Beautiful Beaune

Wednesday 18th May

Perfect picnic spot

Some days it's not worth writing anything at all. Today can be summed up by these phrases: Still struggling with the flu, Ewan drove the back roads from Lyon to Beaune, had picnic lunch by a peaceful green canal, arrived Beaune, had a ramble around, bought food for dinner, ate pasta, went to bed.

It is better when you aren't well to be staying somewhere familiar , and Jude and Graeme's attic apartment in Beaune is very comfortable, and we have stayed here before, so we settled in easily. The 68 steps to reach the attic (Tony had counted them when they stayed here!) were a bit of a trial as I'm not breathing too well!

The view into the courtyard at Jude and Graeme's apartment , complete with cat.

Thursday 19th May

I was still not well and, despite the medicine I had been sold by a pharmacy along the way, felt no better. It's interesting to know that when I researched it, it was homeopathic medicine which is commonly used for colds and flu here, but has no evidence to show that it works - and it didn't. So I went to the pharmacy early armed with information about what I wanted (in French) and was given the French equivalent of Codral. It's called Fervex and is a powder which you mix with water. Definitely more effective ! ( I'm including it in the blog in case this ever happens again and I need to remember what to take!)

We decided to visit Dijon for the day as Ewan hadn't visited last time we stayed in Beaune.

On the way we stopped to look at a medieval chateau built by a Bishop in 1550. Surrounded by vines as it has always been, Chateau du Clos Vougeot was very interesting particularly as it still had some of the massive old wooden wine presses from centuries ago and a kitchen fireplace big enough to cook an ox in!

Anyone fancy cooking an ox for dinner?

Dijon is a great example of a large old town where there are wide boulevards, well-preserved old buildings and some huge stone buildings to demonstrate the wealth of the city. The main shopping area is set in the old town and even the new buildings don't clash with the old. So it's a very pleasant place to wander around, do a bit of shopping, have some lunch and spend a few hours. And I almost forgot....taste some mustard!

Being the adventurers we are, we decided to go back and look for the Abbaye de Notre Dame de Citeaux: we'd seen a sign as we drove to Dijon and thought it might be interesting. We arrived to find a huge set of farmhouse buildings and an active monastery of about 20 monks who are Trappists, or Cistercians of the Strict Observance. 

The canal

The sun was shining and to reach the entrance there was an a avenue of tress alongside a 7 mile canal dug by the monks to irrigate their grape vines centuries ago. The history of the Order was described in plaques as you wandered down the Avenue and it had been a tempestuous one. Started in 1098 they had endured pillaging, wars, the plague, over the centuries and the place had been derelict for a hundred years and used as a stone quarry too. It seems that every old building in France is used as a stone quarry at some point in its lifetime. I guess it's easier than digging the stone out of the ground!
 But now it is a thriving farm worked by the monks who live there. 

The rules of the Order were displayed with photos of the monks, and they were tough - both the rules and the monks!. Periods of silence, getting up in the middle of the night to pray (except for mid-winter when it snows and you're allowed to stay in bed until 8am!), long hours of work, spartan conditions etc . The guided tours of the place are conducted in French with English written information, and you can't just wander around on your own. Given that I wasn't 100% and our experiences with French tours is that you get only a fraction of the information on the written sheets, we decided to give it a miss as you could see lots of the buildings anyway. However we did visit the shop as there was a lot of produce from other Abbayes as well as this one including wine, cereals, jam, biscuits. This Abbaye is best known for their cheese , which we bought and enjoyed.

When we returned to Beaune I did a slow walk around the town wall as it would be unacceptable to be here and not do this lovely walk.

On Liz's recommendation about Boeuf Bourguignon ( Beef Burgundy) I booked us in for dinner at La Part Des Anges ( 24 Rue dÁlsace) and it was great.  Very flavoursome and tender: fabulous. And to top it off I ordered caneles for dessert and tiny ones arrived warm from the oven with caramel ice cream: bliss! And Ewan's souffle with Grand Marnier was equally good apparently. The waiter from the bouchon in Lyon would have approved about using grand Marnier for this purpose I'm sure.

Your recovering and very full correspondent

Dianne