A great milestone for you, Bravo!

Anne and I wish you all the best for  the 5th of May. We hope you have a wonderful day with much fun and enjoyment with Ryoko, and your family. Perhaps a sip or two of scotch as well!

I’m going to take this opportunity Mike to tell others who will be adding their own comments, about the lunch Anne and I had with you, Ryoko, Fumie, Masa and your grand daughter Mayumi in Nice in 2001.

Chatting over the meal naturally lead to ‘the good old days’ at Air NZ. In passing I mentioned how your NZ QSM was so well deserved.

I recall your daughter Fumie saying, ‘QSM, what QSM, what is that?’ She knew nothing about it. So I explained how you had achieved such prestigious recognition through all your dedication, skill, achievements and the mana you brought to Air NZ in Japan.

It should not have surprised me Mike that you had not told your family about the award, but it did!  It was a succinct demonstration of humility, and I guess that renowned element of Japanese culture where most things are achieved through the efforts and abilities of the ‘team’.

And I have one question for you Mike. I use to see all those bottles of scotch you would bring to NZL on your many trips - what did you list them as on your pink expense claims?!!

Happy 80 th Mike, we still want to visit you in TYO, we hope it will be one day soon.

Best to you Both,

Anne & Bruce.

Those of you who are already registered may soon see Posts relating to a Category - Mike - san.

We are using purelyfrance has a holding pen to celebrate the 80th birthday of a former work colleague, so you can ignore these posts, or read them as you wish!!

His birthday is 05 May so it should only go on for a month!

A Bientot,

Bruce.

It is tucked away, between place Carnot, (where the children’s carousel is located) on the south side, and the Hotel-Dieu.

You wont find any wine tastings in the street, but for lovers of Italy it is a street worth searching out as it now houses three shops with an Italian theme.

Of course one would be selling Italian foodstuffs.

As soon as you pass the doorstep of Emilian Goods the aromas are unmistakenly Italian. A range of fresh pastas, home made sauces, and olive oils are all displayed to titillate your palate. The Italian wines, or perhaps the tirimasu may also catch your eye.

 At # 11 rue Victor Millot is Farfalla, a delight for the ladies or even men seeking un cadeau for their loved one. All the stock sold by Farfalla originates in Italy consisting of shoes, handbags, belts, jewellery and other accessories.

Farfalla’s owner, Nelly, is warm and gregarious, who really knows her styles and fashion. Whatever you may buy from Nelly you can rest assured it will be very à la mode!

The other cool thing about Farfalla are its prices, remarkably moderate so therefore offering excellent value for money.

And across the street at # 8, you will find Farfalla’s ’sister’ shop, D.O.C.  Opened very recently, D.O.C. features Italian made mens shirts, shoes and other male accessories.

Again, prices are surprisingly reasonable.

So for a taste of Italy -without even having to leave France -try your luck in rue Victor Millot, Beaune!

 A Bientot, Bruce.

Jean-Philippe the groom is a local Chaudenaysian and the bride Subhashini, is from Mauritius.

They held their French civil law wedding here at la Mairie in Chaudenay, and will have a church wedding in Mauritius in two weeks time.

I was amused that the groom, bride and photographer arrived for the photos prior to the wedding ceremony.

Presumably the French don’t follow the superstition of the groom and bride not sighting each other on the day until they reach the altar!

Comme habitude, post the marriage ceremony, we were subjected to the traditional parade of cars blasting away on their horns!

A Bientot, Bruce.

David’s wife Lynne was indisposed, so they were short of a driver for a day. No problem, and I didn’t even have to wear a chauffeur’s uniform.

Hang on a minute.  If I’m driving, what about tasting? Oh shoot. I guess there’s always spitting.

We had an eclectic mix of people to expose to some of Burgundy’s finest vineyards. Five Chinese ladies from Hong Kong and San Francisco; a young American chap studying philosophy at Princeton Uni; and another American couple from Reno, Nevada.

We plunged straight into the crème de la crème of pinot noir country taking in the vines of Vosne-Romanée where I learnt two interesting facts.

There are 33 Grand cru vineyards in Burgundy, and 23 of them lie within 10 kms of Vosne Romanée; how about that for star status.

And David explained how some vignerons were resorting to horses to hoe weeds and turn the soil between the vines. I thought David may have been using some touristic license but within 20 metres of our RangeRover we could see two horses plodding their way through two different vineyards. Voila!

