Beaune - Market Day

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Saturday - Market Day and Wedding Day

Beaune Market

Saturday is market day in Beaune. We take a leisurely stroll around the market while Nick stocks up on fruit and cheese. It’s quite a big market, occupying most of the centre of town, and it’s fairly busy. There are clearly a lot of tourists in town judging by the amount of people who {like me} are pointing digital cameras in every direction but it is also a “proper” market with people coming into the town centre to do their shopping. Amongst the stalls there are several that I notice:-
Some very unusual looking sausages which I certainly wasn’t tempted to buy.
A hatter! I don’t know that I’ve met a hatter before. How many people would go to their local market planning to buy a hat? Still, he seems to be doing good business.
A stall selling nothing but garlic. Even I might struggle to use that amount of garlic in a lifetime.
A stall selling truffles at the bargain price of €495 per kilo. I’m very tempted to buy a truffle {not a kilo!} to bring back as a present for Martyn but I really have no idea how long it will keep and I’m not even going to contemplate having that conversation in French!
There is also a jazz trio playing. One of the instruments is a french horn - not the only french horn we will see today!

Saint Romain

In the afternoon we drive out to the village of Saint Romain, about 10 miles from Beaune. We drive through the vineyards where the vendange is in full progress and we can see lots of teams of workers picking the grapes. Hopefully we won’t come across Anne’s team as she is out picking the grapes again today while we are just driving around! There seem to be a number of fields where the grapes don’t seem to be very healthy but we can’t see any pattern as to why the crop seems to be so poor in just these fields.
We first stop at a small, and for once, modest church in the village before making our way to the top of the hill and the site of an old château. There is very little left of the château - during the Revolution all of its stonework was taken away to be used in local villages; I don’t know what happened the inhabitants! It still seems to be of interest, though, as there is a tour party at the site when we arrive. The site does offer fine views of the nearby villages, vineyards and the surrounding area.

Pommard

We stop off for a coffee on the way back at the village of Pommard. This is usually a quiet village but today we struggle to find anywhere to park a car because, as we find out, there is a large wedding taking place in the village. The custom seems to be different from English weddings in that the reception seems to take place before, during and after the wedding. As we sit people-watching in our café we can see a large gathering of guests getting drunk in a building across the road. I can now see why the hatter in Beaune market was doing such good business this morning! The people getting drunk don’t seem to be too bothered that the wedding appears to be well underway at a building {the town hall?} further up the road and carry on drinking. We walk up the road towards where the wedding is taking place in the hope of getting a free drink. And we arrive just in time as the happy couple appear on a balcony as the band {my second french horn spotting of the day!} strikes up “When The Saints Go Marching In”.
When The Saints Go Marching In??I don’t go to many weddings but “When The Saints Go Marching In” does seem an unusual choice of music? Perhaps the happy couple are both Southampton supporters? Saint Etienne maybe? There’s a lot of saints in France and probably a lot of football teams with “Saint” in the title. Perhaps it’s just their favourite tune?!
Saturday evening and it’s a barbeque back at Nick and Anne’s with some English teachers invited. OK, so nearly everyone there is a teacher, but we have an evening of speaking English and not having to concentrate on the conversation. Anne is the most practiced in speaking French, enjoys using the language and is quite relaxed speaking French. Nick has to work at it and tells me that he has to concentrate all the way through a conversation and can’t drift in and out of a conversation like we might do when speaking English. I’m just useless! An evening of just speaking English must be a bit relaxing.

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