Blogs from Beaune, Burgundy, France, Europe - page 2

Thursday 7 July 2016 Warm sunshine greeted us yet again this morning. After breakfast, Neville drove us to Beaune, about a 30 minute drive south from Dijon. The main reason for this trip was to visit the old hospice, the Hotel-Dieu, a palace for the poor. There is now a new hospital in the area but its forebear has never been forgotten. The words from a booklet, ‘In the Footsteps of the Dukes of Burgundy’ describe it this way…. “With its world-famous, annually held wine auction, the Hotel-Dieu in Beaune is also an amazing charitable institution. Founding it was a remarkably astute political move by Nicolas Rolin, chancellor to Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, who bestowed it on the inhabitants of Beaune in 1443. It was intended to provide them with relief in times of ... read more

Steadily heading north we finally bit the bullet and rang Eurotunnel. We got a crossing for Thursday at 1.19 which gives us a day to get to Beaune and visit the town, another day to get a few hours from Calais and a short hop, skip and a jump on Thursday morning for the train . £43 paid that was the easy bit. The hard bit was trying to contact them. The British number would not work neither would the french one. We tried times many and got various messages in French which we could not understand or got a beep and then silence. Never had this before. Still there is a first time for everything. Eventually after much trying , many permutations of the numbers the nice man the other side answered and took our ... read more

3 Countries, 6 Trains and 11 hours later we have arrived in the heart of Burgundy country. What a trip! We went to Milan, past Lake Maggiore in the north of Italy, Lake Thunersee in Switzerland. Past Bern and finally Basel. Then over to Dijon and a short hop to Beaune. Saw some snow covered mountains and quaint Swiss homes right out of Heidi stories. One train we took got up to almost 200 miles per hour.... read more

Maanantaiaamuna pakattiin ja tiskattiin ja Jaakko haki vielä leipomosta aamupalaa ja vei roskat kierrätykseen. Sitten ajeltiin tosi kapeaa ja mutkittelevaa tietä Morvanin kansallispuiston hienon metsikön, muutaman pikkukylän ja Lormesin kaupungin läpi. Saulieu’ssä pysähdyttiin kahvilaan (oli muuten sekin jostain 1600-luvulta) ruokkimaan Liliania taas purkkiruualla. On varsinainen gourmet-matka ollut hänelle, kun purkkiruokaa vaan vetää... Ei ehditty tai jaksettu tehdä talollakaan kuin yksi satsi ruokaa. No, Ranskassa vauvojen purkkiruuat on kyllä monipuolisempia kuin Suomessa. Mutta puuroa ei ole sitten minkäänlaista ja Suomesta mukana tuodut hiutaleet ovat loppuneet. Kummitädiltä on tilattu lisää puurohiutaleita ja ne pitäisi saada kun nähdään Tarasconissa 15.7. Aamu- ja iltapalaksi markkinoidaan vielä yksivuotiaillekin kaikenmaailman kaakaon- tai keksinmakuisia, maitoon liuotettavia ja... read more

There are times when one must lead and there are times when one must follow. I was definitely contented to play second fiddle on a work trip to Burgundy with my company's head buyer, Neil Sommerfelt. He is a Master of Wine - the highest academic qualification for wine available. There are currently exactly 300 Masters of Wine - and many more people have managed to scale Everest than have beaten the infamously fiendish MW exams and the universally feared blind-tastings. I am a few rungs down the ladder from Neil, but I still managed to get the gig as his right-hand-man. I was determined to play a significant role as Neil engaged in a two day break-neck pace tour of ten wineries in two days, as I could offer the extremely useful "ignorant person" point-of-view. ... read more