No, not the same place. This is The National version. En route, to here is Aze which has a Wine Co-operative offering degustations and sales…a worthwhile stop-off we reckon. Of course when we arrive it’s just closed for lunch, not opening again till 3pm. What to do? We find a restaurant in Aze itself where we enjoy a delicious 3 course Menu du Marche for 14 Euros each. Our waiter apparently knows Fareham. He’s a chatty guy from Mauritius (“oh, you’re not Swedish?” jokes his boss). Haha! Oh look, the wine place will be open again. Second attempt and this time we enjoy a degustation and they enjoy relieving us of many euros for the purchase of 5 cases. Enough to merit a “free” bottle which I spotted retailing at over 17 Euros.
Anyway, back to the St. Gengoux place. The road from Aze was stressful with many narrow, steep roads, thankfully they were fairly traffic free. St Gengoux has another of those brilliant free Motorhome aires that we’ve come to love- and again it’s adjacent to a cycle route. It’s all looking very positive, and the sign says “Tous commerces 500m” so off we pedal..ha, 500 m uphill it is! Feeling slightly cheated, I struggle up the hill in Andrew’s wake and finally we’re there after a seemingly shorter downhill bit. All this for a baguette.
We decide to return to town the following day for a better look around. The aire is filling up with fellow wanderers, including some proper behemoths with their smart cars in tow. Like in Givray, we’ve found a handy picnic bench where we enjoy our cold cuts and baguette.
Come morning, it’s back on the bikes and up that hill again. Armed with a map from Tourist Information, we set off on a self-guided tour of the town’s points of interest.
As we follow the map we discover a wealth of very old and fascinating buildings including the XII century church and numerous medieval houses and fortifications.
After all that walking, it’s back to the bikes. After a quick lunch, it’s flat-ish cycling along the Voie Verte to Buxy, from t’other direction this time. Again, miles and miles of vineyards provide our scenery. A 12km ride justified an ice cream at the Buxy cafe this time.
We spent 2 nights in St Gengoux and thoroughly enjoyed our stay there before heading off to Chalon sur Saone.