Blogs from Beaune, Burgundy, France, Europe
Beaune - Les Joyeux Temps de La Vendange Part Deux
Published: September 5th 2011Europe » France » Burgundy » Beaune
September 1st 2011
Back To Beaune I'm returning to Beaune after a couple of years. My friends Nick and Anne have been living here for the last three years. Sadly they are having to return to the UK soon so this is one last visit before they leave. I am again visiting at the time of the Vendange, the annual wine harvest. The grapes in the area around Beaune are all picked by hand so at this time of year there is a lot of casual work available and a lot of people come into the area looking for work. This year we are fairly optimistic that one of Nick and Anne's friends has been able to arrange some work for the three of us. Le Shuttle Because I'm likely to be ... read more
August 8th 2011
Into France in the morning. Sounds a bit funny to say that, but it wasn't rally very far at all from San Sebastian. Immediately the drivers got better and the prices and roads got worse. Spanish drivers have supreme difficulty merging onto a freeway and, thankfully, that changed in France. A lot fewer crazy roundabouts, and French drivers are a lot slower than the Spaniards, or the Belgians – the Belgians are nuts. Nice cheese though. In France, that is. I've heard that Belgian cheese is simply boring. We headed to Condom (no jokes please) in the Armagnac region. Armagnac was pretty nice – neat and, I suppose, French looking. We found the municipal campsite easily. We had downloaded the Archies points of interest for camping, and they were heaps better than the standard TomTom ones. ... read more
May 17th 2011
This panorama shot captures some of the beauty of the centre of Beaune - Place Carnot. Little brasseries, wine bars & restaurants fringe the park. It was a lovely spot to have lunch on a park bench or sip a French chardonnay as the sun sank over the roof tops.... read more
Beaune #1 - historical place: Burgundy, France
Published: May 17th 2011Europe » France » Burgundy » Beaune
May 12th 2011
Finally in New York with fast internet (and rain). This is the first set of photos from our week in Beaune. We were again blessed with beautiful weather, very comfortable accommodation in a lovely, historical town dating back to the 12th century. ... read more
March 26th 2011
Well after a hectic couple of days in the middle of France in the Burgundy wine district, you find you correspondents winging our way back (by train) to Paris then straight through to Bruges in Belgium for the next two nights. Our two days with Debbie and Phil in Pommard and surrounds were fantastic – if a little hectic. They proved excellent hosts and nothing was too much trouble for them as they organised meals and Phil drove us around the district on the first day. The accommodation was first class as they have done a terriffic job in fitting out the apartment. It is most impressive. Yesterday, after we organised the balance of our holiday on the net, Chris and I took off on foot among the vineyards and into and around Beaune and back ... read more
December 25th 2010
Best Christmas present EVER this morning....Mykenzie and Edyn had a sleep in until 8.30am! How great is that! Then I looked out the window and saw the white roof tops of Beaune and realised that we really had been given the white Christmas we had hoped for. It was still lightly falling and at that time of morning everything seemed so peaceful and so simple. Once we all did rise, my Christmas morning started with a run around the walls of Beaune. My friend Hubert told us that at one point in history, Beaune was an important centre of the French Empire. I can’t remember the exact story as we’d had a few glasses of Louis Jardot, but if they enjoyed the wine as much as I did, I can certainly see why the leaders would ... read more
December 24th 2010
Today I took the girls for an early walk to get our morning croissants and to my delight, the weekly markets were on. How perfect! After a yummy French breakfast, Brett, Alana and I shopped for our Christmas Eve ingredients at the local markets. We got everything from our fruits and vegetables to the roast, meat, cheese and baguettes. Not only was the produce first class, the price was outstanding and the taste sweeter, juicier, creamier than anything I’ve tasted in Australia for some time. For lunch we nibbled on our olives, baguettes and prosciutto whilst drinking some lovely red. Dinner was a beautiful roast pork lovingly cooked by Brett and Alana. Dessert was local patisseries of tarte citron, tarte frambois and tarte tartin (lemon, raspberry and apple tarts). Of course this was washed down with ... read more
December 23rd 2010
We rose early to pack the apartment as we are moving onto the next adventure. Jas took Mykenzie to collect the rental car and I took Edyn on a big walk to Notre Dame. It is actually only 1.7km from our accommodation but no direct metro line takes you there so I thought it would be faster to walk. We had a great little morning just the two of us. We sat at a beautiful cafe overlooking St Michel square and Notre Dame and enjoyed a EUR6.50 coffee. In my defence it was a very good cappuccino with magnificent froth! We had a little shop and walked home in time to meet Jas on the doorstep ready to pack the bags for the next chapter of our French adventure. Our next stop was Beaune, the capital ... read more
May 24th 2010
Beaune is a stone’s throw from Dijon and is also renowned for its mustard, but also for its wine. We began with a bit of a tour around the city which, like Sarlat, is a maze of winding little streets surrounded by a crystal clear stream. Under the former ramparts of Beaune are kilometers of underground tunnels which are now used to store wine. We visited the Patriarche Pere et Fils cellars which are the largest in Beaune. I can’t remember how many kilometers of cellars they have, however they store 6 million bottles of wine there so I’m presuming they’re quite long! This has got to be one of the best cellars to visit ever because they give you a complimentary “tastevin” (flat silvery cup to taste wine out of) and let you go on ... read more
May 21st 2010
DAY TWENTY FIVE The weather has definitely picked up we all wore three quarter pants and tops and no coats!! We have decided that Burgundy should be our time to relax before coming home and so today being Monday we decided to relax and just wander around. Jenny and I headed off and walked around the outside of the wall. We found the supermarket and just had a lazy morning. Robyn had a real lazy morning, waking at 11.00 and missing breakfast, meanwhile Pete had been out and about walking and taking photo's. Jenny and I decided to hop in the car and go for a drive around the villages around Beaune and to take a picnic lunch while Robyn and Pete decided to walk around Beaune. Our drive in the villages was great with many ... read more
