Heaven on Earth

View to the Cathedral

Cathedral Tower

Old Town Dijon

A trip into the town of Dijon in search of mustard and wine was our morning task before heading down the Cote D’Or to visit all of the famous names of Burgundy, Gevrey Chambertin, Chambolle Musigny, Vosnee Romanee and the rest. The morning task was successful, a variety of hand made mustards and a bottle of a very fine Savigny les Beaune went into the luggage.

Vines at Clos de Vougeot

The road was made interesting by visits to one or two villages and to the chateau of Clos de Vougeot set amongst endless acres of vines. A handful of Pinot Noir grapes pinched from a nearby vine added a little extra taste to the visit. Even tastier could have been the opportunity lost as we drove into the chateau where through a gateway a lithe young woman was photographing the vines. A gust of wind exposed a bare bottom and the opportunity to make a picture to equal the tennis player that adorned many a student and office wall.

Chateau Clos de Vougeut

Apologies for lack of other images.

Dijon Clock?
Not intended but I love it anyway

Arriving in the environs of Lyon saw our lady companion subjected to the greatest round of abuse yet, in fact she was seriously fortunate not to have been hurled from the car as she had us in wrong lanes to approach junctions and slip roads. She almost ruined a good day. But we weren’t finished, bus and train got us into the old town of Lyon where the streets are thronged with interesting restaurants, many of them specializing in cuts of meat that we don’t see at home.

Into the restaurant and what is on the menu? Calf Heed or as they say it these parts, Tete de Veau. Anyway I ordered it and Nick ordered the local variation of black pudding. Bliss. Great bottle of Crozes Hermitage and the attentions of a bunch of great young women or as they became known Nick's Angels.

Nick, Crozes Hermitage and my Calf Heed

Nick's Angels

Day 2 - Contd

Exhausting the joys of Reims it was time to move on. Dijon was the day’s destination and the embarrassment of seeing all along the route cars with much more ambitious packing strategies had us questioning our planning decisions, particularly with regards to my two plastic bag system. We could actually see out of the rear window, one of the few vehicles travelling south, wimp packers us.

At this point I need to introduce a more serious note. All of you who have lived in close proximity to another know how difficult that can be. Relationships become fraught and tension builds. So it is in our confined travelling space. At times you could cut the atmosphere with a knife. What is the cause of this friction? Well there’s not just Mick and Nick in the car there is a third person in this relationship who is destroying the air of serenity that usually pervades. I speak of the woman who hides behind the name of Tom Tom. In the privacy of our travelling capsule she is becoming used to a wide range of dog’s abuse and name calling much of which borders on the obscene as well as being distinctly sexist. In future she shall be termed the B**** (for the crossworders – title of a track on Rolling Stones album ‘Sticky Fingers’). Her assistance doesn’t help at all when facing French city traffic.

However I digress, the journey was smooth and the dinner was good accompanied by a decent bottle of Morgon. Speaking of which, it is good to have a taste of proper Beaujolais after the besmirching of its name by the over hyped craze of a few years ago for Beaujolais Nouveau. Ink in a bottle and not worth the name of wine.

As we were in Dijon Nick decided to order mustard with everything, imagine his face as his first experience rendered him speechless after declaring, “It’s Colman’s”. Coffee and brandies relieved us of the disappointment.

Day 2 - Reims

Out early to get a look at the great cathedral in Reims. A bus from the hotel got us there and dropped us on the approach that you see in the first picture.

Cathedral approach

Rose Window - Reims

This place is well worth a travel to see, our opinion came down to this being number two in our list of cathedrals, after Durham of course.

One fascinating feature is the collection of windows made by artist Marc Chagall. They create the most beautiful light effects when the sun is in the correct quarter.

Chagall Windows

Mick bathed in Chagall's Light

More Light

Waterfalls of Light

Cathedral Exterior

When in Reims it seems rude not to get involved in champagne, so a walk across town to find the premises of G. H. Mumm (say Moom) was next on our agenda.

Mumm H. Q.

Frustration set in as we arrived just in time for the place to close for lunch so off to the pub for a couple of hours. We returned at the appointed opening time to find out that they couldn't accommodate us for another two to three hours. Merde.

We then lit on a plan that didn't involve a tour of the building and it's processes, an experience that we had both had on numerous occasions, but would get us to the in-house shop to select some bubbly.

Nick on our truncated Tour alongside old wine press

Having persuaded some nice young people to open the shop we were the cause of great consternation when we attempted to purchase something as the computer system seemed unable to cope with a couple of Sunderland boys. Reinforcements were called to rescue the situation disrupting the work of the place for the afternoon. We were ejected for the second time that day.

Computer cavalry arrive

Shampoo in hand, a last walk around by the Cathedral had us heading for the car and the road to Dijon.

Last view of the Cathedral

The rest of the day will have to wait. Time to move on.

VGLPS Tour Day 1

An early start for our intrepid explorers. Out of Sunderland at 06.00 heading south to deliver the cargo of dowel to the South of Spain. Finely cut to the requested length and diameter. Now there is a tale. Instructions arrived ‘Two windows to be done, dowel 50 cm in length and the diameter of a cigarette are what is needed’. The guardian angel of dowel was to be our constant companion.

However the guardian angel of dowel could do little about the injured Nick, he arrived with a damaged Achilles tendon sustained on his journey home from Friday's meeting. Would this inhibit our progress?

6.00 a.m. Hunter Terrace, car packed and ready

Nick managed to drive through the pain for a while before I took over and we had a relatively clear passage until reaching the vicinity of the Dartford Crossing. It started well, I spotted a lane without traffic, took it and found that we passed over three miles of stationary vehicles before arriving at the pay stations. Here things began to go dreadfully wrong. It became almost impossible to engage any gear on the car and the clutch pedal was stuck in place. Crashing through the box without the benefit of clutch or synchromesh augured badly for the future health of the vehicle. Was this to be an early abort of the adventure?

