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Published: October 26th 2006
Salut tout le monde! More news from my travels through France coming your way...
La Bourgogne
I spent a fabulous weekend in La Bourgogne (Burgundy) with the International Club of Paris. Located about 250km to the southeast of Paris, Burgundy is one of the most famous wine-producing regions in the world...with reason! The heart of the region is the ancient city of Dijon, medieval seat of the Dukes of Burgundy. Its neighboring city, Beaune, is beautiful and well-known for its excellent red wine. In the extreme south of the region is Lyon, which used to be the artistic center of France back in the 1500s (???) and is still a very important city today.
For hundreds of years Burgundy was independently ruled by the Bourguignon kings, who included Phillip the Hardy and Charles the Good (or something like that). Their ducal seat was located in the Palais des Ducs in Dijon, and the Burgundians retain to this day a very strong sense of regional identity because of this history of autonomy.
An interesting anacdote about the region is that it was the Burgundians who actually betrayed Joan of Arc (heroine of the FRENCH nation, but not of Burgundy during the time period). They sold her to the English, who subsequently burned her at the stake. (See previous blog about Reims for more details). But that shameful action aside... 😉 ....Burgundy is today a much-loved region which has been integrated into the french system. It is a region with a lot of wonderful attributes which I had the pleasure of experiencing for myself this weekend.
Chablis
We started our tour of the region in the ancient town of Chablis, which is (you guessed it!) the place where the white wine named Chablis is made. The appelation is very strictly controlled, so only the wines that grow on the 6000 or so hectares in the immediate vicinity of the town are allowed to use the label 'Chablis'. A Chablis is a very dry, crisp white wine, and rather tricky to produce because the conditions in which it is grown are difficult. Chablis is in the extreme north of Bourgogne, so during the winter the frosts threaten to kills all the vines, and the tops of the hilltops are exposed to biting winds that stunt the growth of the vines. In addition, a very hot summer like the one in 2003 (hottest on record during the last 500 years) killed practically all of the vineyards, so that gives an idea of the elusiveness of this wine.
The village itself is very small and nestled in between gentle, rolling hills which are largely bare of trees but covered in vineyards. Through the town runs the small river Le Serein (the Serene) and most of the buildings are medeival. The church dates back to the 14th century, if I recall correctly, and the cave that we visited (an old house that has a wine-tasting cellar open to guests) was built in the 13th century. History is alive and breathing in Bourgogne! We took a little tour around the town (first with the big group of 25 or so to the church, and then I spent some time with my friends Ranna, Lucie, Yazi, and Dorothy). We had two hours to spend there, so during the second hour we got to participate in a 'dégustation du vin' (wine-tasting) in the cave.
There are four types of Chablis, in case you're interested: a Petit Chablis, a Chablis, a Premier Cru, and a Grand Cru. That's technically the order of worst-to-best tasting, although according to the experts it's more the name of the vineyard that makes the difference than the category. There are 7 grand cru labels, and these are the best because the vines are cultivated down in the valley, sheltered from the wind and cold. The wines get progressively 'worse' as you march up the hillside to the Petit Cru, which is grown on the crest of the hilltops. But I personnally thought the Petit Chablis and the Premier Cru were the two best, so who knows... go with your own personal preference.
Vézenay
Our next stop was the picturesque village of Vezenay, which I loved. It is adorable! Founded back in the early 1100s, this tiny village has known cyclic periods of highs and lows over the centuries, sometimes achieving wide-spread recognition, other times disappearing from the history books. The village takes its name from a Roman town which used to be located about 5-10 km away from the present side (Vicularum, or something like that) and was relocated from a velley a few km away up to an imposing butte of land in the Middle Ages. This was done to protect it from incursions of brigands and Normans, and today the village is on a rocky butte, surrounded by stone walls, with only one point of vehicle-access into the village itself (and one exit: it's a one-way main-street that runs right up the crest of the hill to the top of the hill and then exits to the side). There are only 200 people who live within the city walls, and another 400 who live outside of them on the hillside. And that's it.
Vezenay's historic claim to faim is the ownership of a holy relic: the (supposed) bones of Mary Magdalene...rib bones, to be precise. Vezenay was one of the points of debarkation for the Crusades during the 1000-1200s, and following one of the Crusades the holy relic was brought back to the town. Supposedly the King of Burgundy himself (or Duke, I forget, sorry) approved the creation of a cathedral to house this precious relic, and thus Vezenay received her glorious cathedrale. Built in only 20 years, the construction was begun around 1120 and everything was finished by 1170 or so (due to some late additions, etc). I think this is one of my favorite churches, because it is built largely in the older Roman style- barrel-vaulted ceilings rather than the Gothic arches. It is very plain and austere, because it was the cathedral of a very strict monastary, but it is a peaceful, somber, holy austerity, rather than a plain austerity. Perhaps I am more drawn to this style because of my Protestant/Lutheran background, but it seemed to me to be a very restful place.
The monastary that used to surround the cathedral (now largely disappeared) was founded by the King, who ceded the hilltop parcel of land to them way back in the 1100s. Originally it was given to nuns, but because of security reasons it was transferred to the monks. They were the protectors of the relic. Once upon a time, Eleanor of Aquitane stayed in a little house located just off the main square in front of the cathedral, because when her husband visited she was not allowed to sleep inside the walls of the monastary...queen or not! I thought that was interesting.
