Bicycle to Santenay - Beautiful wine village Friday 29 April

 Today was predicted to be 70° and partly cloudy - a perfect day to bicycle to the wine village of Santenay. Most of our distance was done riding the tow path trail along the Canal du Centre with a couple of kilometers on back roads
.

Santenay, with vineyards right up to town

We started our exploration at the tourist information office at the train station. Armed with tourist brochures we found a comfortable spot in village square to have a café au lait and plan our day. Here we were in a village, literally surrounded by vineyards, some huge and some stuck into a tiny corner, all well tended just showing the first leaves of this year’s growing season. We toyed with the idea of doing a wine tasting or two, till we realized neither of us really wanted to do that. Instead we spent nearly the entire day walking through the vineyards and up to moulin Shrine, built in the early 1800s perched on the hilltop where it could take advantage of the wind. It was also the perfect viewpoint to see the village and how completely it was surrounded by working vineyards. Following backroads we came back into the village via The Château Santenay, once a fortified château belonging to Philip the Bold one of the famous Burgundian Dukes. Now a working wine château for the past few hundred years.

Château Santenay

By this time we were getting hungry, unfortunately our bodies are not yet fully on French time. By the time we felt the need, the grocery store was closed for two hours, the boulangerie was closed till 16h00 and the only restaurant still open was closing in 15 minutes. We took a chance and sat down. Turned out to be a great choice, even if it was a few times more than we had intended to spend. We both had wonderful salads and a nice Santenay Blanc wine to go with it.

Salmon Salad - Bon Appétit

Although the weather was predicted to be fine, the growing clouds said differently. After our unfashionably late lunch we returned to Juniper in Chagny, arriving just minutes before the rain hit. Spent the rest of the day reading and relaxing, oh and working on the toilet (but that’s part of life aboard a boat.