It’s about 25-26 hours door-to-door from Portland to Volnay. No matter how you slice it, it’s a bit of a safari. I go stir-crazy on 12+-hour flights, so here’s how I usually slice it: A 4-5 hour flight from Portland to Chicago or Atlanta, and then a 7-hour flight to Paris. I’m at the gate at PDX right now, waiting to board a United flight to Chicago. Then it’s a 2-hour layover there, then the flight to Paris.

After getting the bags in Paris (1-hour minimum, it seems), then it’s a taxi to the Gare de Lyon (another hour in Paris traffic), then the TGV to Dijon (a blissful 1:45), then grabbing the rental car and a cruise down the Côte to Volnay. I’ll get there at about 4:00pm on Wednesday France time, or about 7am back home. It’s basically like pulling an all-nighter back in college days. I’m just a bit older, however!

I’ll be staying in the guest house above the Huber-Verdereau cellars in Volnay, which is very warm and cozy. I look forward to the church bells just outside my window, marking time every 15 minutes, and settling into the flow of life in the winemaking villages.

Here’s a great shot of the sunrise over Vosne-Romanée – more to come from the other side of the pond soon!

First light over the most valuable vineyard land on the planet...

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 11th, 2008 at 10:26 am and is filed under Scott's Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.