Trail Name: Circuit de Saint-Marc
Trail Type: Mid-distance hiking circuit; partly paved, part dirt; no specific marking for this trail.
Length: total: 11 km/6.8 miles
Convenient to: Epernay, France
Category Archives: France
Burgundy’s Cote de Nuits: Big Names, Small Vineyards
Hiking Burgundy’s Cote de Nuits taught me to appreciate the important things in life; and in the Cote de Nuits, life does seem to revolve around wine. Certainly wine is not the most important thing in life here: rather producing the greatest quality wine becomes an all-consuming passion on the part of most families who make a living from these hugely famous but surprisingly small appellations and the wines they produce. And hiking through these vineyards gave me a chance to appreciate that.
The Cote de Nuits vineyards, some of the most famous in the world, begin just yards from trailhead in Chenove, with the Marsannay Village appellation. Shortly after, in the village of Fixey/Fixin, I came to the first Premier Cru vineyard: Les Arvelets. (Fixin is also does homage to another great: Napoleon. Fixin’s Noisot Museum, and associated park, were created by Claude Noisot, a former officer in the Imperial Army who actually accompanied Napoleon into exile at Elba.)
Continue reading Burgundy’s Cote de Nuits: Big Names, Small Vineyards
Wine Notes: Burgundy Cote D’Or – Cote de Nuits
What I Learned:
By way of overall explanation, the term Cote D’Or (Golden Slope) has a couple of meanings: it refers to a department in France, and it refers to a geological phenomenon, a large limestone ridge, that gives its name to a wine region. The wine region is subdivided into two sections: the northern Cote de Nuits, and the southern Cote de Beaune. This post covers the northern, Cote de Nuits, section, which runs from approximately just south of Dijon to just south of Corgoloin in Burgundy.
Continue reading Wine Notes: Burgundy Cote D’Or – Cote de Nuits
Trail of the Grands Crus: Trail in a Nutshell
Trail Name: Chemin des Grands Crus
Trail Type: Long distance hiking trail, wine-themed; with a widely varying trail surface from paved road to grass track, somewhat maintained, and signposted or marked at many intersections, but not all.
Length:
- Total: 82 km/51 miles
- Segment (Northern half): roughly 34 km/22 miles (Chenove to Villars la Faye)
Convenient to: Dijon, Burgundy, France
Continue reading Trail of the Grands Crus: Trail in a Nutshell
Vineyards of Saumur Champigny
“A sea of vineyards – above the Loire River, under rain-laden clouds”
This is how I will always visualize this hike.
Maybe because we were in “la Douce France” (gentle, soft, sweet France), the rain fell only softly, and then not for long, to the chagrin of the vintners, but to our delight because sections of the trail would have turned muddy with heavier rains, or a higher river. As it was, the cloud cover served nicely to protect us from what otherwise would have been a hot day in the sun.
Wine Notes: Loire/Anjou and Saumur
What I Learned:
Wine production has been documented along this section of the Loire (between Saumur and Anjou) for at least 1500 years. When the Plantagenet rulers of the area gained the throne of England in 1154, it sparked an international demand for this local wine, and its popularity continued until the French Revolution. It is a rich tradition that also makes full use of the natural and man-made caves in this area.
Dampierre’s Au Coeur du Vignoble: Trail in a Nutshell
Trail Name: Au Coeur du Vignoble
Trail Type: Short distance hiking circuit; mostly hard-packed gravel or paved in built up areas, well maintained and marked.
Length: Total: 11 km, (approximately 7 miles)
Convenient to: Saumur, Loire Valley, France
Continue reading Dampierre’s Au Coeur du Vignoble: Trail in a Nutshell
Jura: Trail in a Nutshell
Trail Name: Arbois Pedestre-Vignoble et Revermont
Trail Type: A mid-distance hiking circuit; grass, dirt trail, and paved in built-up areas.
Length: Total: 16.5 km
Convenient to: Besancon, Jura, France
Jura Wine Notes
What I Learned:
The Jura wineries are not that far from Burgundy’s wineries, but they are figuratively-speaking a world apart. Like their famous counterparts, the Jura wine-makers are just as proud of their line of products, which have centuries of tradition behind them.
Jura: Arbois Vignoble et Revermont Trail
Golden Days of Wine
From where I sat, the mellow sunlight warmly accentuated the yellow-ochre stone work, the whole harmonizing well with the light honey-colored vin jaune (yellow wine) I had in hand.
