Burgundy and beyond

23/9/09 – 2/10/09

Burgundy, Lyon and Paris
Got on the plane at Athens and the lady sitting next to me was called out of the seat and taken away somewhere (presumably for a quickie) as there was an issue with her passport or something. When she came back I joked with her saying if they fixed it all/her up ok. She laughed and said something and with her accent it was clear she wasn’t Greek. When we landed in Paris we were both commenting on how long it was taking to get out of the bloody plane. Once out she was walking next to me and we had a little chat as we were going, ended up she was from Bulgaria hence the passport issue. At the baggage carousel we split up and once I got my bag I hear her saying let’s go. Where the fuck she came from beats me but as I was planning on leaving the airport I walked off with her. I was going to go on the train and she says (in Greek) “oh come with me for a smoke re gamoto (I supposed you could translate that as fkn hell in the context of the sentence)” Since she swore at me I thought I better go, and then she found the dude that was picking her up. He was wondering who I was and I was wondering what the fuck I was doing there lol. He was from there and directed me to the train with them. I was wondering if they were planning to kidnap me and let me wake up in an ice bath with both kidneys missing so instead of catching the direct train to the city with them I stayed on the train I was on and they left lol. Found my train to Dijon and once I got there I went straight to the hotel. Relaxed a little and planned the night ahead. I went out for dinner and everybody was looking at me funny because I was by myself haha wankers. Meal was ok but not to the quality I expected for the region and the look of the restaurant. Next day I did a mini walking tour of the city, it was exactly how you would imagine a French town. It even had the organ thing with wooden people playing music (see video). Later on I caught the train to Beaune which is the unofficial wine capital of Burgundy. I didn’t know how far the place I was staying was from the city but the cab driver jumped with French glee when I told him where we were going. After a 20min journey we pulled into the chateau and it was stunning! Unfortunately because it was so far out and the only shop in the village (if you could call it that) sold wine so I was forced to borrow a bike from the family that own the chateau and ride to Meaursault about 4kms away up and down hills. Since I haven’t ridden a bike in a year it killed! It took about 25mins to get there and the only thing open was a mini market so I bought some bread, cheese, ham and sausage. The ride back was dreadful because the majority was uphill but all in all it was a good experience.

Next day (Friday 25/9) the owner (Helene) took me into the town and I hired a car (Peugeot 107) and went on a 4 hour cruise around the entire region. I followed the Route Grand Crus passing some of the best vineyards in Burgundy. The best part of the drive was that the whole way around I was pumping Greek music (even some golden oldies) hahaha. I stopped at a Patisserie and bought some pastries and when I found a nice grass spot next to a vineyard I stopped, ate like a pig and admired the scenery. I must say I possibly got more enjoyment just driving around lol up until that point the longest I had driven was the week before for 15mins or so around the village and highway – that was the first drive after 6 ½ months. Because I’ve been in Continental Europe for 4 months or so I’ve gotten used to driving on the right hand side of the road and the scary thing is now it feels normal to drive on the right with the steering wheel on the left and changing gears with my right hand!!! Will be interesting when I get back lol. That night I had a wine tasting session in the Chateau’s wine cellar conducted by the owner (Arnaud) who is also a vigneron, they own a large number of vineyards (about 8). Afterwards I took a glass of wine, sat on the grass next to the lake on the estate and finished reading “The Wines of Burgundy” which is an introduction to understanding the wines from Burgundy. The depth of perfection the French have to creating great wines is mind boggling! The notion of “terroir” (the patch of soil the vines are on) and how greatly terroir can change the quality of the wine is amazing. A patch of soil can produce wines that will for example be worth €100 per bottle and 5 meters away another patch will produce wines worth €5 per bottle (just an extreme example). The depth of knowledge of the soils goes as far as studying the soil from the Jurassic age! It doesn’t stop there either because raising the vines and grapes is literally an art form in itself. I won’t go into it here but it would make a very interesting dinner conversation lol. Alsoooooo, the wines are only from Pinot Noir grapes for red wine (Rouge) or Chardonnay grapes for white (Blanc) in the Cote d’Or. Also the strict laws for wine in the region state that they are not to be blended with other wines. The wine is purely from one vineyard, which really goes to show the art form of perfection they have which starts from the soil; how, where and which direction the vines face; how they are pruned; how the soil is looked after over the course of the growing period; the skill of the grower to minimise adverse weather conditions; the skill of bottling and ageing the wine; and probably many other things. Tasting the wine makes you really appreciate the perfected skills of the vignerons to produce wine.

