Burgundy

Buck's passion for wine took us to Burgundy. He planned the entire trip: we stayed in Vosne Romanee and visited Beaune, Dijon, and drove through some other small villages.

In the vinyards next to the house.

Our little stone house, called La Layotte, was really old and restored to a very high standard. The steps led up to an ancient front door. Directly inside, the kitchen/living/dining area had a table with chairs, a mini fridge, a fully stocked cook's kitchen, a beautiful non-working fireplace, and two small wicker chairs with a low table. This is where the boys took their meals and evening television show.

Past the kitchen there was a bathroom and a bedroom with twin beds. Another loft-style bedroom was upstairs with a big bathtub. The property also had an attached barn that was a little boy's dream play space, with old tools and lots of random things to investigate. In this garage there was also a small camper van.

Inside the barn.

In the morning of our second day on the property, the boys were playing in the gravel driveway while I sat drinking my coffee on the front steps. A man appeared, who had apparently been inside the barn. He was elderly, and he had an injured ankle, which was wrapped up with white tape. He started talking to me benignly in French, and I tried to follow but couldn't. I have no idea how long he had been in the barn or if he in fact lived there or what the HELL JUST HAPPENED. And then he walked down the driveway and got in what was presumably his car and drove away. We didn't see him again. When I ran inside to tell Buck about the encounter, he said, "We're in France."

We visited two wineries as a family and Buck went to another tasting by himself. The first stop was Patriarche, which has the largest wine cellar/cave in Burgundy. We were there on a Friday morning and the place was totally deserted. This suited two young boys ramming around the barely lit caves. We had many palpitations from close encounters to enormous stacks of full wine bottles. Eddie said, "The bottles are dirty but the wine is clean."

James said his favorite part of the experience was carrying the crates used to carry wine you intend to purchase. All of the wine stored in the caves will eventually be labeled and sold.

James, steward of my little wine taster cup thing, unwittingly washed it out in the full spittoon. Gross.

That evening we went to dinner in Dijon. We had no plan and no real sense of the city, and it ended up working out pretty well. We discovered that most of the restaurants did not open until 7:00 p.m., which was a blow considering the boys' usual bedtime of 6:30 p.m. I had packed their dinners as usual, but Buck and I didn't end up eating until close to 8:00 p.m.

Buck found a cute little café with outdoor seating on a square with a fountain. There was beautiful carousal in the square and James chose to ride on the motorcycle for his first ride. As it turned out, it was his only ride because the carousal shut down at 7:00 p.m. sharp. Eddie was devastated that he missed his chance and told us over and over again how much he wanted to ride the "carry cell."

The next day we went to Chateau de Pommard in Beaune.

Chateau Pommard and our day there was incredible. Micheal Baum, a tech entrepreneur, bought the winery a few years ago. Buck is probably writing a story about the winery for Men's Health, and he had asked to meet with a representative in advance. Well, Michael Baum and his son Zachery showed us around for the day. We ended up having lunch with them. 

We met Michael's wife, saw their private living area on the property, heard Zachery play guitar, and had a private tasting with the GM. If it was all an act for a journalist, it was pretty convincing. By lunchtime, Eddie was throwing himself into Michael's arms. I basically was, too. :)

A wine press.

Looking at soil samples with Michael.

Our tasting room.

It's Juice!