Fergus Henderson (middle) with Jim, Carole Macintyre and Max Poynter Hall
Fergus has had Parkinson's since 1998
A fishy perspective – featuring Kitty Cooper's foot....
Lafite – le départ...
... jusqu'a Cru La Livinière, Minervois
From one famous cru to another: Pauillac to La Livinière Our challenge is to cycle from Pauillac, close to the Atlantic coast, to La Livinière in the Minervois, not very far from Mediterranean – a distance of roughly 500 km, just over 300 miles!
Pauillac is the home of some of the most famous Bordeaux vineyards - Château Lafite Rothschild, Château Latour, Château Mouton Rothschild. Our destination is La Livinière where we will, hopefully, catch the Boulevard Napoléon Fête du Vin, celebrating the wine of Fergus Henderson and Trevor Gulliver, co-founders and co-owners of London’s St John Restaurant. The wine is made from their vineyards high up in the hills of the Minervois.
We have sought to build in incentives to complete each stage. On Monday night, for instance, we will be staying at Claude Darroze in Langon, the market town of Sauternes. Ever since August 1979 we have enjoyed memorable meals at here. Then on Thursday night, the last evening before we reach La Livinière, we will stay at Le Clos Fleuri in Castelnaudary to enjoy a traditional cassoulet. Fortunately the next day's stage is short!
Fergus Henderson & Trevor Gulliver's vines high up in the hills of the Minervois
It was at last year’s wonderful Fete du Vin at La Livinière that we came up with the idea of doing a charity ride and Fergus, who has had Parkinson’s since 1998, was the inspiration for selecting Parkinson’s UK as our chosen charity. Fergus is a well-known and highly regarded British chef and author of The Whole Beast: Nose to tail eating, which explains his philosophy and provides some of his innovative recipes that make use of all parts of the animal.
(Virgin Giving site – every donation makes a difference!
http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/ParkinsonsPedalers)
Another inspiration for our ride is a long-time friend of ours, Ivor Morris, who was a very able and keen racing cyclist and founder of the London Fire Brigade Cycling Club. It was Ivor who first inspired us to take up serious cycling and get into time trialling in the late seventies and the eighties. Ivor died in early January 2008 after suffered from Parkinson’s for many years. We have very fond memories of dropping down to Ivor’s to watch the short snippets of news on the Tour de France, long before it became a popular spectator sport.
Parkinson’s is a progressive neurological condition for which there is as yet no known cure although there are hopes of a breakthrough in the near future. Parkinson’s UK plays a very important role in supporting and promoting research and driving better care, treatments and quality of life for those living with Parkinson’s.
To date the full-time cyclists for the whole distance are Jim Budd and Carole Macintyre. We have the invaluable support of Lynda Maple who will drive the support car, carry our gear and, if necessary, rescue us en route! We are delighted that at least one brave soul, Max Poynter Hall from St John Restaurant, will be joining us for one stage of the journey. We are looking for others!
Parkinson's is a progressive neurological condition. This means that it causes problems in the brain and gets worse over time.
There's currently no cure for Parkinson's and we don't yet know why people get the condition.
