Early last year I decided that at least one every quarter I had to take a small break and ideally also go to a place without mobile reach and internet. This keeps me from spending the full 100% of my time to work and also from taking every chance I get to check my mail (be it voicemail or e-mail). This works out pretty well I must say.

Last week I visited a friend of mine in France. He has just bought a house in a small village near Avallon (which is halfway down to Dijon from Paris). It’s in the middle of the Bourgogne so you can get some great wines there.

Me and another friend of mine drove down there in my small Opel Corsa (I hope to get a new somewhat larger car soon, but I still have to order it) and after some traffic jams on the Ring of Antwerp (when do you Belgian people ever stop fixing roads) and some getting lost in the city of Charleroi we arrived just in time for dinner.

We spent about 4 days doing nothing in Vauclaix. The village is really small and the biggest attractions in town are the phone booth and the hotel. On Friday we spent about the entire day searching for some good wines. I got back home with two boxes of a really good rose (Irancy, 2004) and two boxes of Pinot Noir (2003, also Irancy). The winery is just out of town on your right if you’re coming from the direction of Nitry. I also got two boxes of Pinot Noir from Coullanges (somewhat West of Irancy). The winery there is a bit hard to find (it doesn’t have a decent sign) but the guy is called Martin F. and asking around should help. Unfortunately I didn’t have time to visit Epineult (where I got some really good 2003 Bourgognes earlier this year). By the way, Irancy and Coullanges are both a bith South-East of Auxerre in case you want to know.