Another nearby village we recently visited was Buxy. We had a very French day in Buxy filled with food, wine, and cheese. Unfortunately we were stuck wandering around in the rain again, but it was still a nice visit.
The first thing you notice driving into town is that there are some prominent towers and rock walls that remind you of a fortified castle. There is no castle, but there are some very nice ancient buildings. We started with lunch at Aux Années Vins by the Tour Rouge (the red tower). Their lunch hours are very brief, from 12h to 13h15, but we were the first ones to arrive. We had very good meals. I had salmon with a carrot mash, and Eric had the three course menu with a shrimp and smoked duck terrine, a main dish of chicken and crayfish with vegetables in a creamy sauce, and then fromage blanc. I guess we were lucky we got a table without a reservation because I saw the staff turning away others without reservations when most of the restaurant was still empty. The restaurant filled up throughout the course of lunch, with couples and some groups enjoying the cuisine and wine. The cheese cart looked wonderful, but we decided we were already full enough at the end of our meals.
We next wandered around town until we couldn’t take the rain anymore. The church looked particularly interesting, but naturally it was closed that day. Mostly there are interesting old stone buildings around town, but nothing of significant historic importance as far as we could tell. Perhaps the tourist office would have more info on the buildings in town, but we didn’t attempt to ask because was not located nearby in the center of town. It is actually a bit out of the way along the Voie Verte cycling path, across from La Cave des Vignerons de Buxy, which we visited next.
La Cave des Vignerons de Buxy is the storefront for the local wine co-op. We tasted a variety of local wines, but decided not to buy any this time. La Cave des Vignerons mostly sells wines produced at the co-op combining the grapes various producers, though were were surprised this time to see there were some wines offered from specific domaines, i.e. individual estates. In the fall we had visited the co-op during the harvest season and got to see the grapes going into crushers. The tastings are free here, and it seems you can taste any of the wines in their large collection.
To complete our day trip, we drove down the road a couple of kilometers to Les Filletières to pick up some cheese. La Chèvrerie des Filletières is a goat farm where you can visit the animals and buy a variety of goat cheeses at very low prices. It is a small production, but it offers some our favorite local cheeses. Some of our local friends recommend going the “extra mile” to this place even though goat cheese is widely available in the markets, so you know it is good.
Fromage