Our time away around France

Well we are back in Mareuil after 3 lovely weeks touring around this very beautiful country. Sorry about the break in transmission of the blog but it was too difficult to organise & we didn't see any of the many Internet Cafes they all talk about.
We decided to leave a day earlier than scheduled as the weather here had changed as it began raining just before we left our Dinner in Blere on Thursday night so we decided then to leave on Saturday 16th September.

We didn't leave until 10.00am but were soon onto the N76 heading to Vierzon, Bourges & onto Nevers where we had trouble finding a route through the town because up until now every town or village has been very well signposted, anyway we finally found the right road. The weather had also improved dramatically with plenty of sunshine streaming into the car, it was now a nice day for driving & the surrounding scenery was an absolute picture with rolling hills & a patchwork of ploughed fields intermingled with vineyards we have never seen such varied shades of green.
We made good time to Chateau Chinon, Auton before stopping at a quaint little village at Nolay where we stopped for a welcome beer & coffee. We weren't far from Burgundy ( Bourgogne ) we soon saw the vines covering the surrounding hillside as we drove into Chassagne-Montrachet & then it was only a couple of kms before we drove into our stay for the 1st 2 nights at Puligny-Montrachet.
We checked into our B & B ( Chambres d"hotes ) ( see lower pic ) & were given a lovely outside apartment away from the main house so we were out on our own. We had a nice walk around the village but didn't find a mini-supermarket, breadshop only a Hotel which looked a little up market for us.
We still had food left over from lunch so we stayed in had a nice knock up dinner with a bottle of red.

Breakfast had so many choices available one had to be careful not to get carried away eating everything & the view into the vineyard was a great vista ( see pic top left ). After chatting on with the hosts we took off to Beaune going through some of the names I had only read about in wine books. We passed through the likes of Meursault, Auxey-Duresses, Volnay & Pommard before getting to Beaune.

We luckily found a car space & then went exploring around this very popular town of some 22000 people & is the unofficial capital of the Cote d'Or. Probably the most famous site in Beaune is the Hotel-Dieu des Hospice de Beaune the celebrated charity hospital founded in 1443 by Nicholas Rolin who was chancellor to Philip the Good. Behind the Gothic frontage, the hospice opens into a stone courtyard, surrounded by ornate turrets & pitched rooftops in multicoloured tiles. In the Grand Salle where they housed & cared for the poor, something quite unique for the times which also housed a small chapel for those too sick to attend mass. It was a remarkable setup for the times & was helped by the Catholic Church through the then Pope Clement 1st.

We then spent a very interesting time going through the Musee de Vins which gave us a very informative look into the history of wine & its workers in one of France's great wine area of Burgundy. We headed back through the rolling hills behind Beaune to Puligny-Montrachet & changed clothes for a night out in the neighboring village of Meursault.

We found a table in the Hotel Les Arts luckily, as 10 minutes later they were turning people away. The atmosphere & food were great & would you believe it the majority of the people in the restaurant were either Aussies or Kiwis so it was nice to hear the familiar twang echoing around the room. The poor French patrons I'm sure they didn't have a clue what was going on , all these people " parler-ing-en-Anglais ", anyway it was a great night with great company.

We move onto Dijon tomorrow so we will update you from there, bon soir H & S.