found on our last trip in Bully, the Beaujolais region which is a 4- hour drive away.

Again we elected to do the N roads, keeping off the Peage and driving through rural France but it was hot, the rain has stopped and the clouds gone so we needed to find places to let the dogs have a run around.

Arriving at the “Domaine de Roche Cattin”, the  vineyard in Bully we found on our previous trip through France is also a family affair.    Again this is their busy time and we were lucky to get a spot in their parking area, as it was full of the “grape-pickers” cars.   This small operation isn’t quite in the same league as this morning’s but hey, they produce very nice Beaujolais.   This evening’s tasting was better as we were here for the night so could go the “full Hogg”!!!!!!   “Eventually” we chose “La Passion de Mon Pere” and promptly bought another 4-cases for my 80th, hopefully we now have sufficient for the “Party”.  

Once the transaction had taken place we were invited to view their operation and again we  sampled their grape juice before it went into their large fermentation vats.

What a day, two totally different wine tastings, a long drive in the heat and a motorhome with rather an excess of weight!!!!

Monday 12th September 2023

Up and about as planned then hit the road.  Today we have a long stint making for a vineyard in the Pouilly region on the Loire, by missing out the “Peage” routes, the drive time alone is 7-hours, hence the early start.

By missing out the motorway’s we were reminded of days gone by, driving through rural France on the old “N” routes and passing through numerous villages and hamlets normally missed out whilst “speeding” along the autoroutes, was a pleasant change; well it was for me, Christine felt differently!!!!!   I suppose it’s very boring sitting twiddling your fingers for mile after mile, hour after hour.   The only downside for me were all the roundabouts we encountered, every junction seems to be a roundabout in France, and yes, it was boiling hot all day making the dogs uncomfortable as well.

We eventually arrived at the village we were heading for; a very tiny one at that when the SatNav told us to turn right between buildings that looked as if they were about to fall down, and even worse, the lane was so narrow that had we had one more coat of paint we would have scraped both sides; scary or what??  At the end we turned right onto a gravel track with no sign of the house we were looking for so had to use my best French and ring them up.   Following a brief conversation, we were informed he was “complet”, should have actually booked, serves us right😡😡, so back along the “crazy” lane and through the village.   We are members of “Passion France”, so travelling through France we can stay at numerous farms, vineyards etc., at no charge, but naturally “they” hope, (though no obligation), you will buy some of their products; wine has never been an issue with us!!!   Unfortunately this week the weather has been “just right” for picking the grapes and we suspect this was the real reason for his statement “complet”; little did he realise we were looking to buy a number of cases for my 80th; his loss!!   

We found a local and he suggested we head back down through the village, turn left and stop along the river, so that’s what we did but by now tempers were rising, dogs were fed up and words were spoken once we had parked, after all it had been a very long, and a very hot day.  

Once settled in the “empty” carpark alongside a large green area,  the chairs came out along with the corkscrew and we settled down with a bottle of wine before dinner and watched the sun go down.   Later in the evening we got Sandy’s ball out again and got the dogs running, we wanted a quiet night!!!

Originally we were leaving the U.K. a week earlier but due to the NHS consultants strike, my appointment got delayed.  We had a definitive date to be at Andrew’s to meet up with Elton so we were put under unreasonable pressure, originally we were taking 10-days to meander through France visiting “many” vineyards, still it is what it is!!!

Wednesday 14th September

With all the comings and goings we decided to head off early this morning so as not to impede the morning shift arriving around 0800hrs, and it was a good job we did, because as we were leaving, we passed them coming in, they seemed endless!!!    Our destination today is “Chusclan”, another free overnight stop set in amongst the grape vines with a the local wine producer on the opposite side of the road, “Maison Sinnae”, heaven!!!

Another un-eventful drive through rural France traversing countless roundabouts, arriving at our stop mid afternoon.   It was a good job we arrived reasonably early as the area was already filling up with others following us in.

We have been here many times and know the area quite well, so we immediately headed down to the river where we used to take Sooty and Bella.    As soon as Tom-Tom and Rosie “clocked” the water they were in it, and they had a “whale-of-a-time” fetching the sticks we threw in.   On the return we used “Sandy’s ball” again to both dry them off and finish them off as we will leave them in “Rosie” while we visit the winery!!!

Maison Sinnae has been a cooperative in the hands of a united group of 200 winegrowers since 1925 and today Maison Sinnae counts over 2800 hectares, and is one of the largest vineyards in the Rhône Valley.    The last time we were here we bought a fair amount of their wine, but the vintages we were tasting today were nice, but they didn’t really “hit” the spot so only bough 1-mixed case😡😡, anyway, Châteauneuf-du-Pape tomorrow!!!!!

