Missing good French wines

First week, back at home and I am already missing France- especially the wine and cheese!

There is nothing for it ,I will just have to stop drinking wine. Might be good for my body but definitely not good for my quality of life.

I could buy reasonable quality wine in France for around €6 per bottle. In Ireland, I have to pay between €12 and € 15 for a reasonable bottle of wine. For better quality wines such as Givry (very close to Chalon where we were staying),  I can expect to pay €22.49 in Ireland but only about €12 in France. Another favourite, Nuits Saint George is €54 per bottle in Ireland. I can see all our friends in Chalon when reading this going into shock and delighted they live there and not in Dublin.

Our favourite Camembert

Likewise our two favourite cheeses are Époisses and Camembert de Normandy (not the cheap alternatives but the real quality covered by the “Appellation D’origine Protégée”). In France, in Carrefour these were costing us around € 2.80 per box for Camembert (compared to €4.39 in Ireland ) , Epoisses about €4.50  (compared to €12.50 in Ireland.)

So I cannot afford to eat top quality cheese or drink good wines in Ireland!!

French wines!

The people we met in the marina in Chalon sur Saone like Thierry, Jean Marc and Alain had a great knowledge of wine and could pick very good bottles. They gave me an education in local Burgundy wines and have now given me expensive tastes! Maybe I need to get onto them, get them to bulk buy some wine and cheese, then rent a van and go over and collect a year’s supply? Or talk them into visiting Ireland soon with a van? Now there’s a thought…

French wines in Ireland