More Wine Tasting in Beaune

On Tuesday, we left our beautiful house in Provence and the wonderful hospitality of our hostess, Annie, to drive Beaune--a town in the heart of Burgundy wine country (home of the Pinot grapes). We decided to stop first in the town of Vaison la Romaine, in order to experience a true Provencial market. It is one of a few towns given the official status of a "Market" town and draws hundreds of locals and tourists alike from neighboring towns every Wednesday for huge Farmers' Market and Artisan fair. In addition to the fresh produce, homemade bread, dried sausages, cheese, olive oil, honey, Provencial herbs, linens, and jewelry, there were also a variety of flea market type booths selling "antiques" and cheap designer clothes. We spent some time enjoying the sights, smells, and sounds of the market and did some shopping. We bought some fresh food to have for a picnic lunch later.

When we arrived in Beaune, the weather was much cooler, so we decided to play it by ear rather than planning a busy itinerary for Wednesday. We ate dinner the first night in Beaune at a small wine shop that has a communal table and pay a 5 Euro corkage fee (rather than paying the hefty restaurant markup). We enjoyed yet another exquisite meal, and got to try the regional specialty, Beef Bourgonogne (beef slow roasted in a burgundy wine sauce).

Thursday, we decided to have a leisurely day of sight-seeing and wine tasting. After breakfast, we walked to the Hotel Dieu, a former Hospice built during the time of the black plague. The hospice is now a museum and held some interesting artifacts (including all the instruments used for blood-letting and a pharmacy filled with medicinal herbs). Later that afternoon, we decided to skip the vineyards and went straight to a local retailer for our tasting of Burgundy wines. The wine store we went to allowed us to walk through their cellars and taste 15 different wines for a small tasting fee. You would think this would be a wine-lovers' dream. Unfortunately, we were mostly disappointed with the Burgundy wines we tasted and did far more spitting than consuming. Out of the 15, I would say only 1 or 2 were likeable enough to drink. Maybe our pallettes were adapted to the Bordeaux wines, but even the cheap Cote du Rhone wine we got at the grocery store was better than most of the Pinot varieties. We did stop in the cathedral in town on our walk back to the hotel, but due to the cold, wet weather (I guess it's finally Fall here), we decided to call it a day. After all, we have to pack all of our stuff tonight and find room for our souveniers.

Tomorrow, we drive back to Paris, where we will drop the Farmers off before catching our plane to Manchester. Although we have had a wonderful vacation and enjoyed it even more with our friends, we are all ready to say Au Revoir to France and look forward to going back home (for us, via Anthony's home in England) to our family and friends.