Turning left off the Autoroute du Soleil (A6) at Chalon-sur-Saone or Beaune heading south has much to offer. Instead of hurtling south towards Lyon and Provence why not explore eastern Burgundy and the Jura. Our resident exoert on the region, John Scallan at www.bandb-burgundy.com/ offers some ideas for May 2007:-
Enough of all these wine festivals in Bordeaux and such like. "Head East young man!" (to paraphrase somebody famous) This year the end of May Bank Holiday coincides with the traditional Whit holiday in France and there are all sorts of activities going on. There is still a move in government circles to get the populace working for nothing on Whit Monday with their pay to go to the old and sick but that seems to have come up against the might of the French union system and as such is now fairly well scuppered.
Chalon-sur-Saone(71 Saone et Loire, Burgundy), about 35 kilometres from us, hosts the 21st annual “Montgolfiades” a balloon festival that is nearly on a par with Bristol. Balloons come from all over Europe, including various from Britain and they fly, weather permitting, morning and evenings on Saturday & Sunday and Monday morning. The balloonists are accommodated in Cote Chalonnaise wine makers houses for the duration of the festival and there is traditionally one flight where they all take off from there rather than the main field. The whole Cote is alive with colour. As with all balloon festivals the morning flights are more for the real enthusiast with their 6.00am take offs but should you stay with us and wish to get up early then we guarantee to send you off with hot coffee, a croissant or two, orange juice and perhaps a bottle of something fizzy to put in it. Just give us 24 hours notice. The Sunday evening flight is the highlight when all of the balloons form up on the “Prairie de St. Nicolas” just to the east of Chalon. There are fairground rides and all sorts of attractions and would probably be just about the right thing to do after a wander around the market in the old town. Interesting and colourful. Great place to pick up a picnic for lunch, the rotisserie chickens are to die for. More details will be available soon from the Chalon sur Saone website:- www.chalon-sur-saone.net
Chalon sur Saone Tourist Office have got a link going with a couple of British guys who own a cruising “Peniche” called the DELTA They do lunch and dinner cruises several days a week and on Wednesdays do a lunchtime picnic cruise where you bring you own picnic and they just take you for a little run up and down the mighty Saone. Their website is www.croisieres-saonoises.fr and booking through the tourist office is compulsory. We had guests who stayed with us last year who tried the picnic cruise and thought it marvellous.
Should you be in the area on Whit Monday and not so keen on a 0500 alarm call then you might like to visit the Market at Louhans (18 kms from us). This takes over the whole town centre and is usually open all day on Bank Holidays. Parking can be a bit of a bind but if you get into Louhans for 0900 then there shouldn’t be a problem (Just think that you could have been going to the Balloon festival and regard it as a lie-in). This is the fourth largest agricultural market in France and makes me wonder how big the top three are! The main street through the town is closed to traffic as are all of the side streets in the old town centre. You can buy virtually anything you may need, and an awful lot that you don’t! The large car park by the Post office is completely given over to livestock. Not to every one’s taste but should you wish to buy some chickens (The Bresse is world famous in France for producing the best poultry in the world!) or rabbits or whatever.......Please don’t buy any Charolais cattle though, we could be in trouble trying to feed them until you leave.For more info see www.bresse.info
Jura wine is something that not many Brits know about, Jura whisky perhaps, but wine? The Committee Interprofessional de Vins du Jura is doing it’s bit to try and rectify this. In addition to running courses for its wine makers in how to speak English they have just set up a Tourist Route similar to that in Burgundy. Website address www.laroutedesvinsdujura.com or you can reach it from www.jura-vins.com. There are details of wine makers, accommodation, restaurants etc. etc. all there for the finding out. It might give you a clue as to who was in charge of the English class when we reveal that despite being 15 kms from the nearest vine-yards we are in the guide. We have the zeal of new converts and will do our best to help you to see the error of your ways (!!!). We offer a special meal featuring wines from the Jura with each course for 35 Euros per person. The wine makers open their cellars for tastings regularly, some each day, others by appointment, and they would be very surprised if somebody was to buy without tasting. These wines are not cheap but by dint of diligent research (on behalf our guests you understand) we know of several “caves” where the produce is of absolutely top quality. It was hell, but we did it all the same! For more info see www.bandb-burgundy.com
