It’s amazing to me that when things turn out totally different than how you planned them you can still have a great experience. We made a reservation a couple of days ago to tour a winery and do a tasting near Beaune.
We picked up a rental car today which we will have for the next few days. The weather was perfect today. We walked to the rental car place and then went driving to explore the countryside. We drove through the area north west of Beaune. It is agricultural and green with lots of picturesque villages.
When we made the winery reservation the website said they only had tours in Portuguese, French and Spanish. We picked a 5 o’clock Spanish tour with visions of being with a group of Spanish tourists. What actually happened was that we were the only ones visiting a small winery in a village near Beaune. The owner spoke about as much English as I speak French which isn’t much!! And I don’t think he spoke any Spanish. We still had quite an experience seeing his small operation, tasting his wines, and communicating surprisingly well.
It was the kind of a experience that makes a trip.
Driving is such a totally different way to see a country. After our tasting we drove back to Beaune, parked near our hotel and took a break until our 7:30 dinner reservation.
This morning before we picked up the rental car we visited Beaune’s most well known landmark L’Hôtel- Dieu Des Hospices Civils de Beaune, a hospital for the poor, it was established in 1443. It is an impressive building and the hospital has pretty much been in operation ever since. They own vineyards which make the hospital self supporting. The historic building is no longer a hospital but it has been well restored and we enjoyed the audio tour.
We had a marvelous dinner tonight in the cellar at Restaurant Le Conty.
We started with Foie gras and asparagus for Duke and a dozen snails for me. They were each excellent.
We had two different kinds of beef for the main course.
For desert we had pears poached in wine with anise ice cream and a yummy chocolate mousse concoction.
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