Christmas and New Year

(As you may notice this post is in slightly the wrong place but we couldnt fit it in anywhere else!)

On the 18th of December, we woke early (7am) jumped on a finicular, then a metro, then another metro, then a TGV to Paris heavily laden with bags and presents. After a 2 hour journey to Paris we arrived at Paris Gare de Lyon at 11am ish. The next connection was the 3pm Eurostar from Gare de Nord to London St Pancras, easy we though, we'll just jump on of the RER connection train between the stations. Easy peasy, just jump on the right train.....

Not so easy. Instead of being a straightforward glance at the departures board we quickly realised that this was no ordinary train. Oh no.

No destintions were on the board but names like ZYGL, ZYPE, XLOP, ZIPE, FLOK, FLAP, ZONX and so on..... We then had to cross refernce these names with another board to estabish the destinations of these strange underground creatures, which itself cross refenced with another board that clarified wether it was a short fast or a long slow train, then a quick return to the original board to see if they were in fact running.... PHEW.

Added to the fact the there were no toilets around and we were each carrying 30kg made us into slighly stressed bunnies.

But the fun wasn't over yet, after scaling the broken escalators we had to find the correct SET of platforms and once on those platforms make sure you were not only on the right side BUT also at the right end of the platform as they quite often had two trains on them!

Somehow we managed to get on the right train and 20 minutes later arrived at Gare de Nord slightly worse for wear, thirsty, hungry, a bit smelly and bursting for the toilet.

Kates only comment at this moment was a growled 'Next time we're taking a taxi.'

We then went for the most expensive toilet trip (€1.50! - I made sure I filled my pockets up with tissues for the journey, filled up the water bottles, quick face wash, good look in the mirror etc... I was getting my moneys worth!)

Gare de Nord is a lovely station and after a coffee the whole experience seemed slighly less traumatic and we took a few pictures of the station and Paris out the window, checked in and setteled down for a sandwich and waited for out Eurostar.

Gare du Nord, Paris

Shortly before the worst cup of coffee, but Kt's happy at her first view of Paris!

J practising his Welsh Rucksack Yoga, this postion is know as the Extended Chicken Saluting the Sun.

Not actually our train but it was remarkably similar to the one we did get on.... funny that.

St Pancreas (clearly St Pancras was just a spelling mistake when they built the sation? hehe)


The journey to London was great, it seemed to go realy fast too and we were soon alighting at London St Pancras and on our way to the final connection to Wellingborough. Back on British turf for the first time in 3 1/2 months didnt start toooo well (apart from the free toilets) when we discovered that out journey from Lyon-London was actually significantly cheaper than a 40 minute journey to Wellingborough. So we did what any good traveller would do and decided to wait for 2 hours when the tickes got cheaper and THEN continue our journey. Tickets bought, platform found (thankfully easier than Paris!) we settled in for 2 hours of people watching! Great!

14 hours after setting off that morning we pulled into Wellingborough station and we met by Paul (Kts dad) and Sue (J's mum), hugs later we were on the way to Blisworth for the unenviable task of unpacking (including the 10 bottles of wine, 3 sausages and cheeses we just couldnt leave behind...)

A loooong day but fantastic to be back home and with family, after a delcious mummy McGregor meal and a few glasses of wine it was clearly all worth it all! On a serious note, next time we're taking a taxi.


LONDON AND XMAS DAY

A few days before xmas we travelled with Sue down to London to stay with Jane and Tony (J's aunt and uncle) and of course their three fantastic children. We had a lovely stay and consumed a fair amount of wine over the three days. One of best moments of our stay was Tony microwaving the chestnuts without piercing them (not a pretty sight!). We walked and hired recumbant bikes in Dulwich park (great fun, photos below) went to the Tate modern and explored London, stopping at the Abosulte Ice bar for a quick vodka in fluffy jackets! It was time to head back to Blisworth far too soon and on the 23rd we hopped ont yet another train from Euston to MK to spend xmas at the McG's.

The microwave got Tonied

Sue aka 'Hot Wheels'

The Crack at the Tate modern

Spider outside the Tate modern

Absolut Ice Bar

Check out my fur

cool mama


cool dooode


CHRISTMAS DAY

Christmas day was lovely, the usual large amounts of chocolate were consumed before breakfast and presents we exchanged. Kate's largely consisted of thermals, slippers and other items of cloting designed for arctic adventures (including a pair of yetti socks) in an attempt to stop her freezing this winter (much appreciated!). J's included a high number of books and a chicken (from http://www.farmfriends.org.uk/), thermals and shoes! Happy bunnies all round!

Mummy McG cooked a lovely xmas dinner and after a quick trudge round the circuit we collapsed with full tummies, pens poised to make a list of items to order first thing boxing day to make the most of the sales!

