St Claude – Day 2 (St Claude & Small Tobacco Haul)

When i woke the next morning, it was cold. I looked outside and it glistened with the morning frost. Today was the day we travelled a few hundred miles through Switzerland and off to the Jura mountains.

The drive from the alps down to the flats near Lake Geneva was beautiful. The roads snaked through the blasted mountains, past waterfalls, sheer cliffs and the occasional crazy trucker. Once we hit the flats it became a typical flat Northern European landscape. Was this Holland? or Norfolk maybe? Soon enough my first visit to Switzerland began and soon ended as we nipped through Geneva and back out into Jura moutain region of France. This still doesn’t top my hidden trips to Turkey where we sat on still in the plane at Istanbul airport  for 2 hours before flying to Cyprus.

View Larger Map

The Jura mountains are an breath taking place, sheer cliffs, waterfalls & roads to make the guys of top gear smile. They weave and climb the mountains and descend into the valleys only to go back up again. Small settlements, i wouldn’t even call them villages scatter the road. Eventually when St Claude starts to appear on a few of the (obviously?) very rare road signs. At this point i got a little excited, i was going to birth place of the Briar pipe.

The town is bigger than any we passed through on the way in, spread out along the 4 roads the river that all converge here. As soon as we entered it was apparent the town wasn’t what it had been. Like many places like this the windows of shops, warehouses, offices and house boarded up and fallen into disuse/repair. The current population is about 12,000 but the town looks big enough to house/employ/service 2 times more.  Since 1850 Briar pipes have been produced in this small town.

“This small institution began to grow rapidly and by the turn of the 20^th century St Claude  was producing upwards of 30,000,000 pipes a year. These ranged from the classic shapes we are all familiar with, up to the beautiful free hands & fleur shaped masterpieces.  In the 1960s around 200 pipes a day where sold through the shops of St. Claude.  During these times men & women, young and old turned out the finest pipes and brokered briar woods worldwide. Artisans shared their skills to pipe makers the world over and these can be seen in the Italian & Danish pipes produced today. “- Taken from the Gauntleys Blog

While in St Claude we met with Pierre Morel, the Last Artisan Pipe Maker in St Claude. To read more about Pierre head over the Gauntleys Blog for more on this visit.

After having lunch and filming the  video above we headed back to Geneva for my flight. On the way we stopped for a quick drink in a French bar. The choice between fizzy cat piss larger A B C was tricky and i ended up with Amstel i think. The also sold a small range of cigarettes and rolling tobaccos. I had to grab something to review

Gauloises Brunes

Originally i had planned to get hold of some disc blue or Gitanes International. But this little bar only had the Brunes, having never tried these before i brought a pack along with some Camel Excelence.

Tar – 5mg
Nictoine – 0.4mg
CO2 – 7mg
Tobacco – 94%
Papier a cigarette – 6%
Additives  - 0% (Agents de saveur et de texture)

These white filtered cigarettes smell as i expected of the dark fire cured almost cigar like aroma. These are a French cigarette i was disapointed with the Blondes range, these should not be classed as Gauloises at all. The tobacco inside looks dark and tasty, lighting is a pleasure every time. Plumes of rich and enough body for flavour but not taking your breathe away.  We English smokers are used to Sun Cured Virginias, not these dark fire cured smokes. Earth flavours big and bold, hints of woods and nuts at times made for a great smoke

For a cigarette that is only 0.4mg Nic and 5mg Tar it seemed almost like witchcraft.  So smooth but yet so flavoursome, i have let some of you try these and you have all commented on the cigar like flavour and aroma. One donwside was the aftersmell, its not very often i can smell my smoky self but after these i could. This still doenst take away from the fact that these or one the best cigarettes i have smoked in a long time. Being on the roll ups for 12 years has seen my dislike for UK & American blends as light, dry and harsh Virginia, Burley & Orientals.
(Watch my review 3:20mins into video)

The Camel rolling tobacco is ok, its a little dull and uninpiring. Tastes a lot like Cutters Choice, Beson & Headges Gold, Amber Leaf and even GV. Nothing special makes for a great back up tobacco, i have smoked 1/3 it and that is only because of running out of my current smoke (Pueblo, again)

We ended up at Geneva much ealier than expected so i had a few more hours to kill. Of course i couldnt come to an airport and not visit the Duty Free. I treated my self to 3 x Villiger – Short Robusto & 10 x Zino Platinum XS. Geneva airport has a nice smoking lounge, i really wanted to try one of the Zinos but i had no cutter & the duty free only had stupidly expensive cutters. Needless to say i polished off many of the Brunes and smoked a little more Penzance.

The short flight back was over before i had chance to play the crap sega hand held console. Still alex the kid when my battery dies in the phone. No hassle or checks coming back in, just “Hello………..Thanks”. Then another wait and finally i was on my back Nottingham, most of which i slept.

What a great 2 days, i got to see some of the most beautiful landscapes and St Claude. Pierre was a great host and it has to be one of the best trip i have been on so far.

The Smoking Diary
Prelude
Read Day 1
Read Day 2
Watch Video