Bonjour France!
The next day, through our bus window we waved goodbye to Switzerland, but quickly switched focus to our last country that we would be visiting…France. On our road trip Rolinka gave us great information about France, the European Union and we even learned some French survival words. We arrived in our overnight stop in the late heat of the day in the Burgundian town of Beaune and quickly settled in our room. Rolinka then toured us around Beaune featuring the Hotel Dieu from the 1300’s, a hospice and hospital for the poor. The Hotel Dieu is a two story building with a detailed painted ornate roof top and a surrounding courtyard. A main attraction here is the famous Altarpiece called The Last Judgement by the Flemish artist Rogier van der Weyden. Back when this was an active hospital those sick and dying could gaze upon this masterpiece and be reminded what soon would be their fate….for all the details check it out online (Beaune Altarpiece).
Beaune and the Hotel Dieu
Wine Tasting
After some free time, we all met once again as a group and
entered an underground wine cellar filled with hundreds of vintage bottles of
wine for some wine tasting. We became
quite the connoisseurs even detecting “hints of licorice” in the wine that the vintner
said would be detected by “the mature palette”! Guess all our sampling of wine over the past 3
weeks has matured our palettes!
Our First French Dinner & Evening in France
Dinner was on our own, so we decided to try out our French
skills by ordering from the French menu at a nearby restaurant! Gord did really well and was happy with his
choice of Escargot and Beef Bourguignon .
Julie really did not know what she was ordering and ended up with a
plate full of octopus! Not again! Brushing up on those French skills a bit more
would have been helpful! Mark it down to
an experience! After a leisurely dinner
at this wonderful sidewalk café, we slowly strolled back to our hotel, taking
in the sites of Beaune at night where certain buildings were lit up with laser
lights.
On to Paris!
(We'll cover French old world charm on the Post-Tour Paris page)