I must also make mention of the Chateau (Chateau de Melin) I was staying at. When I walked into the dining room I was the only one who hadn’t had breakfast yet (there were 6 other guests) so I had the table all to myself. It was a presidential breakfast at its best! See photos below. The room I was staying in had 2 levels and a big bathroom. Not bad for €80 a night :-).

When I dropped off the car on Sunday I had to get a taxi to the train station so a taxi was called to pick me up. When he opened the door I heard Greek music playing haha. Afterwards I said “musique le Greque good!” haha with thumbs up. He loved it. I managed to understand that his family were from Crete but he spoke no Greek or English. When I got out I said Geiasou/yiasou to him and he got all excited and said geiasou in his French accent – it was quite funny!

When I got to the hotel in Lyon I jumped straight onto the net to organise where I was going to eat and found Nicolas Le Bec. He owned 3 restaurants and has been awarded 2 Michelin stars. The restaurant with the stars only had a tasting menu at €95 or the other at €148. Now considering Heston Blumenthal’s restaurant The Fat Duck has 3 Michelin stars (the highest amount of Michelin stars you can be awarded) and has been awarded the best restaurant in the world has a tasting menu for £125 which would also be a shit load better (for one of the seafood dishes they give you an ipod to listen to waves crashing which makes the food taste better – don’t laugh because it’s all about stimulating all the senses to enhance the flavours), I wasn’t going to go to that one. I chose his brand new restaurant and got to sit in front of the kitchen with the chefs working 2 meters away from me. I started with mussels in a crème and wine sauce and for main course I had a very traditional French meal, Tartare le Beouf (Steak Tartare) which simply translated is raw mince mixed with flavourings. They get the mince, mix it with Dijon mustard, chopped onions and capers and seasonings. To finish they crack a raw egg in and mix it all up, voile you have Tartare le Beouf! The mustard was a bit overpowering however I still enjoyed it immensely. A couple of the chefs had big smiles on their faces because I had ordered it and said bon appetite. They looked impressed I had ordered it, maybe not many foreigners try it – most probably the case. I wanted to send it back and say it wasn’t raw enough but the joke would’ve been lost because I was on my own lol.

Next day (Monday 28/9) I had another large breakfast and went for a walk about. Thanks to my Lonely Planet guide I found a traditional French cafe/restaurant (Bouchon) with the red and white chequered table cloth. Unfortunately the food didn’t live up to its reputation but was still an experience in itself. I had 5 courses and was extremely full! In the afternoon I got the train back to Paris and eagerly awaiting the arrival of my sis and bro.

That’s the short food and wine critique for you lol.

At the time of writing this I can’t be fucked with detail, but we’ll see what happens. That Monday night around 11.30 Georgina and Brad finally arrived, albeit an hour late. It was an emotional hello in the hotel foyer with all 3 of us shedding a tear :-). We had a big chat catching up and got to bed at about 2:30. Of course the next morning I was fkd because I had to get up at 7 to get ready for my cooking course!

The cooking course was a one day full on learning experience which started at the markets purchasing all the ingredients for the day of cooking. After the markets we got back to the cook’s house and started cooking in her kitchen (well she did a lot of it while we watched and I got involved as much as I could lol). I was joined on the tour by 4 yanks, they were all pretty nice but one of them was a replica of Rudy from the original/first Survivor series years ago. A hard ass war veteran (most probably lol) who didn’t really want to be there but he was accompanying his wife. It was actually quite funny – the cook (Samira) gave him shit about not wanting to really be there. I don’t think he was too impressed with my comment at the markets when I suggested some bloke was Little Richard’s brother (the guy was a splitting image of Richard!). Anyway the menu consisted of:

