Oysters on the menu today

Today ought to be one for the sprinters. The race heads northwards from Carhaix to the coast and then runs along eastwards by to the sea to the finish in Cap Fréhel. The race passes through Yffniac, the birthplace of the great Bernard Hinault. Expect once again a long breakaway that will be caught with around 10-15 kilometres from the finish.

The finish could be tricky as there are several bends on the way to the line. Will this be Mark Cavendish's day or will Tyler Farrar win again or someone else? They will certainly want to go for this as the finish tomorrow at Liseux is uphill and won't suit pure sprinters.

Spectators should be enjoying the race with some oysters and a bottle of nicely chilled Muscadet or Gros Plant. 

Unfortunately image and text may well need to be zoomed in on as I'm just exploring how to export from a pdf to a jpg. Anyway new oyster bar in Tours from next Saturday.

Also new Saint Kerber site.

Later today some notes on a couple of wines tasted on Friday night and perhaps some thoughts on significant family brands.

Vines@Chalus, Côtes d'Auvergne

While catching up on some blog reading this morning I see from Annie Sauvat's blog that the Côtes d'Auverge and its regional vin de pays has abandoned le ban des vendanges leaving it up to individual producers to decide when to start picking. Having an official starting date for the harvest may have made sense 50 or more years ago but not anymore when all serious wine producers regularly check the maturity of their grapes in the lead up to the vendange. It avoids the nonsense of having to get a special dispensation to pick before the official date if your grapes are ready early.

Annie Sauvat and Michel Boudes

Hopefully other appellations will soon follow suit.

Annie also has details of their successful 2009 harvest of her blog.

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Pierre Pichot's oyster bar: Le comptoir Saint Kerber is due to open in Tours in a week's time: Saturday 14th November. Fingers crossed!

L'ouverture du premier corner "Le comptoir Saint Kerber" prévu le Samedi 14 novembre.

Address: Place Gaston Pailhou, Les Halles Centrales, 37000 Tours

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News flash: Due to work delays and public holidays opening of Le comptoir Saint Kerber now fixed for Saturday 21st November