Barney & Lauri's Burgundy & Beyond Adventure

From our Spain/Portugal return in mid May to the end of August, our summer consisted of a multitude of smaller trips and visits.

First, my long time college/forestry friend Andreas Graebeldinger came to visit us. Naturally, as forestry nerds, we toured the famous “Plenterwald” in the Jura together, which is an uneven-aged, single tree harvest Silver Fir forest, managed on a 120 year rotation, just as described in a silviculture text book in forestry school. As we’ve noticed with other first time France visitors from Germany, Andreas was pleasantly surprised about Dijon and our beautiful countryside.

Above, Andreas is standing next to a freshly harvested 135 year old European Silver Fir (Abies Alba). Yes, the 120 year rotation is an approximate harvest age, with tree diameter, tree health and operational considerations determining the actual harvest time of the individual tree. This very shade tolerant tree species is typical for the Jura and Black Forest region and suits itself to the Plenterwald forest management regime.

Below, the sight of European Rally cars from the 70s always sparks my eyes and bring back exciting memories:

Horses, something that sparks Lauri’s eyes, and especially draft horses are common sights in Burgundy. Here are some pictures of local harness racing that even included draft horses. It was some fun entertainment on a Saturday afternoon outing:

In mid June our local friends Eric & Claire spent a couple of days with us in Vaison la Romaine. This old Roman town sits in the beautiful hills of the Vaucluse/Provence and, of course, it sits right next to the famous Mont Ventoux, the Mecca of road cyclists and the main draw for Eric and me. Conquering Ventoux together with Eric, and enjoying the good wine and olives of the region together with our good, French friends, made for an excellent early summer trip!

The weekly local market in neighboring Nyons is always a tourist draw and a great place to buy fresh, local produce, from olives and honey to cheeses. Lauri even found a bargain on a pair of summer pants.

Back in Dijon, Lauri’s dance performance was coming up. For the last several months, she’s been practicing at a dance center just 5 minutes from our apartment for the big day, and she was very anxious about her two, big performances, something she never dreamed of doing! When I arrived at the Palais de Congress theatre that Sunday for the evening performance, the great, festive hall was almost fully seated with about 2,000 spectators in attendance. Then, I could sense how anxious and nervous she felt, but of course, everything went very well and ballerina Lauri looked and danced great on stage:

We were both relieved and pleased with how well everything went!

In July Creel & Robcat, two of my longtime, American riding buddies from Lewis County came to visit. I had bikes rented for them here in Dijon, and for a day we rode locally in the greater Dijon area, showing them the wine country and my favorite backroad routes through the surrounding hills.

This ride was a warm up for the main objective of their visit, a trip south to the cycling Mecca of Mont Ventoux. Yes, just as one month before, where Lauri and I stayed with our French friends Eric & Claire, we also stayed in beautiful Vaison la Romaine as a base for the Mont Ventoux ride. Vaison la Romaine is also the place where Lauri and I stayed for my first ascent up Mont Ventoux in 2013. We just love the place and the location of this old Roman town! The weather on the day of our Ventoux ascent was perfect, and Robcat surprised us by bringing three “Slacker Team” jerseys for the occasion.

We rolled out of Vaison la Romaine shortly after 7 am in short sleeved jerseys and shorts, through fresh air and with a luring Mont Ventoux under clear blue skies on the horizon. A slow paceline to Malaucene and then the ride through the beautiful Provençal hills towards Bedoin made for a perfect warm up. Here we filled up our water bottles and then we were riding up the classic Bedoin – Ventoux route, through the vineyards, and then up the steepest portion of the climb through the forest towards Chalet Reynard, before our final ascent through the bare moonscape to the Ventoux summit.

The western descent to Malaucene was fast, curvy, and fun. To top off the accomplishment, we even rode up the beautiful 5.5 miles to Suzette for a well deserved cold beer in a picturesque Provençal setting! How can a cycling day get better than this?

Back in Vaison la Romaine and cleaned up we indulged some more with good food and enjoyed the evening.

Back in Dijon we had one more day of sightseeing for the riding buddies in the surrounding countryside.

