Beaune #1 - historical place: Burgundy, France

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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.

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Photos

Our Place
Actually, our place is the row of 5 windows (2 more not shown) on second level. A renovated apartment, part of a very old “bourgeois” building dating back to the 15th century.

Place Carnot
Centre of town - always busy at lunch time & of an evening. Had sunset drinks here a few times.

Busy Saturday Markets
Masses of people came to the town centre on Saturday mornings - parking was full, streets crowded - found later, this was the best day of the week to buy fresh fruit & veggies.

Market Cheeses
Huge range of cheeses to try and buy - great prices,too.

Cured Meats
Thought they were sausages at first, but cured meats of all kinds of beast - like the cheeses, out in the sun.

Front door to Beaune
Gate of St Nicholas reminded us of the Arc de Triomphe.

Burgundian roof tiles
At the 'Castle' entrance to Beaune stood this building with glazed roof tiles typical of 16th century wealth - ie. only on chateaux or opulent structures.

Outside the Walls
This little river flowed into town, disappeared under the walls, then emerged again on the other side of town.

Chateau Meursault Cellars
The 'caves' under a chateau in Burgundy were usually home to the estate wines. This complex of cellars held 800,000 bottles and many barrels of maturing wine!

Wine Tasting
A 3.5hr wine tour included wine tastings under 2 chateaux. After sampling whites in one cellar we'd be moved on to another dim 'cave' to try reds - quite an atmosphere.

Pre Hike Lunch
Shared this plate of pate, hams, cheeses, salad & crusty bread at a quaint little restaurant in a tiny country village - before a walk.

Walk Guide
The Beaune region had a series of 25 self guided country walks - all walks started with a map like this.

Above Bouillon
This first walk took us up steep, wooded tracks high above our starting point, Bouillon. Liittle yellow markers painted on rocks and trees were our guide.

Vineyard Walk
The next day we did a vineyard hillside walk from a little village called Puligny – Montrachet. Some of area's premium grapes are grown here.

Guiding Marks
These are the yellow marks that led us through the network of roads and paths that crossed the vineyards. Here, they've sent Jan up a hill, forest bound.

View from the Top
Another panorama - this time a distant view of St Albans in a neighbouring valley - from here the track was mostly downhill much to our legs' delight.

Un Diner Francais
Beaune had a few shops that gave us the chance to have French cuisine at home - here, Coquilles St Jacques with Escargot after a starter of pate de fois and hot crusty bread.

Century 21 in France
Wow - Hacky's company hard at work selling properties in rural France.

The Property for Sale
Wonder how Hacky would advertise this - 'Renovators' Delight'? - 'Land Value Only' - 'Cosy Country Cottage for the First Home Buyer'. ???

Chateau de la Rochepot
Great tour through this historic castle. Jan stood on the draw bridge and banged a metal knocker for us to be let in - then every door was unlocked for us to enter and locked behind us - very valuable artifacts.

View from Chateau
This is typical French village scenery - always clustered around a church spire.

Another great lunch
Shared 3 entrees at the local hotel - a glass of wine - surprised by cost of Jan's water - 6 Euro - but, perfect weather for lunch out in the country.

Chateau de Coraboeuf
Our Chateau crawl led us through beautiful countryside to Ivry-en-Montagne, and this 12th century castle - amazing history, lovely stroll through estate - free :)

Comments

[Lynn]

Beautiful
It looks absolutely beautiful!! It always amazes me to see these uncrowded spots when they have so may people!! Those lunches are making my mouth water

[Colin Sutherland]

Photos to date have been inspirational. We had rain in NYC but it did not stop us from making the most of the city ! The hop on Hop off buses provide ponchos. Given latest developments re Osama - keep safe and be aware of your suroundings Ciao Colin

[Ian]

Bonne Beaune!
Fabulous! Seems the great spring weather continued for you. I like the look of those caves. Beaune was a great choice to hang out for a week!