Burgundy

Its Mrs Botticelli here for a change. I get to write this post because I loved the Burgundy region so much. It is so green with lots of trees and space and there are a few hills to give the landscape character. But most of all there are these cute little ramshackle villages everywhere that seem fairly run down and deserted until about 6pm when everyone seems to come out on the streets talking to their neighbours and perhaps tending to their colourful wee flower gardens.

We drove to Beaune (pronounced bone) on the 15th after our lovely visit to Chartres. We arrived late at night and stayed at a rural hotel, Hotel de Clos, which was cute, and then did a quick explore of Beaune the following morning.

Hotel de Clos

The one notable place we explored was the Hotel-Dieu des Hospices de Beaune which was founded in 1443 and used as a hospital until 1971. It had a chapel right next to the beds so the sick didn't have to stumble far to pray, and its own pharmacy. Parts of it are still used as a retirement hospital.

Hotel Dieu des Hospices de Beaune

Hospice beds

Pharmacy

David was desperate for a game of golf by the afternoon after no golf for about a week - poor boy was experiencing withdrawal symptoms. So for both our piece of mind we set off on the 16th for a game of golf at the Chateau de Chailly. We met up with 3 other guys at the course and David played 18 holes while I walked around and admired the scenery and played official photographer. One of the players was the Pro for the club and we got on really well with him. He was so sweet and gave us a bottle of his home made pickled cherries! Perhaps this was because David beat him (David told me to put this bit in - cause its not every day you beat a pro golfer! I think the Pro must have been having a really bad day). We swapped cards with the promise if he ever comes to NZ David will take him on a golf tour around the country (any excuse......).

David playing golf at Chateau de Chailly

After golf we headed to our next abode, Chateau de Roches, on a hilltop amongst a ramshackle village the Mont-Saint-Jean, restored and run as a B&B by a couple of guys, Marco (German) and Tobias (Swiss). This place was heaven on earth! Marco cooked up a wonderful 4 course meal for dinner and we shared it with two American guys and Jaroline (a lovely Canadian women having a break from Moscow where she and her husband are living). The next day was a bit slow, starting with a wee sleep in and getting into the swing of the relaxing atmosphere of the region.

Chateau de Roches

We then headed off to explore another local hilltop village, the Chateauneuf, where we had (escargots aside) a terrible lunch (serves us right for eating in a touristy place) before heading off to the Cote d'Or vineyards. There are so many of these wonderful medieval hilltop villages dotted around the Burgundy region, its just fabulous.

Chateauneuf

Chateauneuf

We did some wine tasting at the Grevelly-Chambertin village (very famous wines from there) before deciding it was all above us and our limited wine knowledge. So we headed back to Beaune and bought some yummy food from the little specialty shops there (I have not seen one big supermarket in France) that we took back to our room and ate for dinner.

After an early evening we got up early to a spectacular sun rise in the morning and headed off on our long journey (4 hours) to Saint Remy in the Provence region.

Photo of the day:

Escargots at Chateuneuf

Its just like NZ really