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attached dining room is down a couple steps, nearly on the same level
as the staterooms; there is a canopied dining table on the teak-floored
deck where we are served both lunch and dinner, and where we spend
any part of the day when not on an excursion or otherwise engaged.
Caroline and Rory have developed a personal friendship with
virtually everyone they work with on the daily shore excursions (vineyard
owners and managers, tasting-room employees, truffle “farmers,”
waiters, cooks, and restaurant proprietors, various vendors, lock
keepers, etc.). “We met most of them when we were working for Orient
Express,” Rory explains while chatting on the bridge of his handsome
127-foot craft that he expertly maneuvers through yet another lock
without scraping the side.
“You have these friendships,” he continues, “and it’s not like when
you’re going into a guided tour somewhere. You actually feel a part
of the whole thing; they’re very welcoming and want to share their
knowledge. For us, it’s fantastic, and for anybody that comes on the
boat it’s more enjoyable, because they feel like they’re getting a really
personalized exposure to something they wouldn’t ordinarily get. It’s
like friends going to visit their other friends at the chateau. They are all
professional in what they do, but they’re also very nice people.”
DINNER
That
joie de vivre
begins on day one, as we meet and greet the
crew and the other four guests we are about to spend the next week
with. Caroline has prepared a “Welcome Aboard” dinner and startles
our palates with what she calls her “Burgundy Soup,” made with white
Getting ready for lunch on the deck of the Aprés Tout
(center left) Villages with narrow
streets, surrounded by stone walls,
and peppered with stone houses spill
out from the route of the Canal de
Bourgogne
Ready for the vineyard tour, led by
Francois Prevot (third from left,
standing) and powered by two of his
WWII vintage Jeeps
winter
|
spr ing
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TRAVEL