Day 18 - Wednesday 18th May 2005

We set off about 11am for the Chablis region of Burgundy.  We drove up the N6 through Saulieu and Avallon to Auxerre, a large town on the banks of the River Yonne.  The narrow winding streets of the town rise steeply from the river banks.  A yellow line has been painted on the cobbles and that takes you on a walk past a variety of interesting sites.  The churches are magnificent, we walked up through the Quartier de la Marine to the Benedictine Abbey of St. Germaine. After that we walked through more ancient streets to the St. Etienne Cathedral which was finished in 1525 and is currently undergoing extensive renovation of the facade.  It was huge, its hard to imagine how such a complex and massive building could be constructed just using manpower and with all the engineering calculations completed manually.  Inside the cathedral, a huge pipe organ was being played, the bass notes sent shivers through you.  We had our first difficulties with language when we asked for tickets to the crypt, the lady spoke no English, but did sell us tickets to the crypt and also tickets to some other mysterious attraction.  A gentleman let us down into the eleventh century crypt which was quite dark with ancient frescos on the roof.  We left the crypt and showed our mystery tickets to the gentleman, he then unlocked a door and ushered us into the cathedral's treasury which contained a variety of old church artefacts including beautiful 15th century illuminated books. We continued on our walk through small squares under the arched clock tower finishing up at the Place de Cordeliers where we stopped for lunch.  Ordering lunch was our second language moment, we ordered steaks and when the waiter, who spoke no English, apparently asked us what we wanted on the side, Cameron responded Coca Cola.  We recovered from that and we had a fine meal of excellent steaks and with frites on the side.  After lunch we  headed back down to the car and headed for Chablis.  The hills around the town are covered with a patchwork of vineyards interspersed with the occasional crop of something else where it was deemed the patch of land was not suitable for grapes.  There were a lot of strange looking machines trundling through the vineyards spraying the vines.  We stopped at a cellar for a tasting of the local produce and again the young girl in attendance spoke no English, but we got by and tasted some excellent vintages.  We bought two bottles, a 2001 Chablis - Premier Cru Les Vaillons and a 2000 Chablis - Grand Cru Les Blachots both from the Domaine Long-Depaquit. Continuing our drive our next stop was Tanlay where we walked around the Chateau built in 1550 then down along the banks of the Burgundy Canal where a large river barge converted to floating accommodation was moored.  It looked very jaunty covered in flowers.  On the banks there were a few fisherman trying their luck.   It was getting a little late so we headed off again with a quick stop at the Chateau in Ancy-le-Franc then on to Noyers.  This was a very picturesque, and very old walled village.  We did some shopping there, picking. some bread at the boulangerie and a few supplies at the grocery before heading on down the A6 motorway to home.   Jude laid out a fine repast of meats, cheeses, pate, radishes and other crudites and we had that with the Les Vaillons Chablis, very nice.  After tea it was back in front of the fire for some reading.