Brute force from the Hendon Hammer managed to get us to a service station where we found the culprit to be a creeping mat that had captured the clutch pedal and stopped all sensible manipulation. Mat beaten into submission we arrived at Eurotunnel early and got bumped up the queue.

A relieved Nick at Eurotunnel

For those who have never travelled through the Tunnel, it is an experience. After having been awoken by the occasional announcements, I heard the voice say that we were half way through and we travelling at 140 m.p.h. The feeling would have suggested we were stationary. How smooth can a ride be?

On arrival at Calais our mission was simple, head south for Reims. The early part of the route was slowed by the ubiquitous CONES, clearly a summer holiday gesture by some disgruntled French trade unionists. However they had rapidly run out of steam and a clear road took us to our destination. We noticed lots of cars had more stuff packed in that we had, were we packing wimps?

A last little stop close to our hotel had us come across a butcher's shop that would entrance any lover of flesh, besides which it was open and did sell wine so we thought it rude not to purchase a couple of their fine bottles, €2.95 each. Across the road was our billet. Checked in, had beer then shower before evening meal. Local wine the evening selection.

Not quite an Irene Pasty

Preparation Day

I think that I mentioned a Tour in the last post, well today was the day for getting prepared, tomorrow at 06.00 is lift off time. Travelling light, which is difficult when you are as big as me, is to be the order of the day as the car in which we will be travelling is already loaded to the gunwales with a variety of large items that will help furnish a property in Murcia. But I'm getting ahead of myself here. For the benefit of the doubters the photograph below shows my luggage packed ready to go.

Luggage

Back to the beginning. The notion of the Tour emerged from one of our regular Friday sessions. To appreciate this you will, first of all, have to meet Nick. Nick is one of the core group with a high attendance record at Society functions. By occupation he is a semi retired merchant mariner who has spent a lifetime travelling the oceans. Consequently, he could be described as well travelled. As his work commitments decreased he decided to acquire some property in the south of Spain. He is now in the throes of setting it up and as part of the preparations bought a left hand drive vehicle to leave at his home from home. Having done so the decision had to be made as to how to get it there. Well it is a long drive so it took little thought to volunteer to help with the driving.

The decision taken to drive, the next question to be addressed was what route would the journey take? At this point it should be revealed that Nick is rather partial to a nice bottle of wine. A series of strategy meetings determined that a route encompassing the joys of Champagne, Burgundy and the Rhone would make a good start with a small diversion to some of the lesser known regions before a fair sampling of the Spanish viticultural efforts. Thus was born the VGLPS Wine Tour. Hopefully more to report at a later date.

Nick

We can't leave mention of Nick without doffing our caps to his brother, John. John is another life long seaman who is also semi retired. Now that he is spending a little more time at home he has taken to the culinary arts with some enthusiasm. Each week we await the latest creations from his kitchen. He is confidently producing a fine line in pate, scrumptious bread and the best sausage rolls for miles around. Regular phone calls to Irene have been an education as John develops his skills. It won't be long before he adds the Luscious Lemon Drizzle to his repertoire.

John

An early start requires a closing of this post, but there will be ample opportunities to meet up with Nick and John in the future.

Father of the House

The last post made reference to the 'Father of the House' so it's probably a good idea to get introductions out of the way early on. Dave is a retired telecommunications engineer with a lifetime of work and travel behind him. But for the Society he is a linchpin, a regular in our pub for over fifty years having lived all of his early life in close proximity and since moving a relatively small distance away has continued to be a regular attendee in the Vic. His importance is exemplified by his encyclopaedic knowledge of the people, the area and the relationships that exist around our local.

Future posts will feature Dave on a regular basis as his is a core contribution to proceedings.

Dave

It would be remiss to go any further without introducing Irene, Dave's wife. She had a mention in the last post in relation to her culinary exploits. Irene, as well as being a regular contributor, is renowned for her skills in the kitchen and it's not just the pasties that show it. 'Queen of the Lemon Drizzle' would be an appropriate soubriquet.

Now you have met the Armour family patriarch and matriarch you will meet them or their families on a fairly regular basis in this series.

Irene

This post will have to close now as the packing for the VGLPS tour need to commence.

Pasty Day

Today was declared Pasty Day at the Victoria Gardens Literary and Philosophical Society (VGLPS).

Over a long period there have been wonderful gifts brought to the table. Amongst the best of these are the various food parcels from a couple of our members. The most exalted of these is Irene, wife of the Father of the House, ( more about him in another post). Irene has a number of specialities, much loved by all, but there is always a frisson of excitement when the word gets out that there are pasties on the way. Feverish phone calls over the last couple of days established that today was going to see a delivery of the prized pasties. One of our team was so excited that he turned up with a celebratory badge.

Bill's Badge

This is probably the time to introduce Bill. Bill is a local legend. The former Mississippi Dreamboat bass player and pharmacist is a stalwart of the Society. His dry wit is a mainstay of proceedings and his diet is oft discussed particularly when his main food source, his partner, is not around.

Relating the morning's cooking process the Father of the House was able to tell us that he had to oversee the final stages of the cooking as Irene had to go to the dentists for a scale and polish. Quick as a flash, Bill interjects and asks if the cleaning was for the purpose of preparing the teeth for crimping the pastry around the edge of the pasties. Another day at the Vic.

Bill - Pasty Lover

Look out for news of the upcoming Society Tour to the wine regions of France and Spain and the progress of dowel delivery to Murcia.