Our Day in Nuits-Saint-George

Yesterday was a full day of non-stop activity, and one that I had been excited about as I planned this trip. And everything went exactly as we planned.... with just a couple of snafus.

We took an early morning train south to Nuits-Saint-George, a small village between Dijon and Beaune. Like all the little towns in this area, it is very wine-focused. We walked from the train station into town and picked up our e-bikes. (Greg's first time on an e-bike, and he was glad he opted for one.) We navigated to the Voie des Vignes, the paved bike trail that connects all the little villages and takes you through the vineyards. It was not exactly as we envisioned because our picture perfect weather days might be over. It was incredibly foggy. The fog alone might not have been an issue but it was so humid that we were soaking wet from the mist. But we were not going to let that ruin our day so we kept on going. It was nice to catch glimpses of workers amonst the vines and estates along the way. We rode through tiny villages and managed to only lose the trail once. We probably biked 9 or 10 miles before our hands were freezing and the wet clothes were really getting uncomfortable. So we turned around... But still so much fun!

We dropped off our bikes about 11:30, and we desparately needed a place to warm up and rest. Just down the street, we saw this in the window.

The description said it had hazelnuts, and I'm into those since my trout dinner the other night. Of course, we couldn't buy the big one, but we decide to buy one of the little ones on the lower shelf. And even though we knew we'd be eating lunch soon, we decided to have dessert first! It was filled with a milk chocolate mouse with hazelnuts, and the glaze also had crunchy hazelnuts too. It was so good. And to warm up our hands, we ordered a mocha to go with it.

Nuits-Saint-George is a beautiful village, very well maintained and lovely to just explore. Here's one of the homes we saw on our walk.

We stopped for a couple of Croque Madames which we didn't come close to finishing after all the pre-lunch chocolate, and by the time we finished lunch, the sun had come out and we were starting to dry off. We found a couple of chairs in the sun, decided to let the sun soak in, and this photo was taken 30 seconds after I said I needed a nap but there was no way I could fall asleep in that chair. Ha!

We left the village and walked a mile or so to La Cassissium, a place they call a museography dedicated to black currents and the production of cassis! This area is known for both, and we've seen all kinds of cassis products in the stores... candies, syrups, jams. We'd signed up for a 2:00 tour. We knew it would be in French so we did our best to understand what was being said. Google Translate helped but also gave some pretty bizarre translations. After touring the factory, we were taken to the bar and given samples of some of their creme de cassis, mango liquor, chocolate liquor, and more. They even made a kir for me which is creme de cassis with some kind of white wine. All delicious. 

A bottle of creme de cassis will be coming home with us along with three cassis lollipops. :)

We trained home, quickly showered, and headed to dinner... Chez Leon. We'd been looking forward to it, but were disappointed with the food. An expensive meal that simply was just meh. The only good things was the cassis sauce on my duck. The duct breast was tough but I could have had a glass of the sauce. We did try Crepes Suzette which they did flambe at the table.

This morning we are feeling the effects of too much food, rich food, and eating too late at night. We've vowed to change... at least for a few days. Stay tuned.