… and of course, we finished it off with a typical Burgundian dinner at a local restaurant. Creel was brave enough to try out some Escargot (snails). After he visibly enjoyed a couple we were even able to talk a skeptical cat into tasting a slug, – snail, pardon me! “Not bad”, was the cat’s response, though I don’t think we have to worry that Boisfort Valley’s Keller Creek Tree Farm will be converted into a destination escargot farm anytime soon…

After the two went home, I showed the pictures of our Ventoux endeavor to my local, French riding group. They all gave me a thumbs up, followed immediately by the same question everyone asked: How many times did you ride up? Turns out, one Bedoin – Ventoux ascent with 5,200′ of elevation gain over 13 miles (7.7% average, with 5 miles at a relentless 9 – 11%) per day is considered for beginners, two ascents for seasoned, good riders, three for amateur racers and four ascents per day for the elite top dogs…. OUCH!!

At the end of December 2020 when my father passed away, only a few people were able to attend his funeral at the end of January due to the new Covid travel restrictions. Unfortunately, I was one of them. So, when my brother had the idea that we celebrate what would have been our father’s 100th birthday this July 25th, all of us siblings were on board. A total of about 45 people attended the celebration, including 13 cousins of mine of which one I hadn’t seen since over 50 years. It was in fact a beautiful Kreutz family reunion, from afternoon through late evening, we all enjoyed visiting with each other, talking and just enjoying one another’s company.

Back in Dijon there was always something going on. For instance a criterium bike race, on the same road where the 2024 Tour de France finished for one stage, just 5 minutes from our apartment:

Ben Healey of Ireland, in his new yellow jersey from a stage win at this year’s 2025 Tour de France, won the 40 lap race. Criteriums are very spectator friendly and make for great race viewing!

Or here, one of many live music events. This was a local blues band that we really enjoyed:

All of these public events were free of charge.

As usual, we also kept up our swimming, yoga, and my bike riding routine and did some local hikes in preparation for an upcoming trip into the French Alps.

The typical, rolling countryside just west of Dijon:

For 3 nights we went to the small town of Chinaillon above Le Grand Bornand in the French Alps. This is the same place we liked so much in 2024, and of course there were still plenty of new trails to be discovered:

Above is a picture of our Hôtel la Cremaillère. It is family owned by friendly folks. The wife manages the reception and the husband runs the kitchen, manages the excellent restaurant, and serves an excellent breakfast. The rooms are basic, clean and very functional, with great views of the valley and surrounding mountains. We just love the place!

The picturesque 2,750 m (9,000′) high Aravis mountain range:

Below is the beautiful Col de Colombiere (1,600 m/ 5,250″), which is a very popular cycling route just 4 miles up the road from our hotel in Chinaillon. As I said to Lauri, if we come here again, I am bringing my bicycle! Maybe in 2026?

Last year we had a few hot days with temps into the upper 90s that we felt were barely manageable in our Dijon apartment under the roof. At the end of June this year we had about 5 days of temps that tested our limits. So when in mid August the forecast called for a heat wave with an entire week and more of temps between 90 – 100 degrees we, like apparently a lot of other people here, headed to the stores to buy an air-condition unit. We lucked out and found a last floor model, sufficiently powerful enough with 16,000 BTUs. It was not easy to install in our apartment with the type of tilting windows, yet once we had it creatively rigged up, it worked like a champ and we only wondered why we waited so long or how we could have managed such temps without it.

By the end of August our longtime friends Joachim & Antje from Weilburg Germany, came to visit us. Joachim and I did an internship together at the Forest Service of Hesse in the late 80s and we’ve never lost contact since then. They came to Dijon in a camper van, since they did not want to leave their ailing dog Carlo behind and Lauri & I were looking forward to finally being able to show them Dijon and Burgundy.

They even brought their bikes with a doggy trailer!

Completed in 1832, the 242 km (150 miles) long Canal de Bourgogne with its smooth, canal parallel bike path, makes for a serene bike riding route:

And watching the canal boats passing through one of the 189 locks provides some additional entertainment:

Touring and sightseeing is easy and fun with them, since they are always interested and curious about a wide range of subjects. Joachim is a history buff, so of course he wanted to visit Bibracte, the historic Gallic town on top of Mont Beuvray in the Morvan, as well as Alesia and the Vercingetorix statue, the tragic site of the last Gallic uprising in 52 BC against the overpowering Roman legions of Julius Cesar.

No better place to finish off a Dijon visit than at our favorite neighborhood restaurant:

Joachim and Antje are on their way back to Weilburg, and we’re getting ready to leave for a couple weeks of family visits and domestic chores at our other home, in the USA.

A bientôt!