A visit to the country

Baby S and I stole away for a four day weekend in Burgundy visiting my good friend Dee at her little country home outside of Macon. As usual with Dee it was an agenda full of countryside dog walks and the weather was perfect for it. Remembering my time living in the region, I stuffed our suitcases full of fleeces and raingear. On the last day we all had on t-shirts. What more can you ask for than perfect weather on a weekend away?

We walked a small portion of the voie verte bike trail on Saturday, and then did a longer three hour walk on Sunday in the Macconais countryside near Dee's home. We pushed the stroller through grassy dirt trails past freshly harvested vinyards where leaves were just beginning to take on the faintest hint on fall colors. Then we spread out an impromptu picnic on a little hill overlooking it all and dined on cheese and bread, oh and digestive biscuits, my newest craving (for anyone coming to visit from England).







We also paid visits to some friends I've come to adopt thanks to the extended social family Dee has brought us all into. One couple who have just bought a wonderful old, stony house in the countryside, were having a dinner party for three other couples and their children, and they invited us to stay the evening as well. This was baby S's first late night dinner engagement and I was kind of worried. Seb and I usually have guest at our home but rarely go to see others because baby S can be quite fussy after 8pm if he's off schedule. With Dee's help and lots of her, "oh don't worry about it!" remarks, it worked out well. Baby S ended up sleeping peacefully, his portable bed parked in the bathroom until nearly 2:30 am! He was actually the only baby who really did sleep which is incredible. Meanwhile we dined on tartiflette accompanied by Crépy wine, which ironically is a typical Savoyarde dish and wine from the region where I live. It's a great dish to serve when you're having lots of people over because it serves a veritable army and leaves everyone stuffed and happy. Warning: never swim after eating tartflette or you'll be in danger of never surfacing again. Oh and be sure and offer cheese after dinner just so you can watch your guests all grimace in unison.



We spent Friday afternoon in the village of Beaune, a lovely gem in the rolling hills of wine country. Well, all of this region is wine country but Beaune is nestled near some of the purest "liquid gold" in all of France. We started off in Beaune's town center visiting shops and really enjoying the little deco stores that are unique to small French tourist villages like this. One shop sold mostly old pots, linens and horse bridles. The enchantng shop was so well organised that you didn't even question why they sold such things, you just found pleasure in looking at them. Finally we meandered back home through some windy village roads stopping to do a tasting in a cave municipal, pinot for me and chardonnay for Dee. We bought a bottle each to put in our respective caves. With all of our puttering we didn't arrive home until almost 8pm with baby S howling the last 20 minutes of the drive.



The scenery in Burgundy is always breathtaking. I lived there along with Seb in early 2000. I have memories of driving to the grocery store or running some mundane errand, and feeling like I was travelling within a giant postcard. The combination of the mist settling on green hills of rolling vinyards, crumbling old stone houses decorated with geraniums, white cows scattered in the pastures and the red clay dirt roads is a pleasing one.