Our visit to Macon in June 2022

 Day 1 - Monday 13 June 2022, Driving to France

It didn't take us long to pack two small cases for our short trip to France. The weather looked promising, but we took one umbrella as a precaution. I packed a jacket just in case but didn't need it. We had two rather old maps handy but relied on our GPS which worked very well.

Inside the church of St.Pierre

We headed to Zurich and then Bern via motorways; then we continued towards Geneva. Quite a long drive but we had filled up with petrol a day or two earlier. We stopped at a nice services in Switzerland to have a sandwich and soft drink. Around Geneva the route became a bit more complicated as we went towards France. Lake Geneva is known as Genfersee in German but Lac Leman in French. There was no problem crossing the border into France, and then I followed an old Michelin map to make sure we were on the right track. 

The Wooden House

On our arrival in Macon we headed for the Ibis Styles, a no-frills hotel, and managed to park on the street (there's a lot of it about in France). We checked into our hotel during the afternoon and received directions and tokens for a parking garage just down the road. It wasn't very full and we parked easily in our space, number 9, before heading back to find our room.

Later on, we decided to do a sightseeing walk around the town of Macon, which lies on the banks of the Saone River. We looked for all the local sights - statues, bars, restaurants, churches, trees etc. Then we found a table in the main square outside the Maison a Bois, the oldest house in Macon in the Place aux Herbes.  There we enjoyed a white wine; we also both ordered veal. 

Back at the hotel, we slept very soundly. 

Day 2 - Tuesday 14 June 2022, Discovering Macon

Inside St. Vincent

Today we had a dinner to look forward to, booked by Laura and Dan as a birthday present! It would be at Ma Table En Ville in Macon. First though, we had breakfast at the hotel. It was self-service but the layout was a bit random. Also the muesli was too sweet for my taste and there were no boiled eggs, but the coffee and orange juice were quite nice. We could also watch the news on French TV. President Macron and his German and Italian cronies were planning to visit Ukraine to cheer them up!

We also had a message from Laura saying that Cami had woken up with croup, and had to go to hospital for treatment, They kept her there for a while for observation. She came home later that morning.

In the museum

Then we headed out on foot on another sunny day to explore more of the town. We took a different route and visited the Square de la Paix. There were lots of trees in Macon centre. We went inside the Cathedral St. Vincent, a relatively modern building, and then onto the art gallery of St. Ursuline's where we enjoyed looking at the paintings and sculpture spread over several floors.

Then on to the Restaurant Ardoise where we sat outside and had the menu du jour of lentils, fish, bread and two beers, and for dessert pain perdu and ice cream. I also bought two postcards of modern colourful paintings as inspiration for further work. After lunch, we went back to our room for a rest.

Strawberry sorbet- yum!

 In the evening we headed into the town centre to find the restaurant Ma Table en Ville. The streets in the town centre are complicated by a one-way system, and there was also a police and fire emergency taking place. We ordered aubergine with goats' cheese and ham, followed by fish (maybe sea bass) and veggies, plus a bottle of Pouilly Fuissé 2020, one of the local wines - very nice! For dessert I had strawberry sorbet with a Breton sable biscuit, which came with a special birthday candle!!! It was all very nice!

Day 3 - Wednesday June 2022, Exploring the Vineyards

Vines as far as the eye can see...

On Wednesday, after breakfast we planned to drive to a vineyard or two and taste some of their wines. However, that didn't go as planned. We found Chateau de Beauregard without too much trouble, and looked in the door there. However, the man in charge said that they didn't do tours! and we could buy some of the local wine in the nearby village. 

We couldn't find any sign of wine shops nearby, so we drove on through the rolling countryside to another vineyard - Vergisson. We found a place to park and looked round the small village. We saw the Mairie which was deserted, and there again there was no one to give us a vineyard tour. 

One of the ornate capitals at Cluny

So we moved on to Plan C, a visit to the town of Cluny. After driving through the small town to park, we had a long walk back in the heat of the day to find the Abbey entrance. We bought tickets, and first saw the museum, before looking round the ruined Benedictine abbey. It was well signed and labelled, although most of the original remains had gone. There was a clever reconstruction and illustrations to aid the visualisation of the monastic life.

After we got our money's worth of Cluny Abbey, we found an outdoor bar where we had a beer or two and quiche with salad. The temperature was up to 31C...

We returned to our hotel and went for a swim in the pool. At first we couldn't open the gate, but eventually we managed to get inside. I found it a bit tricky as there were no handrails in the pool, and the steps were difficult. Later we went out for dinner in Macon again at Crêperie Er Bleimor - I enjoyed a crepe with apple and calvados and Richard had a crepe with goat's cheese and spinach. We shared a large bottle of dry cider.

Day 4 - Thursday, June 23, In Macon again

At the wine tasting

We spent our last full day exploring more of the sights of Macon. We stopped for a coffee and a beer at the Brasserie d'Hotel de Ville, and later had lunch at the Brasserie de l'Academie. It was a shame there were no boats running on the Saone River. Then we went back to the hotel for a rest before having a swim. The hotel pool was quite busy today but the lift was out of order so we had to use the stairs.

Later we got ready to go out for dinner. It was a scorching 33C - phew! On the way, we were enticed into a friendly wine bar in the Rue Franche, the Vins des Anges, where a helpful lady gave us a card to charge our tastes to and introduced us to a few local wines! To accompany the tasting we could also have a comfy seat and listen to jazz. 

Richard enjoying a small red wine

First we tried the Macon Salutre Pouilly, a dry white which had a mineral taste. I gave it 8 out of 10. Then on to the Vire-Clesse Emilion Gilet 2019, which was very dry with a sharp, full flavour, which was Richard's favourite - he gave it 8+. Then we each sampled a different wine: I went for the Pouilly Fuisse 2019 white, which was very nice!! I gave it 9. Richard went for the Julienas 2017 red which was light and sharp but scored a low 7.5. We are very picky about reds! 

After that, we staggered on to L'Ardoise where Richard had rataouille and then we both had tournedos with salad, followed by moelleux au chocolate (me) and fromage blanc (R). We also managed two glasses of Cote du Rhone!.

It was sad to see that the town of Macon is not really thriving, with several businesses closed. But we enjoyed our short stay.

Day 5 - Friday, June 24, Returning Home

At the hypermarché

We had our last breakfast at the Ibis Styles hotel. Rather unexciting - the muesli was too sweet and the fruit was dried. The natural yogurt was OK though and the coffee was good. Then we headed back to our room to finish packing. We checked out and collected some tokens to get in and out of the car park.

Our first stop was at the Aucun hypermarché, a huge place with a vast array of wines on sale. We bought two Pouilly Fuissé, one Viré-Clessé, a Petit Chablis, two Macon Rouge, and three artisan beers. There was room inside the car to stash them all. 

Our tomatoes survived our absence

We headed off on the A40 motorway towards Geneva - a very sunny and hot journey, but the roads weren't crowded. As we approached Geneva we crossed the border into Switzerland, and stopped at the same services as on the outward journey, the Rose de la Broye. We bought a tuna and egg sandwich to share and an orange juice each.

After that the journey became rather tedious as we encountered slow traffic all the way back to Zurich. We opted to head through the centre of the city which was just as bad, but the motorway on the last stretch to Thalwil was fine. We were happy to arrive home again and check that none of our plants had died!