1. Smoked Salmon mouse with a leek sauce
2. Fried scallops with a Dijon mustard and Tarragon sauce
3. Salad with a Raspberry vinaigrette
4. Pork Medallions with a 5 pepper sauce accompanied with special roast potatoes
5. Cheese platter with 2 cheese each from Cows’, Goats’ and Sheep’s milk
6. Fig tart
7. Moelleux au Chocolat

The day was very enjoyable and I learnt a few recipes which I’ll definitely use to impress (even more than I already do hahaha). I didn’t learn too many French cooking techniques which was disappointing but shit happens. Georgina and Brad went for a cruise, dinner in Eifel Tower (no he didn’t propose lol) and Moulin Rouge – I missed them before they left so I found a pub and watched the Football (Arsenal vs Olympicos).

Next day we went to the Louvre (so I’ve now seen the slut twice – Moaning Lisa) and we had a picnic in the gardens next to the Louvre. On Thursday we went to Paris Disneyland because we couldn’t be fkd looking at more historical shit (it was either Disneyland or the magnificent and monstrous castle thing at Versailles). Disneyland won the day so we spent the day looking for Mickey but we didn’t find him – I think he was destroying Minnie and Goofy the dumbshit at the same time :-0. It doesn’t compare to the Disneyland in LA but it was still something different and a bit of fun.
A food highlight in Paris was eating the stereotypical Parisian delicacies which to my shock leaving me immensely impressed was that Georgina mentioned we must try them – of course being snails and frogs’ legs. It was quite ironic that the Swarovski crystal I bought her was a baby frog and I gave it to her in Paris lol. The snails were in a butter and garlic sauce topped with Parsley which was lovely. The frogs’ legs didn’t actually have much taste – the closest thing to them is the standard “it tastes a bit like chicken.”

Got to London on Friday (2/10) and after checking in, we went straight to the shops. London was spent mostly shopping, I spent around £400 or ~ $800 – had to make the most of my fashion stylist!!! Sunday was jammed packed, London eye in the morning, Football in the afternoon (watching Arsenal fkn thrash Blackburn – as I predicted), pub and I bid farewell to Georgina and Brad :-(. Thankfully I wasn’t alone for too long because the next day I went to the Netherlands.

France photos




My dad’s dad has a second cousin (Thio Yioti) that lives there whom we met a few years back. Distant relo I know but we still have the same last name. They live in a village just outside of Utrecht. Highlights include making a wrong turn in the outskirts of Amsterdam and ending up at the Ajax Amsterdam training ground lol. To my luck the actual first team were training so we watched that for a little while. I even heard the fat pig manager Martin Jol screaming at them – a former scum Tottenham manager. Afterwards we went to the Van Gogh Museum which to my surprise was a bit of a disappointment. I’m no art expert by far don’t get me wrong but just didn’t give me the same feeling as when many years ago I saw a Picasso exhibition. This was made up two fold by visiting the Heineken Museum. It was awesome. I also did a bit of shopping for the bar that I will hopefully have in my future house lol. Thio Yioti and his wife Nan took me around all over the place. I saw quite a bit and had a great time with them.





On the Saturday (10/10) I made my way to Milan edging ever closer to the Ferrari factory. What should’ve taken an hour and a half to get to Alana and Angelica’s house (friends from Contiki trip) took about 4 and a half hours. By now my regular readers would probably be able to guess what happened to people who pissed me off hahaha. I’ll give you one example: I bought my bus ticket for the city but there were two buses at the stop. I was walking to the one which I was supposed to go (it had the name on the ticket) but the driver from the other bus called me over as if I was supposed to go to his bus. He checks my ticket and says something in Italian pointing to the other bus and shooed me away. I grabbed my ticket and politely said “yeah no shit you fkn dickhead.” Hahaha I’m one crazy mofo!

