May 10, 2025 - Chablis and Auxerre

 We had a wonderful sleep in our tiny little village of Vermenton. This is exactly what I needed right now. A quiet, tiny little village.


He loves these stairs  

We are very close to Chablis, which is a big wine area and our plan is to go see some wineries and vineyards. Up until now we haven’t seen any vineyards in France at all along the way in the last couple of days.





We are not disappointed when we pull into the little village. We go have a wine tasting in one of the wine caves and buy a bottle of our favourite of the four wines we were given to taste. The woman also gave us a good education on why wines taste the way they do. The Petit Chablis and the Chablis are grown in the flat areas of the valley and the more robust type grow on the hillsides. We ask her why we have not seen any vineyards and she tells us that they are more towards the town of Auxerre.








We go through their beautiful church and are amazed by the lack of people around. In all of our travels so far we’ve seen hordes of people. This is so pleasant.






We have been advised to go to a restaurant called Wine Not and we have some beef bourgenon which is one of Richard‘s specialties. It tastes almost exactly like his only done just a little bit differently. And of course, we have a glass of Chablis with it. And of course, we all know that Chablis would be used as an apéritif and not a digestif. 🥹  I’m getting an education for sure  I also learned that when you see a date on the label of a bottle of wine, it tells you the year that the grapes were harvested.


We continue onto Auxerre where we find one of the most magnificent cathedrals and abbeys that we have seen. Again there are not many people in the area so we’re able to just take our time and stroll around. We go into the museum at the abbey and are able to see all of the Ancient Roman artifacts. And the real big thing was it was all free. Up until now, I had never heard of the town. That’s the amazing thing in Europe that every little village in town you go through has the most amazing history.



Interesting, this was a statue that was hidden away for many years and once used as a theatre prop. No one realized that it was from the sixth century and is extremely valuable.



Oh good, another spiral staircase. 

This is a gargoyle broken from the cathedral. 

A crypt discovered at the abbey. 





Ste. Anne, mother of the Virgin Mary. 




Throughout our recent travels something about St. Etienne kept calling me. 🤷 and here we are. 






Now we see acres and acres of vineyards. 


We didn’t expect to have such an amazing day!! But we did. ☺️

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