France: The Alsace and Burgundy Wine Regions..who's thirsty????

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Our long weekend roadtrip now brings us South and East to Colmar, France (Thanks, Rick Steves for the tip). We meandered the mideval streets, drank some great wine and even better food. With a mix of French and German influence, the food is awesome. We didn't get to stay (sob), but continued our trip to the center of France to the Burgundy wine region (Bourgogne). Our hotel was in the little wine town of Beaune, France...surrounded by vinyards, a wine cellar and french restaurant on every corner. I was a little unprepared for TRUE french cuisine, but once I deciphered the menu and summoned up my bravery, it was very good. Nate is a fearless eater, and tried escarot and all the smelly cheese he could find. Our hotel, " La Panarama" was just on the outskirts of town, completely surrounded by vineyards, directly on the Burgundy wine route...a stretch of road connecting all of these fabulous mideval wineries, each with a wine Chateau or little castle. We , of course, had to do some wine tasting and blissfully winded our way through the dungeon like, candle lit wine cellars ("caves")...one winding through an unearthed mideval chapel, complete with a sarcophagus in the corner (would have been creepy, if I hadn't already "sampled" quite a few of the regional favorites...hee,hee). We took it easy, and pretty much just ate and drank our way through the weekend. Beaune is only situation about 2 hours by car to Lausanne, but the drive home was beautiful, as we cross the Jura mountains right as we entered Switzerland,via Geneva.

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Photos

Colmar, France
a section of town called "Petite Venice", where all the houses and businesses are accessible by water.

the view from our window at "La Panarama"
grapes as far as the eye can see

FANCY!
Um,..I bought these glasses at a street bazaar (sans mirror), my spouse didn't have the heart to tell me that I looked ridiculous and slightly cross-eyed in them..his punishment is that I will wear them EVERYWHERE we go together, from now until the end of time.

Cluny, France
Abby in Horse Heaven...the horses here are very LARGE...Daddy found the girls an equestrian pitstop on our way home to Lausanne

pony rides
The BEST pony ride EVER...2 euro and the little French girls disappeared with our girls on pony-back for like 25 minutes. They were thrilled.

Dolce Vita
wall in Cluny, France...right on!