A weekend in Beaune

Brussels has once again proved to be worth its weight in gold for its central location.

A few weekends ago V, his parents and I hopped in the car and drove south into France for a wine-filled weekend. Our first stop was Beaune, in the heart of Bourgogne, and then up to Reims in the champagne region.

I’m fortunate to have grown up near the napa valley, and feel right at home in wine country, even French wine country. If I closed my eyes while walking near the vines, I might as well have been in CA. But with eyes open I was surrounded by the beauty of quaint French villages with traditional red roofs and prominent church steeples. Lovely. Really lovely.

Beaune is a very charming, small city with an enormous historical site, the hospices de baune (Hotel Dieu).

The hospices were created in 1443 as a hospital, and have been beautifully restored to show how they originally would have functioned.

The roof shown here is typical of this period in Bourgogne, and we saw similar roofs dotted throughout the country side (including a great castle…but more on that later).

Of course my favorite part of visiting the hospices was seeing the kitchen and hearing about the foods fed to the patients. Apparently beef was reserved for those with strong constitutions a couple of times a week, while poultry was more suitable for people of 'weaker stock.' Sounds about right.

We filled the rest of our time in Beaune visiting the caves (wine cellars) and tasting lots of great Bourgogne wine. Luckily for V and I, the Bourgogne region predominantly grows our two favorite wine grapes: pinot noir and chardonnay. We were quite happy to taste, and taste and taste.

The silver cup there is what we used to taste -- traditional-type wine cup from umpteen years ago

We went to two big wine houses, Chateau Pommard and Chateau Mersault, which both had beautiful buildings, caves and tastings.

Chateau Pommard

Chateau Pommard had some very cool original Dali sculptures, like that elephant you see back there.

Chateau Mersault

Then we stopped by a castle from the 1200’s. No big deal.

There's that roof again...

I am the kind of person that searches out the little guys. The local producers whose products you can only buy locally. And V and I were in search of some good wines that were budget friendly to bring back with us. Merge these two ideals, and you end up in a tiny basement wine cellar tasting wines with the winemaker. We founds a nice white and a red, and bought plenty to bring home. Loved supporting the small operation, and coming away with some great wines for a great price.

No photos of the small winemaker...so here's another from chateau pommard...

This was all capped off by staying in a very lovely hotel in the direct center of Beaune. Would definitely return here again! Its the first french hotel I've stayed in that had an enormous bathroom with all of the amenities (hellooo nice hair dryer and towels, this American was very happy to see you!). 

It goes without saying that we enjoyed some delicious food in Bourgogne, including at this unassuming place on the corner (green awning). Great food, convivial atmosphere, moderate prices, good wine. Wouldn't expect anything less in France.

And when we'd had our fill of pinot noir and chardonnay, we hopped in the car and headed to the Champagne region. Part II…the champagne region…coming soon to a theater near you…