Day 16 - Monday 16th May 2005

Third day in a row, we didn't get up until about ten.  Leisurely breakfast followed by a relax in the sun.  We all lay around on the terrace reading our books and watching the butterflies flit across the grass and flowers.  Cameron and Ninya went back to their "Foosball" match, Jude and I just veged out.  Later we went into Arnay-le-Duc to replenish our food supplies and had a small walk round the town centre.  Most shops were closed because it's a holiday today. Cameron prepared lunch, a lovely alfresco affair of cold meat, prosciutto, salami, tomatoes, olives and radishes etc. with some nice bread.  After lunch Jude and I decided to go off touring, the children preferred to stay at home in the sun and continue their tournament.  We set off towards Burgundy's wine growing regions.  The drive was delightful, along narrow country roads through green leafy tunnels, then through villages of farm buildings and ancient stone houses like Bouilland, Bligny-s-Ouche, Bouze-les-Beaune and Clos-de-Vougeot.  Lots of white charolais cattle in the green fields and on occasions sumptuous old chateaus with pointed steeple roofs.  We came down through Nuits-St-George and drove along to Vosne-Romanee.  I've always wanted to see the Romanee-Conti vineyards.  Just at the edge of the vineyards, near the domaine we stopped for some photos.  A lady, Catarina, at a winery close by invited us in for a tasting.  The tasting glasses were very generous and we tried a number of different vintages.  Catarina's and her friend Patrice's command of English was about as extensive as our command of French but we had a wonderful time talking to them via the medium of our phrase book.  We eventually bought two bottles of their offering, a 1999 Nuits-St-George Premier Cru - Les Boudets and a 2001 Vosne-Romanee  Premier Cru - Les Beaux Monts by Georges Noellat.  Catarina pressed one of the tasting bottles on us as a gift (it was 2/3rds full) and we went on our way.  We drove up to the ridge overlooking the valley.  The view was marvellous with the Romanee vineyards stretching down the slopes to the valley floor.   We drove back to Clomot via Beaune through some very heavy rain.  It was dry by the time we got back to the "Old Mill" and we finished off our gift bottle with some delicious pate de foie gras.  For dinner Jude knocked up some pasta which we had accompanied by the 1999 vintage Les Boudets.  After dinner it was back round the fire with our books.