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After a typically delicious French Château breakfast, we gathered up our clue sheets and maps and departed making our way through the delightful French countryside to the first clue stop of the day – the stunning Basilica in St. Benoit.
Following much head scratching most of us managed to solve this one – 'From an inferior range, in view of a crook,
what is Assomption by another name' – in front of the small bronze Monk statue holding a bishop's crook, there was a brass plaque which contained the answer: 'Dormition de la vierge'. We soon realised how much fun could be had by a bunch of bemused people all walking around seemingly without aim and mostly uttering unspeakable curses on clue writers!
We then headed off into the direction of Sancerre across some of the most exciting roads so far. Before reaching this hilltop town so famous for it's mellow wine production, we were treated to the most stunning view of the town from the surrounding hills. After driving down through the straight roads cutting across the uniform vineyards, we all met for a traditional lunch at Le Rempart high up in the town with panoramic views of the vineyards and sampled a glass or two of the local wine. Whilst enjoying lunch, we also had to solve yet another clue 'Name the ghostly proprietor?' – The answer was found on the restaurant signage affixed to the wall and was the painted over name of the former owner – 'Madame Merotto', which had been lightly painted over making the name look like an apparition. Unfortunately for us, someone in their wisdom had decided to wipe the sign with a wet cloth in the hope the name would become clearer. They weren't to know it would have completely the opposite effect by making the answer almost impossible to read!
The afternoon was spent driving on some truly glorious roads whilst constantly keeping a keen eye out for our picture clues for the day. We arrived feeling ready for our two night stay at the delightful Château de Chailly deep in the beautiful Burgundian countryside. All the contestants met later in the afternoon for a drinks party on the terrace
reminiscing over the day's events and still doing their best to trade or barter answers to the clues, with many teams helping each other and entering into the spirit of the Broughtons GT in doing so.
After a lovely meal in the turreted dining room of the Château, Greg and his team had prepared some light-hearted challenges giving everyone a chance to enhance their scores. Everyone joined in with the fun and games of throwing darts at a board in the hope of scoring a few extra points for their team!
A number of us thought that this was extremely brave of the organisers given the nature of some of the clues, but needless to say, they all survived fully intact. The early hours of the morning saw quite a number of the entrants enjoying themselves in the quaint little bar of the château knowing that a pleasant lie-in awaited them the next morning
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