First impressions of Burgundy!

Due to the weather, we left earlier than planned. But we were still lucky, as the weather gods gave as a couple of hours to explore beautiful Burgundy!

You can drive the way from Provence to Frankfurt at once, but that’s not really fun and it’s really exhausting. As we had to pay the expensive French motorway anyway, we took the chance to explore the region.

So we planned staying two nights and had to shorten it. That’s enough for a first impression.

Gourmet and wine paradise: The stomach of France

Everyone goes to Paris (not to get us wrong; Paris is great) – but Burgundy is still some kind of hidden gem. It’s not like missing tourists, but it’s far away from being overcrowded. It’s that kind of region where English is not enough and you’re thankful for five not so useless French lessons in school.

Camper and bon vivants, but also luxury traveller will enjoy their stay. Audience: Mostly seniors or families!

The food in Burgundy is so delicious, the wine even more- and of course, everything is expensive. Quality has its price. If you’re searching for calm and pleasure, you’ll find it in Burgundy!

As we didn’t have a lot of time, sightseeing was limited. We also had to cancel our bike tour through the wine yards. But the little bit we saw, made us want seeing more.

Route des Grands Crus

The Côte d’Or vineyards are one of the most famous in the world. The cultivated area is huge and very impressive.

Especially the region around Beaune is reputed for producing the best white wine in the world including some Grands Crus!

You should try them. With more time, we would definitely have taken part at one of the many wine tastings, which are offered here.

Château de Meursault

In Château de Meursault, we tried one of those expensive wines. And: Oh my God. It was so good! Of course, we didn’t buy it.

We took one bottle of another excellent wine with us, but one we could afford (usually we don’t spend this much money on wine and this bottle was still expensive). Cobbler, stick to thy last!

The Château was built in the 11^th century. They grow wine on 60 hectares of land. We would definitely feel well living here.

Beaune

Beaune is the center of Côte de Beaune. The city is famous for its winegrowing, which is cultivated since the Romans.

The Old Town of Beaune is so French – we’re totally thrilled. It was toffed up with a lot of cafés, boulangeries, restaurants and some beautiful squares.

The city is surrounded by a wall and offers its visitors a good infrastructure.

The Hôtel-Dieu

It seems like the Hospice of Beaune takes over half of the space of the Old Town. It’s also called Hôtel-Dieu, built in 1443 and was used as a hospital since 1971. It financed itself by the income of the donated wine yards. The hospice’s wines are very expensive.

Today, one part is used as a retirement home, the other part as a museum. Entrance fee: 7.50€, including an audio-guide if you want.

The roof is colourful, the design based on Flemish gothic. This style founded favour in Burgundy back at that time. It included a pharmacy, a laboratory for producing medicine and a kitchen.

The Hôtel-Dieu is famous for its huge room of the poor with a chapel. The founder, Chancellor Nicolas Rolin, wanted to create the most beautiful hospice of France and furnished it appropriately. Because of this and the donations of others, it was soon called the ‘the palace of the poor’.