I blame our route to Marseille entirely on one of Catering’s friends, who gave him a book to read in hospital & while recovering. Catering, not being a great reader of historical fact, carried said book with him on our last trip abroad, but favoured the latest Robert Harris offering, while I, having powered through my own reading material, actually read the damn book “Puligny-Montrachet – Journal of a Village in Burgundy” by Simon Loftus. Having read it, I was determined to visit this quiet rural enclave dedicated to producing some of the most revered wines in the world. So our 1st night in France was spent in Nuits Saint Georges followed by a morning pilgrimage to Puligny-Montrachet, via Beaune and Meursault.

Nice to finally meet you, when I’ve read so much about you.

It was a genuinely charming and sleepy town, or at least it would have been but for the fact that it was grape harvest time and everywhere we looked the fields were full of pickers. It was blisteringly hot and the work looked back breaking, as they pick all the grapes by hand. Long tables were laid out in the various wine producing houses for the evening meal, just as described in the book and I was delighted to have seen what I’d read brought to life. We will be back – a morning was not long enough, for this charming corner of France. The Routes des Grands Crus will be further explored at a later date.

Most of the work, particularly the harvest, is still done by hand.