Boxing day started with the usual manic ordering of sale clothes that would most likely be returned (the poor Next delivery man joked he'd seen more of us than his wife in the week after xmas...). We then went for a walk with a few family friends ending up in The George at Tiffield for some lovely dinner (http://www.information-britain.co.uk/showPlace.cfm?Place_ID=67542).

The next few days passed all too quickly and we were then heading to Wales for New Year in the Railway Inn in Abergynolwyn (another fantastic pub we know well who do great food too http://www.allpubs.co.uk/pub/44843). We spent a few days walking and enjoying the pub before heading back to Blisworth. A flying visit but great to spend some time back in Wales.

We travelled back to France on 7th Jan with even more bags than we left with, the only difference was this time we did take a taxi!

Beaujolais Nouveau!!!!

As if the wine fair wasn't enough for us, every year there is a celebration called the Beaujolais Noveau, created in the 80's to improve the popularity of the wine, the Beaujolais wine quickly became a victim of its own success. Many new vineyards were created as people tried to cash in on the increasing popualrity of the wine, and, as a result the quality suffered as inexperienced wine producers released poor quality wine, resulting in a very negative view of the wine world wide. However, the charlatons' vineyards began to close almost as quickly as the opened, leaving the original and best, passionate and proud vineyards who had a reputaion to uphold, and over the last decade, both the wine and its name is fighting back.

J and I have been lucky enough to taste a fair amount of the nouveau, and can confirm, its scruptious, as I type this I'm supping a 2007 Beujolais from Alain et Danile Germain's vineyard, Domain du Moulin Blanc from the village of Charnay http://www.domaine-du-moulin-blanc.com/.

The university organises a trip every year to a selection of the Beaujolais vineyards and then onto the town of Beaujeu for the opening night of the celebrations, the new wines are not released until midnight and it is marked with a procession through the streets, the burning of the oak wine barrels, a HUGE firework display and the fountains run with wine (sounded like a good old night to me!).

Louise was very kind and lent me her car for the evening so I could drive to Beaujeu and meet J and the others from the Uni. Needless to say when I arrived, some of the students had sampled a fair few of the previous years wine and were rather merry whereas some others (ehem...Sven..) were on the point of collapse-and it was only 7pm! The town itself is beautiful with large squares and a roaring river through the centre, all the bars were packed and people everywhere. By chance I had parked next to a British car and we bumped into its owners in one of the sample tents, they had driven all the way from Lancashire just to sample and stock up on the new wines and join in the clebrations - now that is commitment to the Beaujolais!

On the drive in I had noticed one or two rather swanky cars, Aston Martin DB7s and a DB8, TVRs, Porsches' a Lotus or two, Ferrari as well as a few Bentlys and Rolls - not the usual Renaults of the area! The reason for this became clear as we were chatting to a rather short Porsche owner (he was even shorter than me!!!) - every year at 6am they race back to London with a case each of the new wine to see who can get it back to the UK first to raise money for charity.

It was a (literally!) freezing night and I had driven through snow to get there so we shivered and huddled round the burning barrels before following the procession through the steets to the main square. At midnight the corks are litterly popped on hundreds of bottles and everyone gets a taste of the new wines while the fireworks light up the whole town.

It was a great show and really friendly with people passing round the bottles and filling up strangers glasses while brass bands played through the streets. Unfortunately as I was driving I only sampled a sip I left shortly after midnight with a tipsy J as my map reader to head back to the Innnes house. I wasn't too sad at missing out on trying the new wines as I had had a sneeky sample of three the night before - te he, one of the perks of living in a house surronded by vineyards!

THE WINE FAIR!

On the 25th - 29th of October, a beautiful event occured in Lyon at the Halle Tony Garnier, where many a man (and woman) found themselves ruined (especially financially)..... this magnificent event is called....

Vingeron Independants - Le Savoir-Etre du Vin

In plain ol' english...

740 Independant wine producers, under one roof, with the sole aim to show off their wines by offering you free tastings! WHOOP WHOOP!

Louise and Robbie kindly gave J and I tickets to the festival (one ticket = 2 people entry for a day) so we went on Saturday 27th. As you walk in the door its slightly overwhelming as you exchange your tickets for two glasses which allow you to go in and out all day. You are then faced with one of the most beautiful sights in the world.... stands representing 740 independant vineyards from across france, colour coded so you don't loose your way!

For the inexperienced it is a fairly intimidating to begin with as theres shulurming, spitting, swilling, gargling and an awful lot of talking focused around each of the booths. We decided to begin with the local area and had a degustation of the most local Lyonnais wine http://www.clos-st-marc.com/ . As we ventured around we grew with confidence (directly correlated to the amount of wine we were consuming - the student in us took over, spit wine out?! I dont think so!!!!!) So we gargled our way around Beaujolais, a few Pouille Fissse and a couple of Pouille Fumee... We qoiffed a Cremant du Jura and an Etoile or two, followed swiftly by gulping some Montbazillac, then another, and another, then the wallets came out and we purchased a 2003 & 2005, then a 'cheeky' 1997 from Vingnobles de Poulvere et Barse http://www.poulvere.com/.

