We rented a car from Sixt in Lyon Gare Part Dieu for a week. I got the best rate from booking.com, and also purchased the additional insurance from Zurich Insurance offered through them. I found that car rentals are a lot more expensive if going direct to the company. Costco has pretty good deals with second driver at no additional charge, but the locations are limited to airports pickup.

The speed limit here has to be observed and it changes sometimes within a few hundred meters. I pray we will not have speeding tickets this time!

We booked the lodging in Pommard with airBnB. The apartment is small but cozy, has most amenities including a washer, which is such a blessing on long trips. There is no A/C and I’m spoiled and old and having hot flashes in the night is not a pleasant thing.

Pommard is a small village just south of Beaune along the Route des Grands Crus. Population is 500+ people and 40+ domaines. There is no Grand Cru vineyards in Pommard but there is a couple of Premier Cru climats that deserve Grand Cru, and we got 6 of those bottles, from Domaine LeJeune, of the Les Rugiens-Bas climat.

We drove to Dijon for a Wine Masterclass from a sommelier graduated in London. It’s interesting that here, in the Bourgogne, the term Climat is used to describe the specific parcel of a terroir. A terroir has many parcels, and it’s the specific parcel that determines the Crus.

Weather has been cold, cloudy. We rented our bikes from https://www.pombikes.fr/ . The shopkeeper told us that the sun will rise, but it never did during our ride. It was freezing riding our bikes from Pommard to Santenay. The vineyards were beautiful this time of the year, with autumn colors and farmers preparing the land before the winter comes. I opted to ride the tricycle; yes, old woman riding the 3-wheels! It’s not that easy because sharp turns can cause a wheel to be off the ground. And I love electric bike and its power to go up the hills at Santenay.

Of the 4 nights in Bourgogne, I cooked 2 dinners. I miss homecooked meals, simple salads and I need more vegetables. Love love french groceries stores. I wander through every aisle and oooh-aah on everything. There’s chicken, and there’s chicken here. Not knowing what kind of chicken is best, I went for the most expensive. The dessert aisle is not for the ones on a diet. I got Bonne Maman Crème Caramel and i ate 3 pots out of the package of 4. They’re small pots :)

I need to learn making cold cuts. There’s tens of different patés, and rillettes, and jambons. And they’re not expensive.

Our last meal here was at Maison Lameloise in Chagny. I stayed in Remigny and Chagny on my first trip to Bourgogne in 2016 and always wanted to go back to those 2 villages.

Maison Lameloise is one of the 30 Michelin 3-star in France. A 3-hour meal is too much for me and I rather have a bowl of piping hot Pho right now. The service is impeccable, from the receptionists, to the 4 waiters and the sommelier. Everything was brought to the table in a quiet elegance. The breadcrumbs were immediately noticed and wiped away. A food stain was quickly covered by a napkin. The food was exquisitely and painstakenly made and each dish was presented like a work of art. There was so much food and wine that I forgot what I had and couldn’t finish desserts.