Moving on to the Vosne-Romanée situated Domaine Michel Noellat & fils the first tasting was on offer, plus the first test of my discipline. I passed on the regional aligoté; stayed away from the Chambolle Musigny chardonnay; even waved away the Vosne-Romanée Les Suchots premier cru. How tough am I.

Then we were offered a rare taste of  a grand cru, their Echezeaux pinot noir. It would have been rude of me to refuse  a grand cru - wouldn’t it?

Next stop was at Pernand-Vergelesses, Domaine Baptiste Gay. Baptiste, a sole owner/operator greeted us ready for work in his orange shorts and red t-shirt. Or the colours may have been the other way round.

His passion for his wines were evident as he sedately waltzed us through his range of chardonnays. His village Les Belles-Filles was delighful, full of floral flavours, and very good value for money at 12 euros.

The subject of Rugby arose, Baptiste (you have to love that name!) was just as passionate about French Rugby, particularly their record against the All Blacks in World Cups. I think he really enjoyed reminding me of that.

But he was graceful enough to offer us a taste of his Corton-Charlemagne grand cru chardonnay. What could I say?

We bade farewell to Baptiste and headed for lunch at the Auberge Saint Martin in the small village of Bouilland.

An excllent lunch it was too, Marieluce delivering excellent service and her husband Didier producing the goods in the kitchen.  A starter was the traditional Burgundy specialty, jambon persillé, followed by a choice of coq au vin or trout.

The trout, boneless, was particularly tasty. Cheeses, and a rich sumptous chocolate cake followed, all washed down by a Baptisite chardonnay. Of course I just sipped. 

Last call of the day was at Domaine Marcillet located in Fussey in the Haut Cotes de Beaune appellation. Here, Nadine talked us through their approach to wine making before inviting us to their well appointed cellar/tasting room.

Not only did we taste (sipping and spitting for moi) a range that included aligoté, a Savigny les Beaune chardonnay and a Chorey-les-beaune pinot, but Nadine also produced a tasting of cassis (black current juice) which is used in the Burgundy drink of Kir.

So with a number of different flavours lingering on our respective palates we headed back to Beaune somewhat more educated on some of the intricacies and skill involved in producing high quality Burgundy wines.

And that was my day as a Chauffeur.  As enjoyable as it was, I would prefer to be on the tasting side of the table!

To paraphrase Mae West - so many wines, so little time!

A Bientot, Bruce.

We couldn’t quite see what the fuss was about as most of la gloriette was buried under  a mass of trees, vines, creeper, blackberry, rocks, stones, and tiles. Cared for, it decidedly wasn’t!

When we looked up ‘la gloriette’ in our well worn French dictionary it translated to a gazebo. 

Hmm, we thought, this overgrown morass doesn’t look much like a gazebo, ancient or otherwise.

So we asked around some of our French friends who commonly labeled it une serre, which is a glasshouse.

This made much more sense as the rusted iron frame was clearly visible and it faced south presumably to maximise exposure to the sun.

It has been well made with an iron ladder on the side leading to a platform which ran along the top of la serre. We guess this was to either train plants or perhaps to enable the glass of la serre to be cleaned easily. Needless to say there is not today one pain of glass to be seen, so no cleaning required there!

All of that is really by and by. La gloriette/la serre has sat there in its untidy, mangled state for the past 8 years.

That was until a couple of weeks ago when old friends Peter and Dianne Elmsly came to stay. They are keen gardeners (I mean who brings their own gardening gloves on holiday!) and motivated by their generous nature they very kindly set about uncovering said serre.

So out came all the rocks and stones some of which could only be levered using a steel rod - goodness knows what they had been doing there, they were too heavy for even two of us to lift. And out came the aforementioned, tiles, blackberry, creper, trees, and vines.

After the first day I think Peter and Dianne wondered what they had started, particularly as the mercury shot up to over 30 degrees and stayed there!  But they are made of sterner stuff and manfully, and womanly, stuck to their task.

We did wonder if we would make any exciting discoveries as la serre was cleared, like a tombstone perhaps. But other than an almost unmovable stone sink, a 20-25 yr old looking grape vine and an egg, no other treasures were to be found.

The egg is a bit of a mystery, we still don’t know what it is or what to do with it.

So now we have a beautifully designed serre, its iron frame crying out to be brushed down and some anti-rust applied to it.

I wonder if Peter and Dianne will think to bring their painting gloves next year?

A Bientot, Bruce.