Thursday, 3 September 2009

Summer holiday 2009: Beaujolais Wine Region, France (Day 2-Day 3)

We bid farewell to Paris after an awesome time there. Back on the coach, we headed to the Beaujolais Wine Region, famous for their white wines (if I remember correctly). We arrived at Contiki’s private chateau called Chateau de Cruix, one of our special stopovers in this tour in the evening. Weather there was really nice and cooling, while the place exudes calmness and relaxation which is a nice change from busy Paris. I was quite excited to come here as I’ve always wanted to stay in a chateau, or at least visit one (all down to too much novel reading). The chateau was really huge with three levels and a basement, dubbed the Cave a.k.a. bar area. There was a nice antique feel to that place but sadly, I did not take that many pictures of it =( .

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The entrance to the chateau (its a longgg walk to the chateau itself)

 

P1060711  Exterior of the chateau

 

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The swimming pool with a beautiful view of the vineyards

 

Went for wine tasting after checking in to our rooms. The wine was just so-so for me. I liked the cheese and crackers they gave much much more! =D

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Wine tasting

 

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Me at the vineyard

After dinner (which was terrific by the way), it was the first party night of our tour and the theme was bright and tight! Everyone was so up for it, especially the guys! You’ll know what I mean after you take a look at the pictures..

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Sam and I with Alex from Aussie

 

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Our tour driver, Jeff!

 

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With our cool tour manager, Dane! I hope you get the gist of what I meant now

 

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With Brian and a Jap/Korean girl from another tour

 

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The guys in their full bright and tight glory

 

The next day, we were to have a picnic lunch at the top of a hill. We were given a picnic basket filled with baguettes, ham, cheese and snacks and also a map that will guide us to the top. Apparently the view up there is supposed to be good.  Going uphil was tiring. Really really tiring. It took us around 1hour to reach the top and the path was steep, rocky and dangerous. View at the top wasn’t all that great. At first we weren’t even sure if it was the place we were supposed to have our picnic at lol. But it was the end of the hike up, so it had to be it.

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Start of our hike

 

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The guys had the task of carrying the heavy picnic basket hehe. Being a girl rocks!

 

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Dark clouds

 

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Very nice house we passed through as we walked towards the hill

 

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I heart this picture

 

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Mama horse and baby horse

 

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Some statue midway through our hike

 

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Downhill is SO much better than uphill. However, it was also terrifying when we came down the rocky path. The rocks kept falling off and I nearly slipped a few times.

 

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Apple trees!

 

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I was too tired and lazy to take a picture with the beaujolais sign hence a picture of Sam with the sign instead haha

 

Ok this is a fairly boring post. Nothing much to talk about those few days as there was nothing planned. All I did for the rest of the time was to get much needed beauty sleep after the hype in Paris. Next up will be the French Riveria, where we visited Monaco! Stay tuned! =D

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