Our next purchase of the day was a chariot that can carry 30kg of wine. We felt that we were taken more seriously when pulling our wine behind us. In the few minutes taken to purchase our chariot, we felt we were embraced by the French. Nods and grunts of approval came from left and right and we moved up a rank, no longer were we mere tourists - we were wine pullers. It was a moving moment for us both. Absoultuely nothing to do with the fact is was now 1pm and we had been sipping since 10 without stopping for sustenance....

Lunch time was fairly necessary at this point and we muched our baguettes with gusto before returned to Kts favourite of the day. The delightful ladies of the Chateau de l'Etoile (http://www.chateau-etoile.com/) not only had the most delicious wine we had tasted, they were the nicest people we met that day and spent time explaining the differences between the grapes and the soils, the processes that each wine goes through and they also refilled our glasses at an impressive rate.

We decided that this should be our second purchase, especailly when we found out there are only three Etoile producing vineyards as its such a teensy weensy place and they were by far the nicest. Our purchases included a Vin Jaune and their award winning La Cuvee des ceps d'or, both were truly scrumptious and, if finances had allowed I think we would also have taken a Macvin du Jura and Vin de Paille de l'Etoile.

As we completed the purchase the lovely friendly lady did the usual "Merci, bon journee...." but then followed with words that were to bring joy to our little tipsy hearts....

"Would you like tickets for tomorrow?"

Yes. Yes we would. That would be super. Please can we have two? Thank you. See you tomorrow nice lady!

Off we staggered with our little chariot and smiles on our faces, Kt fumbling with her phone to call Sarah and Lani to spread the joy and the tickets.

We were coming back tomorrow.

With our chariot.


Sunday dawned with sightly sore heads (we HAD to sample at least one of our new purchases the previous night). We collected Sarah, pootled off to the bakery to stock up on carbs and headed to the Metro where we would meet Lani.

We were now pro's at this and walked the aisles with an air of confidance that we didnt have the previous day. Little phrases 'c'est trop fort pour moi', 'c'est tres tannic, non?' 'avez vous un autre an?', 'je preferais un vin moins sec', 'je preferais le mille nuef cent quatre-vingt dix sept', 'c'est tres bon!' flowed like the wine and we systematically drank whites first, bubbles second, quick stop for lunch and onto the reds.

We purchased a Gewutzstraminer from Andre Hopfner http://www.vinhopfner.fr/, another from Jean Claude Geuth http://www.vin-alsace-gueth.com/. A Fitou (but we drank it and can't find the recipt so I cant tell you where it was from. I can tell you it was delicious and Lani bought some for her mum). A Fleurie from a lovely lady Martine Thevenet http://www.vigneron-independant.com/annuaire/desc_adherent.php?numadh=703 and her daughter who practiced her english with us (poor child, by this point even we couldnt speak english that well....).

After we had sampled all the wines we specifically wanted to (based mainly on what we could remember the parents liked!) we decided on a new plan of attack, the people that looked the nicest or had the smallest crowd. Now I can hear you all crying out - if they have no que its propbably because they're rubbish! But no, we didnt think of that. We tried a few Cote du Rhone that were so dry it felt like your mouth was peeling off.

But then, just by chance Sarah spied a little decrepid old man, sitting alone at the end of an aisle, with a big smile and only two wines.
We sauntered over but quickly realsied he was not a man that took wines lightly. They were his life. He rinsed our glasses whilst scowling, they had white in them (after a quick stop at the Montbazillac on they way over). White wine, he said, was NOT wine. He then took it upon hinself to re-educate the four lost souls that stood before him. To cut a fairly short story even shorter, he did a good job, his wine was lovely, so was he and we bought a bottle of his 2000 Chateau Sainte-Marie Pomerol. A good choice he said somewhat unsurprisingly - it cost €32. http://www.vigneron-independant.com/annuaire/desc_adherent.php?numadh=8776

By now we felt truly re-educated and full so we decided to call it a day.

Climbing over the bodies of the few that didn't make it (there were quite a few!) we wheeled our laden chariot back to the bus stop and off home where we spend more than a few minutes sitting on the floor surrounded by our new friends. It was an amazing experience and a fantastic weekend where we both learnt a lot, but perhaps the most interesting thing was we found what we like and dont like which is going to make the supermarket trips an awful lot easier!

Can't wait for next year!!!

The purchases (well, some of them)

The three 'BIG ONES' L-R Chateau Etoile Vin Jaune, Chateau Sainte-Marie Pomerol, Montbazillc 2002 'Elegance'

The guide book listing evey producer there, and the tasting glasses.