In which Sid and Doris drop down from Chateau-Chinon (Ville) and climb back up to come into Beaune through the Mersault and Pommard vineyards to stay at L’Imprimerie, that used to print clever labels for the finest wines (so that they could not be counterfeited).
We leave Chateau Chinon on the 80th anniversary of D Day. King Charles has had his cancer treatment organised so he can be present. Mr Putin has not been invited despite the Russian enthusiasm for the opening of a second front, but other allies (and Ukrainians) are present. UK PM, Rishi Sunak, leaves early to record a TV interview to be shown a week later. He may not have the Statesman’s instinct. Macron arrives late to meet the King. The Americans come across very well on TV at breakfast.
The route necessarily plunges away to give some climbing later. The first is a longish pull up to Arleuf and the Col Des Pasquelins at 674 metres, just before Autun. There are significant Roman remains here but Sid chooses a picture of cafe side advertising. The Romans and the Petite Brasserie have gone but Suze lingers on, one of Sid’s favourite aperos.
We are headed for Épinac, where there is a cafe with a menu du jour (excellent lentils with lardons) and a plug for Doris’s batttery. We approach along a railway line which was there because in the late 1800s the deepest coal mine in France was at Epinac les Mines. As with many small towns the most important businesses now seem to be pharmacies and this is a very fine one.
The next climb is to Ivry-en-Montagne and St Romain from where we can see across to Beaune, which we approach through the Mersault and Pommard vineyards. Beaune is a prime wine producing town and supports a large tourist trade. The Imprimerie hotel is just out of the tourist drag, with large rooms, good public parts and charming hospitality. A good find for a two night stay.
You may recall S and D were here on Hermann’s Grand Tour and saw the excellent nun’s laboratory in the Hospice. So this time it was to the Basilica. Doris will tell you about the quinch arches and the 15c tapestries..
On the Friday morning we look for a bike shop to listen to and cure Doris’s creaking bottom bracket, which Miftah Bat finks is very funny.
Exceptionally closed. As Bob Dylan sang: You couldn’t say surprised. Life/work balance does not seem to be much in favour of the consumer.
In the evening we take Beaune up on its offer hospitality at Bar 66, a local institution, and tapas at the Part des Anges (where a glass of Mersault goes for the price of a three course lunch along the Loire).
Sid spies a Facel Vega and a Porsche 356 on the square. After the war French industry was reorganised, specifically to punish firms that had profited from supplying the occupying Germans, though what choice did they have?
Facel stood for Forges et Ateliers de Constructions d’Eure at Loire. They had made bodies for Ford and Simca. As auto companies took body building in house so, from 1954, Facel Vega built their own luxury Grand Tourers mostly with Chrysler mechanicals. Think Bristol or Cunningham? The firm lasted only ten years building fewer than 3,000 cars.
There is a meeting for the marque in Dijon on Saturday so it is no surprise to see another pull in.
In contrast with Facel’s Hemi power we close with the town’s people pedalling together as a social outing around the town. Note the youth on the green bike. Epic journey.
Facel Vega. Big points on that one.