Visiting Santenay, and watching the Dragon Boat Races in Saint Jean de Losne, France

Another successful visit to Domaine Chateau de Santenay.  Note the beautiful and traditional Burgundian tile roof.

Some of you may wonder why we return to the same places over and over again.  There is the comfort of seeing something familiar while traveling in a foreign country.  Then there is the excitement of experiencing something new in a familiar place.  With all of our traveling we've never seen a harvest and crush actually taking place.  We have seen the bare grape vines, the grapes maturing on the vines, the trimming and pruning of the vines, but never the act of grapes being picked, brought into the winery where they are de-stemmed, crushed, and placed into the barrels or steel tanks for aging.  This year we were lucky.  We had returned to the lovely little town of Santenay where we always visit Domaine Chateau de Santenay for some tasting and certainly the purchase of their wine.  While our Rabelo wine refrigerator is full and the season coming to a close, I couldn't resist purchasing a few more bottles for next year.  Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it), even my spare closet is rapidly filling with the bottles of wine and champagne that don't fit in the refrigerator.

A beautiful day for picking grapes.

Grapes being brought in from the fields.

The grapes were lined up waiting for the next step.

Freshly picked grapes are placed in this vat where they are moved into the de-stemming machine.

Grapes are separated from their stems.

Someone has a green thumb.

The views as we cruise along the Canal du Centre are lovely with little old villages alongside the canal and fields of grapes running up to the tree line.

For hire boats are popular and we encountered a traffic jam in Chagny.  We moved aside at the turnout so the faster, smaller boats could pass us.

Free range chickens we encountered during one of our walks along the canal.  I was disappointed to discover they only sell to the public on Saturday mornings.  I'm still trying to find fresh eggs that we can purchase direct from the farmer.

The weather is changing.

Art and flowers by a lock in Fragnes.

Misty morning walk in Fragnes.

A young baker hard at work.

The last lock on the Canal du Centre before entering the River Saone is 35 feet deep.

It was a very tight fit for us with only inches to spare front an back.

Once we were on the beautiful River Saone and out of the canal system, we could travel faster.  The leaves were changing, enhancing the scenery with the different fall colors.  The car and motor scooter were on deck since we were traveling back to Saint Jean de Losne and wouldn't need road transportation for a few days.

Cruising on the Saone River

We returned to St Jean de Losne in time to watch the Dragon Boat Races.  Of course we had no idea what the Dragon Boat Races were, but we were sure we needed to experience them.

This is what the front of the dragon boats look like.

Behind the face of the dragon sits a drummer beating on a drum as hard as they can while screaming for the team to paddle as hard as they can in unison with the drum.  The racers were men and women with an assortment of ages.

One Dragon Boat Team.

Each race that we saw went quickly.  The person standing in the back of the boat handles the rudder.

 While the boats were racing along the river there was a marching band entertaining the few spectators that had turned out for the races.

The marching band had musicians of all ages.

I had never heard of a Yarn Bomb until a fiber artist friend explained what I was seeing all over Saint Jean de Losne.  I honestly don't understand why anyone would go to such time and expense to knit up all sorts of garments in order to decorate a town. It did bring color and humor to the town.

The french need to stop smoking.  This is a common view all over.  In 2012 30 billion butts littered the sidewalks, parks and beaches of France.  In Paris alone there were 350 tonnes of butts.  Paris has now enacted a fine of 68 Euros if you are caught dropping a cigarette butt OR not cleaning up after your dog.  It's a beginning but I'd like to see this fine enforced all over France.

Abbey of Cluny, Burgundy, France

We had lunch (with wine) at La Nation in Cluny.  After all, this is france.

 We are fortunate to live six months a year in France.  This allows us to explore new areas as well as revisit favorite sites from previous years.  We decided to see Cluny for the first time.  I recommend visiting the Cluny Abbey and town.  You should allow plenty of time because there is so much to see and explore.  If you get a chance check out the National Stud Farm where 50 thoroughbred stallions reside.

We found this cat watching us from his rooftop in Cluny.

Window shopping we saw beautiful and tempting window displays.  Here are bouchon - chocolate corks.

It was hard not biting into one of the cute faces.  Wouldn't these be wonderful for Halloween?

Now for a brief history lesson about Cluny, which William the Pious founded in 910.  The abbey grew considerably until the 12^th century, was the mother house for around 1000 monasteries and priories across Europe and became the headquarters of the largest monastic order in the west:  the Cluniac order.  By 1100 it was the headquarters for 10,000 monks.  This abbey once vied with the Vatican as the most important power center in the Christian world.   In the XII century the mother house of the Order had seven towers, two transepts, five naves and was the biggest in all Christendom, second only, by a little to Bramante and Michelangelo’s church of Saint Peter.  The site was almost two football fields long (555 feet) and covered 25 acres.  The monks lived to fight against the Devil.  When people were convinced that the devil did not exist, Cluny lost all of its significance.  At that point the abbey was pulled down.  The Wars of Religion in the 16^th century hastened the abbey’s decline.  It was not until the 18^th century that a reconstruction program began restoring the abbey to something of its former glory.  In 1862 it was listed as a historic monument. The Cluny Abbey was the largest Christian building in the world until St. Peter's Basilica was rebuilt in Rome in the 16th century.

We climbed up the tower to admire the views.

The climb is worth the effort.

There are many photo ops.

The museum has wonderful original carvings.

Another relic that was dug up.

Photographs can't do justice to the original size and glory of Cluny at its zenith.

Remaining tower.

Looking up at the ceiling.

18th century monastery buildings form a U shape around the gardens.

Graceful hallway.

Magnificent stairway with intricate wrought iron and gold leaf.

Detail of one of the corbels which originally made up the base of a statue.

Corbels ringed the whole room.  You can see where the status originally resided.

Example of remaining windows.

Excavation continues

 There is an engineering school on the premises of the abbey with a museum.  The engineering students all wear grey robes, which are unadorned the first year, after which they each personalize their robes, which seems to express their personality (and possibly their particular engineering interest).

- Arts et Métiers ParisTech, Cluny is an engineering school that has been installed in the famous Abbey of Cluny, Burgundy since 1901.  The Arts et Métiers Cluny Campus has a tradition of teaching and research. Today the Cluny Campus promotes innovation in several different engineering domains of mechanical and production engineering but specialises in high speed milling, wood engineering and 3D virtual reality, linking undergraduate, postgraduate, life long learning, research and economic development.

Engineering students.

Example of an engineering student's jacket.

Carved wooden keys in the engineering school's museum.

Electrostatic machine in the museum

In the museum is an example of an engineering student's robe.

I can't publish a blog without mentioning food.  We decided a dinner out was in order one night.  We drove a long way on pitch black curvy roads to find this restaurant.

The french love their dogs and frequently bring them into the restaurant while dining.

Dinner was delicious.  My first course was escargot on puff pastry with a cheese sauce.   

I had frogs legs for the first time.  They were a wonderful excuse for eating garlic and butter.

Dessert wasn't bad either!