May 20 - Chalon-sur-Saone & Rully (Chalonnaise wine)

 The AmaCello is docked in town on the Saone, next to the city center.   The day started with a very strong wind.  And you can tell it was going to be a hot one (it ended up being 90 later!).  We met our guide and started walking to the old town.   Isn't all of Europe an 'old town'?   In Roman times it was known as Cabillonum, and served as a river port and hub of road communications.   We'll see some Roman walls in a bit.    But first, Chalon has a famous son, French inventor Nicephore Niepce, who in 1826 produced a primitive camera, and is considered the father of photography.   He and his brother also invented one of the first internal combustion machines.   Here is his statue as we start our walk.

We start walking through the medieval part of town.  This house, built in 1657 for Barthelemy Magnien, a Parliamentary lawyer.

It was market day!  (what luck we're having with farmer's markets on this trip!)    These stalls are in front of St.Vincent (patron saint of the vineyards) Church, which started construction the 8th century and continued to be built through the 19th century.

All of the medieval town used to be surrounded with a bastion wall and had several towers.

Look at the different layers of rock in this tower.   The bottom ones were Roman made.

Here's a few more towers and some nobles' houses.

A very interesting town.   It was getting hotter .. and the wind was howling!   Lot of us were suffering from pollen in the air.   Jan saved me with an Allegra pill.    It was time to get back to the boat and have lunch.    Here's my 'duck confit'.   I convinced the Englishmen to order it.   They (and I) loved it!

After a short rest we were ready for the afternoon's excursion to the vineyards of Burgundy.    I wasn't too excited to go on a wine tasting visit but it turned out that we were visiting a very interesting castle in the middle of vineyards.   It turned out to be a great visit!    This was taken from the bus window as we drove up the hill.

It was built in the 12th century!   and .. its ownership has stayed in the same family for .. 26 generations !!  

This is the owner, comte d'Aviau de Terney, descendant of the Montessus.   Story was .. that the Duke of Burgundy, in the 14th century gave the castle and land to a knight returning from the crusades.   Today, he and his wife and their three boys reside in the castle.    He opens it up to the public to receive large tax breaks.  He took us through his house.

He is a really nice and funny man!    We enjoyed his repartee!

We then went into his medieval kitchen and sample some of his vineyard's wines with gruyere puff balls.

An interesting story.    During his family's 26 generations of ownership, they were good neighbors to the nearby village.   During the French Revolution, the castle was taken over and the widow was thrown into jail in Chalon.    She had 16 kids in her marriage!   After awhile the village's people petitioned for release and when granted returned her to the castle.   

At the bottom of their driveway on our way out we noticed a Ferrari rally get together.

We drove through many vineyards and other medieval towns on the way to our boat which is now in Tournus.   We noticed another chateau along the way.

We returned at 5:30 and had enough time to relax and freshen up for dinner.    Here's part of the menu.

Here's my main course, 'Filet de Porc en Croute d'Herbes' :

After dinner we went up to the lounge to enjoy listening to a visiting trio playing classical music.

What another fun day!    A couple more excursions tomorrow.  See you there!