Musketeers and surrounded by vineyards

Friday 6 September 2024

Nido's parked up at the Vignerons Des Terres Sècretes, a very quiet spot, surrounded by vineyards in the pretty village of Prissè.  The owners have kindly provided a free aire of six pitches and a free service point.  There's no obligation to buy, but they have free wine tastings and of course they sell the wines they produce, plus some wines from other local producers.  The wine tasting and sales room is very modern, with a large glass frontage inside showing the wine making vats.

The previous night it rained and was still heavy yesterday morning as we left Le Frasnois.  We drove out of Jura and into Burgundy, into a much softer landscape, very similar to mid-Wales.  With rain forecast for most of the day, I'd found an aire where we could park up and just chill.  On arrival at Sainte Croix-en-Bresse there was a space next to the covered seating area, which meant we could also hook up to the free electricity.  This small village is famous for being the burial place of Anne-Charlotte de Champlécy, wife of the famous musketeer Charles de Batz de Castelmore d'Artagnan.  The village has made the most of this claim to fame.  It's also in the region where the very expensive Bresse ducks are bred.

Free electric hook up!

We sat in and had lunch and I made some chocolate brownies in the Omnia oven; they turned out well!  When the rain stopped and the sun appeared we took a walk around some of the village streets, noseying at the houses and gardens, a favourite pastime when away in the van.  Dinner tonight was a chicken curry made with a Spice Tailor curry mix; they're very tasty and make cooking easy in a small van.

Before......

During....

.....after (couldn't rotate the image!)

With a free service point and electric we took the opportunity for hot (and longish) showers this morning before emptying and refilling tanks and carrying on.

After a quick food shopping stop in Macon, we carried on to the aire in Pierreclos.  For some reason we're tired at the moment so we all had a long afternoon nap.  Despite being a small village there was a lot of traffic so I found us somewhere else to drive, which brought us to Prissé, only eight minutes' drive away.

While Cathy was setting up the van I checked out the area and went into the shop.  It was quite busy with people wine tasting and filling up their car boots with cases of wine, so it must be good.  I had a look what was on offer and decided on a red wine produced in the village of Pierreclos, where we'd been only half an hour ago.

We had a walk through the vines, following a trail of arrows and information boards placed by the Vignerons.  The panoramic views of the village, other vineyards, hills and forest was stunning and we enjoyed the gentle stroll.  Back at the van we ate dinner and drank the bottle of local wine before crashing out in the peace and quiet.