Blogs from Burgundy, France, Europe - page 4

Earlier in the week, during my tour of Cote de Nuit, I asked my tour guide, Alexis, about what days are good to do the various things I had planned. One of her recommendations was to visit Dijon on Saturday because the markets are on and all the shops are open. So I took her advice and pencilled in Dijon for Saturday, even though neither markets nor shops held much interest for me. When it came to Saturday, I struggled to get motivated. Not only was the prospect of markets not working for me, with the wifi not working in my hotel room I had started watching the television and the only two English tv channels are BBC One and Two. Even though the tv shows weren’t particularly interesting, it was mesmerising and I chilled out ... read more

My wine experiences up to now have been almost exclusively Australian. I have had little experience with French wine before this trip, and my knowledge was limited and only theoretical up to now. I knew they did things differently here, but I thought it was all unnecessarily confusing and limiting, and their classifications kind of arbitrary. I now know better. I don’t know if it’s better than what is done in Australia, but there is a logic to it that I can appreciate. I have just spent two days visiting the Cote de Beaune and Cote de Nuit, the two major wine regions in Burgundy. Cote de Beaune is in the south and predominantly grows chardonnay grapes, while Cote de Nuit is in the north and has more pinot noir. One of the first surprising facts ... read more

oui le retour... mais sans se presser et visiter encore... le jeu de piste peut donc recommencer ! Après le Mt St Michel en Bretagne, l'endroit que nous visiterons aujourd'hui nous est connu mais sans trop nous y être attardés la dernière fois... Aujourd'hui, nous prenons notre temps ! Une ville à taille humaine qui a tout d'une "grande". Positionnée au nord du département d’Ille et Vilaine en bordure immédiate de la baie du Mont St Michel, elle se situe à égale distance (25 km) de St Malo et de la « Merveille de l’Occident ». La présence de son imposante cathédrale (XII et XIII siècles) rappelle le passé prestigieux de cette métropole religieuse (archevêché durant trois siècles) dans laquelle plus de 70 évêques se sont succédé jusqu’à la Révolution. Par la qualité de son patrimoine ... read more

Our next stops Dijon the city of the Mustard. We had a problem leaving Nimes for at the breakfast the coffee machine did not work so we sat there waiting to get some coffee before we left for a long journey. It was 527 kilometres to Dijon. We left with good weather but that deteriorated later in the day. We even had rain later that slows the traffic down. A few nature stops were necessary as well that gave us the chance to have a coffee or something else. The last stop we had 140 kilometres to go so we were getting close. We arrived at 6.30 p.m. Again we had a problem getting the room we ordered but that was sorted out. To late we ate in the restaurant. Had a good meal there. Than ... read more

Spare of the moment canal boat cruise. My uncle and aunty from Australia were visiting and mentioned how fabulous their trip had been. We had a look and Le boat had a boat available from Tannay, 4 hours 40mins drive from Geneva. Tannay is near Dijon and we decided we would jump at it. The boat was comfortable, a 2 star so I'm told. 3 cabins with 2 beds in each, a large living space and smallish kitchen and 3 bathrooms. It is advertised as a 'no experience' necessary, and seeing as Murray has a lot of boating experience we thought we would be able to manage. Thankfully I didn't think about the trip too much, if I had I would have realised with Murray driving it meant I was walking around the boat and dealing ... read more