Did some more shopping with the girls (I was Milan, I had no choice!) and went and saw the outside of the San Siro football stadium. Had a lovely pasta meal and a nice restaurant as well. Nowwwwwwwwwww, on Monday I left home very early to catch the red eye train to Bologna for my day tour of petrol head paradise. The first factory and museum was at a Lamborghini. Factory tours were closed because they had cut production for a few weeks but as a favour to the tour guide the head of the museum took us in anyway. There were rows and rows of Gallardos and Murcielagos. That was awesome. Afterwards we went to the Pagani factory where they make the Pagani Zonda. It was a tiny “factory” where each car is literally handmade. They put each part on piece by piece and not one car is exactly the same for obvious reasons. There was a family of New Zealanders there who tried stealing a bunch of posters that Pagani gift visitors on the tour. Then these fuckwits had the nerve to complain that our tour guide was rude to them (which in the context of it wasn’t the case at all). They needed a good smack in the face (preferably for the person who smacks them when their dicks aren’t in a sheep’s...... lol). After that we saw the biggest private Maserati collection. Then, the moment I had been waiting for. We made it to Maranello and as we were driving in we heard an F1 car cruising around the Fiorano testing track (Ferrari’s private testing track). It was Filipe Massa on a special testing session – his first drive after fracturing his skull in a race a few months ago. The tour guide took us to a spot where we could watch him drive around and it was amazing! It was the first time in 14 years that I had seen a live F1 racing (last race was Adelaide 1995). Afterwards we went through the Ferrari museum and had a good look around. Once that finished it was time for what I had been waiting for all day... the Ferrari drive. I hired an F430 Spyder :-). I was very nervous waiting for the guy to come with the keys (also while sitting in the car before take off). Push button start, a little rev and off we went. My eyes grew about 20cm as we drove out of the car park! Out on the freeway we were cruising along and the guy said I was free to go as fast as I want. I was cruising around 80km/h, dropped down a gear with the paddle shift and accelerated (keep in mind not fully). The best way to explain it is that it fkn took off, I didn’t want to take my eyes off the road but I wanted to check the speed – within not even 2 seconds I was up to 140km/h and hastily backed off. At one stage the guy who owned the car (he obviously sits next to you) was basically paying me out because I pulled out to overtake a truck but a car was coming in the distance so I pulled back in. He laughs and said what are you doing? You’ve got so much power you could’ve made it twice – of course after recent events in my life I didn’t plan on driving like a fuckwit. I also cruised past the Ferrari factory and around Maranello which was pretty cool. It was an amazing experience and only fired my ambitions in life further.

After the tour ended I went back to Milan on the train. Alana had cooked a lovely pasta bake and us three sat and ate. The next day it was time to go back to my second home – Greece. The girls came with me to the bus station and we had a nice Italian coffee before I set off. I flew with easyJet who allow you unlimited weight for hand luggage (as long as you can lift it in the overhead luggage without help) but are limited to one piece. I had my laptop backpack and a Heineken shopping bag so some chick stopped me before I went to pass through security and asked me to make it one. It struck me at this moment that this was going to get very interesting. I stood next to some American backpackers who were no shit making sandwiches (Peanut Butter and Jam) on one of the counters before security. Odd, yes. Anyway the contents of my crowded Heineken bag would not fit into my over packed laptop bag so some ingenuity on part had to take place because the bitch refused to let me through. I shoved the bag into the backpack and as I proceeded to walk to security all the shit fell out. I gave her a look but knew that this would be a good story to tell so I worked on my one hand luggage problem. I shoved the shit back into the backpack, took my belt off and tied it around the backpack so nothing would fall out – you see I would’ve had to take my belt off at security so I decided to come prepared! Lol. By this stage the yanks were in hysterics and I had my big smartass grin on as I walked past the astounded yet rather impressed door bitch :-). And before any of you smartasses think why didn’t I just put it in my suitcase – it was already as overweight! Of course after I passed through security I put my belt back on and had 2 pieces of hand luggage – take that easyJet you shit airline!!!!!!!! :-) After landing in Greece I was quite relieved and ready to start my goodbye tour! More of that on the next post darlings – which sadly will be my final Dimitri’s European Adventure blog post :-(

Till then, peace out.



Videos