Beaune (heart of Burgundy)

12 & 13 September – Saturday and Sunday

Carolyn: We needed to get an early start out of Beaucaire (Provence), having agreed to meet friends for lunch in Beaune in the heart of burgundy country. Dorothee Dillion and her parents, Philippe and Yolande , are driving a long distance from Belgium to see us for a too-brief visit. Dorothee / Do stayed with me for 3 months several years ago as a Rotary exchange student, and Steve and I (separately) have since stayed at their home in Habay. Once we finally found the entrance to the autoroute (thanks to CB1), we took the A6 all the way to Beaune and the Hostelliere du Bretonniere where I had stayed in 2000.

Cathy: This is how I wish to remember Saturday: Chardonnay, Kir, vin blanc, vin rouge, 2 bottles of Champagne and finally a last taste of rose before bed. 34 glasses on the dejuner (lunch) table, every one of which had been used for a different beverage.
How did anyone find anything before GPS (a.k.a Car Bitches)?

We found our B&B relatively easily enough. We did pull into the wrong driveway first, but with Steve’s excellent driving skills we were back on the road in a heartbeat and to the B&B in another minute or two.

Our friends from Belgium, Philippe, Yolande & Do, were there at the B&B when we arrived. Philippe, bless his soul, had a bottle of Chardonnay waiting for us. They were so kind to make a 5-hour drive to come and spend time with us on our vacation.

After our greeting and Chardonnay, we headed out to find lunch inside the walls of Beaune. Beaune is in the Burgundy region and well known for its wine production. Every third store is either a wine merchant or a store for wine ‘stuff.’

The eight of us had lunch in one of the nicer establishments we’ve eaten in so far. I had mentioned to Philippe that I wanted to try Kir, so that is what we all started with. The Kir was lovely, sweet and fruity. I think for the most part, we are all trying to try and order food that is representative of French cuisine. This means stepping out a little and ordering a few things with the idea that most of it sounds good and the items included in the description that are not immediately recognizable would also be pleasing.

On to the Hospice. Beautiful, shiny tile roofs and other cool rooms and stuff that someone else will need to detail here…)

The Dillions were staying at a B&B outside of town and which was serving dinner, so they headed for their lodging about 7 p.m. Pizza for dinner from Le Petite Bon Heure (virtually across the street from the B&B) was an easy decision. Our three pizza choices consisted of (1) Jambon (ham) (2) Anduille (sausage and mustard from nearby Dijon) and the piece de resistance (3) Escargot (snail). We had an illegal pizza pic-nique in Mom’s room. (We got kicked out of the dining area at the B&B after they saw we had three pizzas – much more of a dining commitment for us then they realized).


13th – Sunday

The winery we stopped at is very small and their harvest only occurs for three days each year. Apparently, we stopped by on one of those three days. They were kind enough to allow us in the cellar where we tasted four different reds, all from 2007.

Little Chloe was in the cellar with us. Chloe is about seven years old me thinks and was bedazzled in her tiara. She didn’t smile at us much, but she stuck it out.

When we arrived, we had interrupted the women as they were preparing the noon meal for their harvesters. As we left the cellar, we walked back through the basement area that had 3 or 4 tables that would comfortably seat about 6 people each. I caught a glimpse of 3 large platters with cherry tomatoes, mozzerella and basil. Jeepers, I’d think about pulling a couple of shifts out in the fields if I knew that folks ate that well.

On to the large chateau. We parked and walked to the chateau, or at least we thought we had. We walked to some beautiful building where a group of young people were combing through grapes that had just been picked, but dumping them on a short conveyor belt and possibly cutting stems to make smaller bunches and to look for obvious bad grapes (or whatever, I really have no idea, but that is certainly what it looked like to me).

One of us rang a large bell (as a sign advised us to do) and we were quickly advised that the chateau is the bigger, more chateau-like building a little further on. So, the drivers moved the cars while the rest of us walked the walled driveway between the two buildings as vans full of harvesters were being taken(I’m assuming) to different locations for their lunch. Some young man yelled something at me in French. I’m sure he was exclaiming how much he liked my hat…

Once we were at the ‘real’ chateau, we were told that it would be best not to buy admission for a tour since the press room was closed. There had a been a party the day before and there were folks breaking down all the sound and light equipment, not to mention carting away all the sweet little trees that had been ringing the inner court yard.

We wandered the gift shop area and then wandered outside. We managed to get a minor tour for free in that we were able to walk into the courtyard without any restriction due to all the activity of the people carting away the party equipment. (Ha, take THAT you joy-stealers, restricting our entrance due to your friggin’ huge party that we weren’t invited to).