Determined to go to Sancerre!

7/6/2016

Bonjour mes amis!

I hope you enjoyed the long 4th of July weekend!  I know we did!

I'm back to finish sharing our adventures in France during the month of June.  The other Saturday, we had rented a car to get out of town for the day, but I was selfishly adamant that I wanted to take Ms. Emerald to the local Brocante before we went anywhere. Dr. J dropped us off and we had a wonderful time searching out some treasures and even bartering!

My friend, Eva, was going to meet us at the Brocante, but the schedule changed and we decided to meet in her small village at a restaurant instead and enjoy Café Gourmand together.  I wanted Ms. Emerald to experience Café Gourmand, too.  It is a plate with coffee or tea and usually four to five small versions of desserts.  Only, this particular restaurant does large portions, and the desserts are to die for!  Just look at all that cream!  Yum!  An entire meal of dessert!

After our dessert lunch, we strolled back to our car parked near the Church in the village, and were then ready to drive to our next destination!

Dr. J and I have been to Sancerre before, but thought Ms. Emerald might enjoy this hilly, wine country area, too!

You can see the hilltop village off in the distance!

Along the way, we got to observe plenty of vineyards!

When we arrived near Sancerre, things were not that tranquil.  Something was going on in town and blockades were everywhere, and there was no way to drive up the 450 meter climb to park in town!  And on top of that, cars were parked everywhere at the base of the city, too.

But we were determined and drove until we found parking.    One car stopped alongside us and a man warned us that it was not possible to walk up to the town.  But again, we were determined...

It wasn't easy, but we made it to town...

Dr. J spotted a cheese shop and he wanted to stop and buy some cheese for us and for gifts for friends.  From the looks of this next picture, it seems Dr. J was having difficulty deciding on which cheese to buy...OR he couldn't think of a French word to talk with the proprietor.

Once we got to the center of town, we determined why we couldn't park in town and why it was so crowded...

There was a race going on, and there were many barriers to allow the runners to pass safely.

So, we decided to get out of the crowds and climb the Tower for a panoramic view of the area!

Please forgive the picture overload, but the view is spectacular!

Afterward, we strolled the village and watched the racers for a bit, and then, there may have been a bit of a wine tasting, and then...

We were fortunate enough to get a table at a restaurant for dinner.  We tried for a table early, because we could see just how crowded Sancerre really was!

And, yes, we did get a nice Sancerre Rosé to enjoy with dinner!

And then, it was back down that steep incline to return to the car!

It was worth every step!



Such a wonderful day with beautiful views!

Being determined does pay!  It's a shame we didn't know about the big race in advance, but we didn't let it spoil our fun!

I hope you have a "jewel" of a day!
Jan