Blogs from Beaune, Burgundy, France, Europe - page 4

Well after a hectic couple of days in the middle of France in the Burgundy wine district, you find you correspondents winging our way back (by train) to Paris then straight through to Bruges in Belgium for the next two nights. Our two days with Debbie and Phil in Pommard and surrounds were fantastic – if a little hectic. They proved excellent hosts and nothing was too much trouble for them as they organised meals and Phil drove us around the district on the first day. The accommodation was first class as they have done a terriffic job in fitting out the apartment. It is most impressive. Yesterday, after we organised the balance of our holiday on the net, Chris and I took off on foot among the vineyards and into and around Beaune and back ... read more

Today I took the girls for an early walk to get our morning croissants and to my delight, the weekly markets were on. How perfect! After a yummy French breakfast, Brett, Alana and I shopped for our Christmas Eve ingredients at the local markets. We got everything from our fruits and vegetables to the roast, meat, cheese and baguettes. Not only was the produce first class, the price was outstanding and the taste sweeter, juicier, creamier than anything I’ve tasted in Australia for some time. For lunch we nibbled on our olives, baguettes and prosciutto whilst drinking some lovely red. Dinner was a beautiful roast pork lovingly cooked by Brett and Alana. Dessert was local patisseries of tarte citron, tarte frambois and tarte tartin (lemon, raspberry and apple tarts). Of course this was washed down with ... read more

Beaune is a stone’s throw from Dijon and is also renowned for its mustard, but also for its wine. We began with a bit of a tour around the city which, like Sarlat, is a maze of winding little streets surrounded by a crystal clear stream. Under the former ramparts of Beaune are kilometers of underground tunnels which are now used to store wine. We visited the Patriarche Pere et Fils cellars which are the largest in Beaune. I can’t remember how many kilometers of cellars they have, however they store 6 million bottles of wine there so I’m presuming they’re quite long! This has got to be one of the best cellars to visit ever because they give you a complimentary “tastevin” (flat silvery cup to taste wine out of) and let you go on ... read more

DAY TWENTY TWO Today we all had different things planned. Robyn, Peter and Jenny were all going to the Louvre, but as I have already been twice I decided to hire a bike and ride around the city. Robyn and Pete set off early to start their exploring day and Jenny and I went to organise the bike. They have a great system in Paris where you can hire a bike off an electronic stand, ride the bike and then drop it off anywhere you like, but it took us about 45 minutes to work out what to do! We put all the information in but couldn't get the bike off the rack but finally we managed to do it and viola there I was with my bike. It was great fun and my scooter riding ... read more

Day four: Going to Beaune Today started early. Our room in our charming little hotel faced the street. They started emptying garbage cans around 5:00 AM. Of course, we both woke up and started the day. The best way I can describe the bathing situation is to say that it was a tub/shower. There was a tub, and a hand held shower nozzle, but there was no shower curtain. The best we could do was to squat in the tub, and spray our bodies. Larry had to help me rinse my hair, which was hysterical. I washed my hair before I realize that the blow-dryer was really a vacuum cleaner hose (see pix). (I forgot to mention that the first day in Stuttgart I turned my hair dryer on and it immediately burned out). We ... read more