By the time we were back in the motorhome the “park” was full; a “clutch” of German registered vehicles had arrived and “commandeered” all the spare central space, never mind, we head to Frejus tomorrow

Sunday 10th September 2023

A leisurely morning with a very late breakfast to kick-start the day as there was nothing planned other than the rugby later in the day.  The best match was probably going to be the Wales V Fiji one kicking off at 2100hrs, so no rush.

It didn’t seem more than 5-minutes had past before we were eating lunch; too much talking!!!!

In the afternoon the three of them went for a walk in their local woods, I didn’t go as apparently it was “up-n-down” steep hills so I watched the rugby!!!

When they returned the dogs had obviously had a good time judging by the state of them, so over to Christine:-

“We left the house, and two minutes later both Tom and Rosie, were covered in mud, 

Rosie no longer had a white head, she was dirty brown all over!  We passed several houses, then headed to the woods, which was up a steep hill, and then open land, where Sandy pointed to a Fontaine, which in days gone by, ladies did their washing. Ok dogs go and wash yourself off, which they did, in and out, playing round and round in circles, now they were only wet not muddy!  We made our way back a different route, but remembered just in time to put them on the lead before the muddy stream.  Lovely walk thank you Sandy and Wendy I really enjoyed it, and I know the dogs did!”

The rest of the day followed the same pattern and suddenly it was dinner time!!!!

The Japan V Chile and the South Africa V Scotland matches went as expected, but the last match, Wales V Fiji was a very different matter, what a nail-biting game with Wales well ahead with 10-minutes to go but then the fireworks, Fiji came back scoring two tries in as many minutes whilst Wales were at “sixes and sevens” and Fiji were on for third to give them the match, only to drop the last pass and the clock was in the red.  Wendy, not a regular fan was mesmerised, I think she may become a convert!!!

We have an early start in the morning, so said our goodbyes before heading to bed.

Friday 8th September 2023

Today I have to make a visit to our local village hospital for a consultation for my knee before we can go anywhere.  Good news, I’m on the NHS waiting list but bad news it will probably be spring next year, still onward and upward.

With all the various “things” we had to do before heading off, the rest of the morning was hectic, packing Rosie, filling water-tank, seeding parts of the lawn etc., etc., but eventually we were only one hour later than our target time for departure, pretty good!!

The run down to Plymouth was un-eventful.  We topped up with gas in Exeter, stopped  near Buckfastleigh to exercise the dogs then arrived outside the ferry terminal 45-minutes before they open, never mind we have our new Maxiview WiFi system so looking forward to the opening match of the RWC; France V New Zealand.

At the appointed hour the dock booths opened and we checked in, 2-adults and 2-dogs; gosh how the bureaucracy has changed since Brexit, still we were prepared so no problems.  The good news was we managed to watch the complete match.  The only delay during boarding were the security searches, they were going through every vehicle thoroughly, looking for Daniel Khalife, the escapee from Wandsworth Prison.   Apparently, apart from the rigorous search on the docks, the ferries were loaded with police and army personnel looking for him as well!!!!!

We couldn’t get a dog cabin so had to leave Tom-Tom and Rosie in the motorhome, so goodness knows what might happen!!!!   We headed to our cabin, hoping for a good night’s sleep.

Back in France

Saturday 9th September 2023

After a smooth crossing and docking on time we headed down to the garage wondering what we may find🤞🤞🤞

To our amazement nothing had be trashed 👍 so we were happy.

Having pets on board means we were off the ferry fairly early and joined the queue for French Border control.   No chance of slipping into France on a small boat!!!   Passports stamped for us ok, but the “half-a-tree’s” paperwork for the pooches, well that took longer, still we got there eventually.

We headed towards “Melrand” where our friends “Sandy and Wendy” live, we are paying them a long overdue visit for a couple of days but first we must clear Roscoff and also find a supermarket etc.

After an uneventful run down we arrived early afternoon and enjoyed a few beers etc.   bringing the dogs was a great success, sandy had prepared by finding a brand new tennis ball to entertain the dogs and they loved it.

Apart from catching up, eating and drinking, we had the important England V Argentina RWC match to watch in the evening so cleared the dinner things away and settled back to watch this nail-biting game.   After recent performances there was a lot riding on England to get a result, but what happens in the first 10-minutes?  England gets a red card and for the majority of the game we are a man down👹👹.   Still the team worked hard and squeezed a win; not too convincing as we never scored a try but our defence was good!!!

After a couple of night caps we headed to bed