Beaune - Le MOT

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Tuesday - Le MOT and the Wine Museum

Le MOT

It’s a test of our ability to speak French this morning. Nick and Anne’s car has to go in for the French equivalent of its MOT, the “Controle Technique” test this morning. Anne speaks far better French than either of us and would be the obvious person to attempt a conversation with the mechanic. But she has earned a lie-in this morning - she has been working picking grapes for the last few days and has been out celebrating the end of the Vendange last night.
Nick takes the car in early and we arrange that I will take Anne to the garage later as she has far more chance of understanding the French equivalent of “Sorry mate, your front head gasket’s gone” and “Which cowboy serviced this for you then? Hehehhe”.
Fortunately the only problem is with the headlights - although they have the headlight adaptors for driving in Europe, they will have to get new headlights to pass the “Controle Technique”. In the French version of the MOT the test only has to be done once every two years and you have two months to correct any faults before it needs to be re-tested. The test cost €76 though!

Palais de Duc again!

In the afternoon we visit the Wine Museum in Beaune. We are again at a Palais de Duc but this time we are at the Palace in Beaune which was the original capital of Burgundy. I find the museum hard work, but that’s probably due to my lack of French. I think I’ve been spoiled by the other alcohol-related museums I’ve been to such as the Guinness museum in Dublin and the Heineken in Amsterdam. These are both museums which have obviously had a lot of money invested in them and are there to attract people in and entertain them as much as inform them. The poor wine museum in Beaune has not had a lot of money spent on it and resembles some of the old British museums with artefacts in glass cases. It seems quite a few people in Beaune don’t know the museum is here.
There is a lot of information there about the geology and climate of the area and about the history of winemaking but not a lot of “hands on” stuff - it’s probably not the sort of place to take small kids {or very old kids!} to. There is a lot of information there but most of the information in the displays is in French and, although there are some translations, I had to work hard to understand it. The most interesting bit for me was some of the old larger equipment in the courtyard.

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Photos

The Palais De Duc, Beaune
Now the wine museum