Hello, everybody and
welcome again to Cépage et
Cuisine, Mary’s and Brian’s wine and food blog. Here's the gite where we stay in Magny-les-Villers. We love the house. It has a fully equipped kitchen, dishwasher, laundry, two bedrooms, two baths, and high-speed Internet access. Marie and Yves, the friendly and hospitable owners, live in an adjoining house. I think it is their slice of paradise. Behind the house is a vineyard. Blooming flowers are everywhere. Cherries are ripening on the tree. Yves has a nice vegetable garden. Just outside the gate is l'eglise, a small church that dates back several centuries. The rental for one week is €440, about $600 US, less than $100 per day. If you'd like to consider a wonderful France vacation in a rural wine region, reach out to us for more information.
I made this photo just outside the gate to the gite. It gives you another look at the rural beauty of the vineyard area of the Hautes-Côtes.
The
boulangerie in Ladoix-Serrigny, just down the hill from the gite in Magny-les-Villers, is closed on
Sunday. Going in the other direction,
the next closest boulangerie is in Comblanchien, which is still only about a 5
minute drive.
The owner
of the boulangerie, the propriétaire, lives upstairs from the shop.
Not much was going on dons la ville
early on a Sunday and we had a nice chat.
I took a pain au chocolat back
to Mary for breakfast.
Driving back
through Villers-la-Faye, I snapped this photo of iris blooming. Iris are everywhere in Burgundy at this time
of year and they are so beautiful. By the way, Faye, we learned that the correct pronunciation of "Faye" in Villers-la-Faye is "Faye," just like your name, not "fee" as I previously thought.
On the way to the
boulangerie and next to the church in Comblanchien is this interesting
memorial.
I also noticed that the church
looks a little newer than many of the ancient churches we see in small French
villages.
A close look at the memorial gives an idea of what happened. Although Burgundy was occupied by the Germans during World War II, the area was largely spared of violence until late in the war when it was clear the Germans were defeated.
On the night of August 21, nuit du 21 Aout, Germans from a passing troop train and Germans stationed locally attacked the village of Comblanchien. According to information obtained online, the Germans were retaliating against suspected French resistance in the village. As you can see on the memorial, eight villagers were shot and killed, ranging in age from 18-72, including multiple members of some families.
Fifty-two homes were burned, some while the
occupants hid in cellars beneath.
Businesses and the church were burned, which explains the somewhat more
contemporary-appearing church today.
I
clipped this image from a website that describes the attack. Terrible.
We headed to Arbois in
the Jura region for the afternoon. The
Jura is a mountainous area east of Burgundy and not far from the Swiss border,
known for Comté cheese and wine made from the Savignin grape, not to be
confused with Sauvignon Blanc. We love
Comte and use it at home all the time.
It is delicious, not too expensive, and is a versatile everyday cheese,
great for cooking, salads, or after dinner cheese courses.
We stopped into a bar on la place for a simple salade Comtoise
and a glass of Savagnin.
Here's my sweet wife in Arbois and a few more looks at the town.
Arbois was pretty quiet
on Sunday afternoon, but the magasin,
the shop of Domaine Jacques Tissot, a local wine producer, was open. We didn’t get her name, but the young lady
working in the shop was very kind and tasted us through their collection. One of the wines was made from Poulsard, a
native red grape of the region, a light-bodied, fruity wine. We bought a half bottle to take with us for a
planned picnic on Monday.
We relaxed at Patisserie
Hirsinger, a coffee and chocolate shop on la place that has been there for over a century, to soak up the ambience of the town
before heading back to Magny-les-Villers.
We took the backroads home, enjoying the countryside and passing through
lots of small villages.
Back at the gite, I shelled petite pois, as I do every year.
Mary prepared them with parsley potatoes and sautéed chicken that we
bought at the Beaune market.
The wine was Claire
Naudin’s Domaine Henri Naudin-Ferrand Hautes-Côtes de Beaune 2012. Claire is another producer right here in
Magny-les-Villers. We visited her
yesterday when she hosted her annual marché
gourmand, a market of artists, chefs, and wine producers. Mary was thrilled to buy a piece of pottery
from an artist from southwest France.
Claire’s wine was fresh,
fruity, not highly complex, but not expensive and paired well with the
food. Mostly, we enjoyed it because it
was very local, the food was local, and we enjoyed the interaction.
That’s our post for
today. Thanks for reading us. Keep checking back for more as we experience
Burgundy and travel later to Bordeaux. I’ll
post whenever I can. Watch us at Cépage et Cuisine for
more. In the meantime,
Cheers!
Mary♥Brian
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