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Mom and Dad P are visiting right now for a couple weeks and we decided to take a trip to the region where Beaujolais is made because they always drink this wine for Thanksgiving.  Ryan planned a day trip for us to go to 2 wine tastings and have lunch overlooking the village.

Our “adventure” started with the drive there….which was almost 2 1/2 hours….and a good part of the drive being on tiny, windy roads in the middle of nowhere.  We were starting to feel sick from all the turns in the road and really thought the GPS took us way off track somehow when we weren’t seeing any signs of life while literally driving up and down a mountain.  We finally made it to a main road and found the village of Beaujeu.

When we thought we found the place we had a reservation at for the first wine tasting, we couldn’t figure out where the actual wine tasting took place.  One building looked like it might be a hotel, and then we found a man standing outside the other building that we thought was “the place”, but somehow I think our reservation was lost in translation and the man said they were preparing for a wedding.  He called someone and asked if he had time to do a wine tasting with us and told us to go up the hill to a modern looking villa.  We started to walk but it was up this very steep hill and we didn’t see what we thought would be a “wine tasting place” in sight, just a house.  Well that house wound up being the location we were looking for and the vineyards were along side it.  It was the home of the winemaker whose family owns the building where the wedding was being held.  I had to change Makenna so they brought me into their living room to change her on the sofa and then took us outside and around to the back of the house. I literally thought we were going to sit on the patio of their home and taste wines but the winemaker, Jean Luc, took us into his basement where he built a wine tasting room and a room for bottling and labeling wine.  It was an interesting situation for sure, but it turned out to be a really neat experience.

We tasted 3 different wines and Jean Luc talked and talked to us for 2 hours.  Ryan did so well speaking to him and understanding what he was saying, I was impressed with how well his French has improved in less than a year!  Jean Luc didn’t charge us anything for the wine tasting and gave us 4 wine glasses too!  We bought 4 bottles which were all around 8 euros.  I love how we can find good wine that’s very inexpensive here.

After getting lost and then spending 2 hours with Jean Luc, we wound up going to lunch around 2pm.  We ate at a restaurant called La Terrasse which had a beautiful view overlooking the area.  Ryan was helping Mom and Dad P figure out what was on the menu and they ordered what they thought was veal.  Later on Ryan realized it was actually veal brain!!! I don’t think Dad P was too happy to hear that, but they said it wasn’t bad.  I’m glad I played it safe and ordered chicken!  For dessert, the waitress told us to go up to the counter and choose from their large selection of pastries, cakes and tarts.  Everything looked SO good, I had a hard time deciding.  After lunch it was too late to make it to our 2nd wine tasting so we took some pictures of the view and then headed home.

We really have an angel baby because Makenna only napped for about 30 minutes and didn’t eat as much as usual, not to mention she made it through a 2 hour wine tasting and 5 hours of driving!

It was a long day but as everything in France turns out to be, it was an adventure!  I don’t think I’ll ever forgot driving through those windy mountain roads to taste wine in someone’s basement!