Mustard, wines and vines

5Wednesday 23rd  September

Well,  we have settled into being residents of Beaune very easily.

I am sitting in the tiny Laundromat across the road from Jude and Graeme's apartment with some of our clothes rotating madly in the enormous dryer. They have a washing machine, so I thought that if I was going to do the blog I might just as well dry the clothes at the same time,  to save having to drape them somewhere in the apartment.  Being a woman I am used to multi tasking!

We have been seeing the sights of Beaune and beyond.

On Monday Ewan and I visited the number one tourist attraction in Beaune: the Hotel- Dieu Hospices de Beaune aka The Hotel of God Hospices (at least 10 points for us in the Perfect Tourist Awards).  It was originally built in the 14th century by a wealthy philanthropist and his wife for the poor and sick of Beaune. It's a beautiful example of the colorful tiled roofs known as Burgundy roofs and we have seen many of them across the region. 

It's fascinating to see the combination of a hospital with a church, and the focus on making the place beautiful as well as functional: sadly missing in current hospitals. It must have been quite a shock for the poor of Beaune to be treated in such luxurious surroundings by such dedicated nuns. 
Displays of ancient medical instruments (described by an offhanded American tour guide as medieval torture instruments! !) and hundreds of old china pharmaceutical jars were fascinating.
There is a famous tryptych painted for the church and now stored in a special room to preserve it, but I was more impressed by a beautiful blue tapestry in the style known as1000 flowers. Gorgeous! And the audio guide gets a nine out of 10!

After being the perfect tourists Jude and Graeme took us to Cafe de L'Abattior for lunch which was quite a treat.  We have been hearing about it for some time so it was great to finally make it.  It is a very modest workers cafe - originally for abattoir workers. There is no choice and the courses go like this: salad with a couple of slices of ham,  terrine with pickles and cocktail onions (which arrives in a huge earthenware pot), huge pork kebabs with noodles, a cheeses platter and dessert (pineapple cream). Everything is plonked down in front of you with no ceremony.  Both the terrine and the cheese platter are whisked away and given to someone else when you have finished.
We loved it!

After having walked the ramparts every morning I still had no idea where the No. 2 attraction was: the Parc de La Bouzaize.  So to remedy the situation Jude and Graeme took us for a walk there in the afternoon.  It was a lovely river, which actually flows under Beaune, and and a very nice lake and gardens surrounded by, of course, acres of grapevines. As we sat contemplating our navels, and admiring the geese and ducks
a creature crawled out of the Lake.  I think it was probably a large water rat so we beat. a hasty retreat, as did the birds!

On Tuesday we set off for Dijon on the train,  the boys brought their bikes and the girls brought their credit cards. ..and the tourist map!!
At the station we farewelled the boys to ride back to Beaune (60kms!!). Jude and I followed the Owl trail which takes you around the sights of the town.  Unfortunately (not!) the tour was interrupted by shopping as soon as we set sights on a Galeries La Fayette store.  Jude bought two dresses and we happily browsed the shops before setting off to find the brass owls in the pavement and ticking off the important sights.

Except for three churches ( we've overloaded on them!) we saw everything that was required, even rubbing the left shoulder of a lucky owl.   Dijon is a very impressive city with some magnificent old buildings and a beautiful square surrounded by an old Palace and substantial buildings.

Our tour included a couple of mustard shops including the Maille shop,  so we tasted lots of mustards of every favor and colour,  including plain old Dijon mustard. Our favorite was honey and balsamic mustard - delicious.  Most of the mustard is actually made in Beaune ( and thus is cheaper) so we tasted a lot but bought very little.

The boys managed to make it back to Beaune and we had a quiet night whilst Graeme installed his Apple TV.

The washing is done so I will publish this blog now, and update the rest of our doings soon,

Your clean and dry correspondent

Dianne