I’m not sure we will ever top the day that ended with a wine tasting at DomaineGros, but we were going to do our best. Friday started out with a trip to the Dijon covered market where we bought 5 kilos, or over ten pounds, of fresh mussels. We then made a quick stop at McDonalds to steal their Wifi and catch up with friends, family, and business.
For lunch we drove to the village of Fixin where we ate at Clos Napoleon, one of our favorite restaurants. The food is great, and the setting even better as you feel like you are eating in the middle of a vineyard. The wines from Fixin are reasonably priced and excellent.
“Enjoying a McWifi at McDonalds.”
“Lunch at Clos Napoleon.”
“Poached eggs in a muerette (red wine) sauce. Yummy.”
After lunch we went back to Rabelo and started up the engine. At one of the locks was a tree full of ripe apples. Lisa and friends jumped off Rabelo and started to pick them. They hadn’t noticed that on the opposite side of the lock were an old man and his wife sitting in front of the lock house. As Lisa and our friends began picking he started to make grumbling sounds. The sounds got louder as they picked more apples. Lisa finally realized that he was yelling to stop picking his apples. Lisa asked the lock keeper if they were really his apples because the tree was on the other side of the canal. She also wanted to know if they should give the apples back to the old man and his wife. The lock keeper said they were his apples, but that he was just a grumpy old man and we should keep the apples.
“The old man’s front yard was filled with lawn gnomes.”
“We put Lisa and Patty to work opening the locks.”
We stopped at the little village of La Bussiere-sur-Ouche, or just plain Bussiere. A couple we met walking along the canal said that we were parked in front of the home where the famous travel author Rick Steves’ stays when he is Burgundy. Rick probably knows more about France than almost anyone in the world. If Bussiere is good enough for Rick Steves’ it’s good enough for Rabelo.
“Rabelo parked in Bussiere.”
That night Bob and Larry went to work cleaning the mussels we had bought in Dijon. It was a lot of work, but well worth it. The temperature was perfect that evening so we dined on deck. Life doesn’t get any better than having great friends enjoy a fantastic meal with incredible wines while sitting on the deck of a beautiful barge in the middle of this amazing country called France.
“Bob and Larry cooking our mussels.”
“Meals are also a joint effort.”
“Enjoying fresh mussels on deck. Double yummy.”
“It was time for our friends to say goodbye.”
Check out my wife’s blog lowbridgeeverybodydown.blogspot.com. You’ll be pleased that you did.
-Tom Miller
Author of “The Wave” and “When Stones Speak”– Chuck Palmer Adventure novels
OCT
About the Author:
Tom Miller graduated from the University of Southern California with a Bachelor of Science in Geology. He is a consummate adventurer with over 1,000 dives as a recreational scuba diver, and an avid sailor who has traveled 65,000 miles throughout the Pacific including the Hawaiian Islands. Miller has also cruised the canals of Europe on his canal barge and given numerous lectures on cruising the canals of Europe, as well as sailing in the South Pacific. Piloting is also an interest of Miller's, and He has completed over 1,000 hours flying everything from small Cessnas to Lear jets.