On to Burgundy

Sadly we had to depart the Alsace today, but I'm very glad that I was able to talk Dawn into letting us come back here for a couple of days.

Since our trip today was not a long one, we decided to take a little detour into Besancon, which has a UNESCO World Heritage designation because of its fortified citadel sitting atop the town. We discovered, however, that it was not easy to get near it by car and only organized excursions up the hill appeared possible. So instead, we stopped at a Super U for fuel and lunch - not exactly a UNESCO site.

At a rest centre along the highway, they were displaying this Peugeot concept car - gotta get me one of these!

Slightly after noon, we rolled into Beaune, for a brief walkabout. We normally end up here on market day, so very rarely see much of the town other than the market area. Today, without market, we wandered a little further afield and remarked on the variety of well preserved buildings. Becuase it's always been at the centre of the Burgundy wine market, this is a very wealthy city.


Of course, it's impossible to stay out of the wine shops and in this one I found some perfect wine to celebrate my birthday.


By mid afternoon we rolled across the moat into our castle accomodations for the next 2 nights. As usual, this place is still sadly short of money for what could end up being massive restorations. Or maybe they just have different priorities. In this area that would equal wine and it's as expensive as it is fabulous.

Oh look! There's the princess in her castle room.


Tonight, we decided to dine somewhere in Nuits St. Georges, which is only a couple of kilometres from the chateau. On the way out of the main gate, what did we see in the moat - goats.
OK sing along with me now:
There are goats in the moat dear Liza dear Liza
There are goats in the moat dear Liza, two goats

Monday night in Nuits St. Georges on the last day of May is D.E.A.D. We wondered whether any restaurant would open, but we did get into Restaurant des Cultivateurs and for most of our dinner, we were the only show in town.

This place had a pretty fowl decor - pun intended! There were not only 6 grand parrots in a huge cage, but all sorts of fowl pictures, sculpture and decoration. We're pretty sure the live birds wouldn't cut it in an Ontario restaurant. We had the classic tourist fare - escargots, beef bourgignon and creme brulee with a nice red Cotes de Nuits. I actually sucked it up before dinner and finally purchased a nice 2002 Grand Cru Nuits St. Georges - for consumption later.