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Published: October 4th 2009
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Thursday - No KFC or Maccy D
Calais to Beaune
I have the whole day to drive from Calais down to Beaune - a journey of about 360 miles - so I can make a fairly leisurely day of it. Following Bernadette’s excellent petit déjeuner I load up the car, thank Francis and Bernadette with words chosen randomly from several European languages, and head south-east towards Beaune. My route takes me around the Paris ring road thankful that I have the calming voice of Ken on my satnav to guide me - I really MUST stop off at Paris one day. The motorways in France are less congested but are more expensive than I expected. I thought I would be using up a few Euros in loose change at the payagebut the tolls for the whole journey come to about €40. I decided long ago that I wanted to do this journey by car - perhaps a one-day journey by train or plane would actually be cheaper?
Vineyards
I arrive
at Beaune and have no difficulty in finding Nick and Anne’s house, arriving just in time for the fish and egg stew that Nick is preparing! Beaune is quite a small town. From the house we go for a walk and it’s only about a 10 minute walk up to the vineyards and 5 minutes into the town centre.
Beaune is at the centre of the wine industry in the region, there is one of the few wine schools in France just over the road from Nick and Anne’s house. Our walk up to the vineyards gives me a quick introduction to the grapes in the region. Most of the vineyards are designated as ‘Premier Cru’ and the grapes, mostly Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, are used to produce some of Burgundy’s better wines. This designation is given to about 10%!o(MISSING)f Burgundy’s vineyards and seems to be dependant on soil-type, altitude, orientation and the local climate. The grapes from the other fields are more likely to find their way into a bottle of Tesco’s Burgundy. I have arrived in Beaune at the time of the <em style="font-size:
1.4rem;">vendange, the grape picking season, and we can see that it has already started in the fields near us.
Beaune
A short walk from the vineyards takes us right into the centre of Beaune. As well as being a centre of the wine industry, Beaune is also a tourist centre. The town sells itself as an “up-market” tourist destination with the attractions of the vineyards and wine cellars and also the history of the town as the original home of the Dukes of Burgundy. To maintain this image the town has made the decision not to allow any chain stores or fast food restaurants to trade in the centre of town - there can’t be many other towns that have done that! Supermarkets and burger bars have been discreetly banished to the edge of town and are well hidden - indeed Nick reports that on several occasions he has seen lost American tourists wandering aimlessly around the industrial estates looking for their favourite junk food. It does mean that the town has a unique character without any of the familiar {French} high street stores but I’m sure it means it will be an expensive place for Nick and Anne to live.
Unable to find a cheeseburger, we settle for drinking some French beers outside one of the cafés in the centre of town - it’s still quite warm in Beaune at this time of year.
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