Vezenay was a very popular destination for many Christian pilgrims in Europe, especially those seeking forgiveness and purification, because Mary Magdalene is associated with the blessing of 'forgiveness of sin.' Thus, hordes of pilgrims converged on Vezenay between 1200-1400 AD, giving birth to a enterprising pilgro-tourism industry. This epoch was the most lucrative in the town's history. You can still see, today, the legacy of these pilgrims: the Coquille Saint Jaques, symbol of the Christian pilgrim, is all over the village: above door, on the names of restaurants, etc.
I think you get the idea that the village is adorable, and I could tell you more because we had a 2-hour guided tour (I know ALL about the relief-sculture above the main entrance to the nave of the church!) but you've probably heard enough now...
On to Dijon...
Dijon
It rained on the way to Dijon. Yuck. Luckily the bus was comfortable and I had lots of oh-so-interested biotechnology reports to read that kept me busy...
We arrived in about an 1 1/2, roughly 6 pm. After checking into our hotel, I went out to dinner with a bunch of girls I had either a) just met 5 minutes previously; b) met on a previous trip; c) knew from Georgetown. That's the magic of the International Club...
So we were Finnish, German, French, American, and Lebanese for dinner...eating in a little brasserie called the Admiral Rossin on a quiet little pedestrian street near the centre-ville. It was a rainy night, so the town was quiet, but we took a tour of the main cathedrals and the main square to benefit from the nighttime-views and had a good time. . We shared a good bottle of 2004 Bourgogne Pinot Noir (Gevrey-Chambertin), which is apparently quite a good house wine. A chocolate crepe after dinner and I was more than happy...but we made a little detour in a bar down the street from our hotel and had a drink to the extend the evening...so that was nice too. All in all, a fabulous day!!!
The next morning we woke to pea-soup fog which unfortunately lasted until our 1pm departure from Dijon. Nonetheless, intrepid tourists that we were, we visited the Cathedrale St. Etienne, the Cathedrale St. Michel, and the Cathedrale de Notre-Dame. If you rub the owl carving (la chouette) on the C. Notre Dame you supposedly will have good luck, so I made sure to do so...
We also visited the Palais des Ducs, which today houses the Musee des Beaux-Arts, a really excellent museum. Not only do you get to enjoy the splendor of the Ducal Palace, you also get to peruse a very nice collection of art, medeival to modern to African, in which Gericault, Picasso, Carriere, etc are all represented. I was impressed.
Following the museum visit we wasted a good hour or so in the tourist shop on the Place de la Liberte (main square of the town; site of the Palais des Duc) and I managed to spend too much, as usual. But I did invest in a great book called: "Les Vins de la France" (French Wines) which I hope will prepare me for my upcoming trips to Provence and Bordeaux. (Not to mention Rouen and Amsterdam, although these are not wine-producing regions!)
Dijon is famous for several things: le Palais des Ducs, honey, cassis, and, of course...mustard. (Sold everywhere!) But another thing that marked it as special (for me) are the brightly-colored mosaic-tiled roofs of the more elaborate buildings and cathedrals. Apparently these gorgeous roofs are also typical of Beaune, but they are really distinctive and I loved them...so keep an eye out if you ever go!
Abbaye de Fontenay
And now, to the end of our weekend...a little slice of paradise in the Boudrgogne countryside (which is just stunningly gorgeous and rural, btw- cows and vineyards everywhere). An hour and a half to the north of Dijon one can find the Cistercian abbey of Fontenay, founded in 1118 by St. Bernard. In the middle of nowhere, tucked up in a side valley a kilometer or two from a small country village, the Abbey is absolutely gorgeous and draws lots of tourists every year. It is one of the oldest Cistercian abbeys and is a UNESCO World Heritage site, today run and maintained by private owners. Check out the website for pictures:
http://www.abbayedefontenay.com/abbayedefontenay.htm
We had two hours to explore the abbey, and boy was that the perfect was to finish the weekend. For the first time all weekend we had sunny, crystal-clear skies and warm autumn sun, just enough to chase away the chill of the approaching winter. If that was the daily life of the monks, I can more than understand their willingess to leave the 'material world' and dedicate themselves to works of God...or appreciating nature, take your pick.
We gave ourselves a self-guided tour, and then I took a walk down a walking-trail that runs by the abbey for the last half-hour of our visit in order to profit from the gorgeous weather. If you live in Kennett Square, think of the Laurels...for the rest of you, just imagine a dirt path, winding back into tree-covered hills along the contours of a valley, sun shining, leaves turning, blue skies...what a day. It was wonderful to 'escape' from Paris for the weekend and see some Nature that isn't planted in diagonal rows...
Those are the highlights of my weekend in Bourgogne (believe me, I could have actually written more) and I hope it gave you a taste of the region. (If not the wine). Next excursion: a Saturday day-trip to Rouen, and then a week in Provence and a weekend in Amsterdam! I have two weeks of no class, so I intend to take full advantage...
Until next time!
~Robyn
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Gevrey Chambertin
This is your dad's favorite wine of all time. Glad you enjoyed it.