Wine Region Road Tripping

Marty O’Neil says ‘bon voyage’ as he hits the open road in France on a quest for some of the best spots.

France is on our doorstep. Just a mere 90 minutes flying time away or, if you’re thinking about filling the boot with inexpensive quality wine, then you can take the car overnight from Dublin on the ferry  It’s most likely that many of us spent our early years holidaying in France, myself included. Back in the day the whole budget was blown taking the entire crew on the slow boat from Roslare to Cherbourg (a lot has changed with ferry travel in the last 30 odd years – trust me on that). As a family we spent many a July fortnight in the south of France, in the middle of a pine forest ,in a sprawling camp site. Large mobile home living, miles from major cities but no one cared. I’ve memories of my mum sending my sister and I down to the food van by the campsite entrance for ‘deus pomme frites, s’il voux plaît’. I laughed with mum recently when she recalled how one year my late dad insisted on bringing a bag of comber spuds the whole way to France (and onions too as they’d been bought and paid for and may go off while we were away). Hilarious yet cherished memories of my parents working their tail off all year to afford the annual continental getaway and saving on everything they could to make it work. No credit cards back then!

Read more in the October issue…