Thursday 26 July 2007

Day 20 - Cognac (the town)

Thursday 26 July 2007

I take back everything rational I said about CBS previously. They’ve made clear the fact that they are no longer covering the race as it is (they never really do to begin with), but are now enthralled with the storylines – the Yellow Jersey being kicked out is top priority, and will probably take up 35 minutes of their 42 minute (60-minute w/commercials) formatted show. And they win Emmy’s for that bullshit. Whatever. Not bitter.

Dave Hagen’s fantastic quote o’ the day:

“There was a pint of blood in my mini-bar last night, but I didn’t have the
right tools to transfuse it. So I went with a Heineken instead.”
Yeah, it’s business as usual for us today.

Another long drive for us tonight, on the road which leads to the southwestern region of France, where every town ends in an ‘ac’. Cognac is the larger town in the region, which has been made famous by the spirit with its namesake. We are in Jornac tonight, in a beautiful chateau which was purchased by its current owners from a cognac company a mere 6 years ago.

Everything in this chateau is big. My room is huge. The bathroom is enormous. The walls are lined with giant paintings. The grounds are massive. This is what cognac money buys, apparently. This chateau was just for 6 of us, and we sat outside and enjoyed some of our rest stop-bought bottles of wine. This was the right place to spend two consecutive nights; not some crappy chain hotel like Ibis or Novotel.

No comments: