Day 20 Drive to Burgundy - Beaune, France

Grüezi! It was another cool and rainy morning in the Alps of Switzerland. However it was still very nice and comfortable for us mountain folk of Montana! It felt like home! Additionally there was no snow on the ground (woohoo!), however there was fresh snow in the mountains. I do not think that we got nearly enough time in lovely Switzerland. I hope that someday I can return and see the beauty and grandeur of these historic mountains. 

At breakfast I finally took a moment to admire the beautiful, and large cow bells that they had displayed in the dining area. They were HUGE! They were beautiful though! Some of the names of the prizes on the bells were pretty funny too, for example, Miss Protein. We had another lovely breakfast before we were finally packing ourselves up into the bus. By that time it was raining. I was thankful that I had my hoodie with me. With that on I was quite comfortable as I snuggled warmly into my seat and enjoyed the view. 
Once again we were graced with the pleasure to see the change in architecture and scenery as we passed through Switzerland and finally entered into France. They gave us a heads up when we were passing from Switzerland into France not to take pictures at the border. Apparently they don't like that too much. In the photos below you can see a cross between Swiss and French architecture. It was pretty cloudy until we crossed the border into France. ​

As we passed into France, the sky opened up to reveal crystal blue skies with sparse clouds. I composed a playlist of music to inspire me as I watched the countryside pass by. This consisted of Les Miserables, Beauty and the Beast, and Phantom of the Opera. I will admit to crying a little as I listened to the triumphant "Do you Hear the People Sing?" from Les Miserables.  It was all great fun.

My tunes were interrupted with another language lesson since we are entering a new country with a different language. 
For lunch we stopped in France at a little outlet mall area. Much of the group went to a nearby restaurant. We opted to go to the mall and look around. Dimitri mentioned that much of the mall was a large grocery store (like our Walmart). Inside the mall we first located les toilettes before venturing around. Once we found the grocery store we looked around just to see if there were any major differences between our stores and theirs. The major difference was that everything was in French, haha. While I realized that we were in France it still made me laugh to see some of the movies I have back at home here and to see their titles in French.  For lunch we got a couple of drinks to go with our sandwiches (still working on finishing up our cheese from Holland) we had made at our hotel in Switzerland. It was a good little meal.

Next we all gathered back at the bus. As it turns out our meal was better than some of the meals that our group members had. One of the ladies made the mistake of telling them she wanted a rare hamburger. She took a bite into it to find that it was nearly raw. In fact there were still some cold areas. Needless to say she had them go back and cook it some more. Fun! 
A little while later we were finally pulling into our next destination, a town located in Burgundy called Beaune. Beaune holds the Musee de I'Hotel-Dieu, also known as the Hospices de Beaune which is an old hospital built in the 1440's. It was built as a charitable almshouse for the poor.

However before we went to visit we had to roll our loud luggage bags from the parking lot for the busses, through the streets and to our hotel, Hotel Athanor. The view from the street of the hotel seemed charming enough. The front lobby also was quaint and charming.

After going up to our room and dropping off our bags we met with the group down in the bar area of the hotel. There they provided us with a couple non-alcoholic drinks while we waited for everyone to arrive. We were also urged to grab our umbrellas in case the sky let loose some rain as it had been threatening.
After an orientation of the town we finally reached the Hospices de Beaune, a fantastic example of 15th century French architecture. It was commissioned by Nicholas Rolin in 1443. Together he and his wife had the Hospice built for the poor to have a place to go when they were sick. The hospital also took in the wealthy, (or those who could pay for their treatments) however the poor were not expected to pay. We had read about the Hospice before arriving. We had read that in the rooms where the poor were taken care of the walls had paintings of death and life after death, whereas the rooms of the wealthy had paintings of hope and of life. I suppose that is rather telling. We saw this as we walked through the halls of the old hospital. 

This was an experience I was looking forward to, since I have just graduated from nursing school. I was excited to see what an older hospital looked like. I was awestruck when I entered into the courtyard and finally saw the beautiful roof that the Hospice is known for. I personally think that the style of the roof looks similar to a snake's skin, featuring bright yellow, green, red and black tiles. It really is beautiful! I took a moment to admire the art as well as the general architecture of the building. Despite the cheesy recording of a discussion between Nicholas Rolin and his wife I could imagine the nuns walking across the courtyard going about their daily chores. 

I followed the map which next led me into the first ward of the hospital. This was a grand room showcasing two long rows of beds against each wall. The beds were neatly made and featured bright red quilts and white sheets. At a couple of the beds were mannequins of the nurses as they would have worked on their patients. There was a gap between the wall and the bed where the nurses could slip by. The beds were smaller than the ones we have in hospitals now, however at that time two people could have shared a single bed. Yikes! That was shocking to me, however I guess it is not so surprising for the time. At the end of this hallway was a chapel. This room was designed so that patients could stay in their beds while they prayed. 

We walked through other rooms where the richer patients stayed. You could tell by the decoration as well as the number of beds in the room that it was for wealthier people. We got to look into one of the rooms where the nuns would have stayed. The next room along the way displayed some of the instruments which would have been used at that time. I loved looking at the syringes, needles, surgical instruments, and various other tools they used in their patient care. In this particular room there was also a crack down to an underground river. From above we could see the water moving. 

The next few rooms consisted of the kitchen, which was quite expansive and which held many pots and pans. That was pretty neat as well. One of my favorite rooms, in addition to the first patient room within the chapel, was the apothecary rooms which I found incredibly interesting. I loved seeing the instruments they used to make the medications that were given to the patients. My favorite room of them all was the room where the ingredients for the medications were stored in various jars decorating the walls. It was fun to look around and see what they used then compared to what they use now. It was quite a game to look and see some of the names of items they used.  It was all so interesting!

The last room that we entered into was a museum which held a variety of artifacts from the region and other paintings which would have been stored around the hospice. One of them, held within a dark room used to highlight the beauty and grandeur of the Beaune Altarpiece or the Last Judgement by Rogier van der Weyden. The left side of the piece shows the gates to heaven, while the far right depicts the entrance to hell. In the middle you have Jesus and below him the Archangel Michael who is passing judgement with his scales. Nicholas Rolin's wife was buried beneath this altar piece in its original location. However due to the abrasive sunlight on the painting as well as all of the visitors who have over the years caused damage to the piece, it is now kept safely in a dark room with spotlights illuminating it. It has been restored and it is now protected. 

After viewing the Beaune Altarpiece it was pretty well the end of the museum. With just the souvenir shop left to go we were soon outside once more, waiting with the growing group so that Dimitri could lead us on to our next event of the evening, the much anticipated (for many) wine tasting.
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Once everyone was gathered together again Dimitri led the way down a couple of streets to the hotel that Rick Steves groups typically stay in. However, at this time there was another group in the area and they were filling that hotel. That is why we are over in the Hotel Athanor. We had our wine tasting at the Hotel des Ramparts. Our hostess led us down a small hallway of the hotel and to a stairway which took us down into her wine cellar. It was charming and looked just like I would have imagined. There were a few large wine barrels against one of the walls. The ceiling was low, and when I stood close to the wall my head did touch. A couple of the people in our group made the mistake of leaning against the wall and they had dust all over their backs. Oops! The cellar was lit by candles to set the mood, as well as electric lights. One of the barrels was set up like a table. It had the bottles of wine we would be sampling laid out on top of it. On one of the tables in the corner there were some other bottles that we would be sharing. There was also a section of little silver, metal cups laying on another table. These would be our wine glasses. We were also told that we could keep them! What a neat little souvenir! These types of containers are also used by professional wine tasters. The idea is that you can sip from them to get the taste of the wine. Also the way the little cup is made it helps you to see the color of the wine. 
Anyhow we were given a little history of the wine in the area, as well as a little introduction to the variety of wines we would be trying this evening. There would be a variety of red wines stored for different lengths of time. I do not recall the specific details of the wines we sampled other than the fact that they tasted pretty much the same to me. I think that the grapes were harvested at different ripeness as well. 

I think one of the most memorable things about the wine tasting was how we were instructed to do it. In order to taste the wine correctly you are supposed to "bubble" it in your mouth. Our hostess instructed us to do this by bending at the waist and slurping the wine. We were then supposed to suck in, like we were drinking through a straw. This would make the wine bubble in our mouths and it would allow the taste to permeate our mouths. Like I said before though, I could not tell much of a difference between the wines.  
Another thing that our hostess instructed us to do was to hold the wine up to one of the candlesticks so that we could see the color of the wine in our special cups. It was beautiful. I did this with all of the wines we were given. In the flickering light of the candlestick the wines appeared to be a bright, deep, and vivid ruby color. It was beautiful. She said that it was tradition for five people to hold their cups to the flame. When I asked her why they did this she replied that it was pretty. The first group to do it consisted of Pat, Lisa, Julie, Lanny, and Emily. After they decided that they needed to make some kind of special pact. I don't recall what they decided on, but it looked like serious business to me!
So while I am not a big wine drinker I made it through the tasting without feeling the effects of the alcohol consumed. My favorite of the drinks we had tried was the blackcurrant which tasted a bit sweeter than cough syrup. I did like the taste of that though. 

So once we were all done we stashed away our little cups so that we could bring them home. We also thanked our hostess for everything and for the information she had given us before we headed back up the stairs and to the front entrance of the hotel. Just as we were coming out we ran into Richard coming in to catch up with us.  
He stopped at the front of the hotel to talk with us a bit while we waited for Dimitri to lead us back to a part of the town we were familiar with. Meanwhile Richard tried to take over Dimitri's job of giving us directions. He took Joe's map from him when Joe asked how we could get back to the part of town we had been in earlier. He looked at it, turned it a couple times while tilting his head to the side and said, "It's simple." He gave us the usual, follow the road and turn right directions. He then proceeded to joke along with us for a little while as we waited for Dimitri. "Seriously though it is very easy." He assured us. 

Finally we decided that we were going to go and find our way around the town on our own. We were hungry for dinner (and had just been wine tasting on an empty stomach!).
So first, before settling on a place to eat for dinner we headed back to the room to lighten our load and drop off our rain gear. We also found out at this time that the toilet was still not working right. Pooh. Therefore we decided we would use the downstairs restroom as needed, and we did before we walked out into the town once more to find a place to eat. On this walk we saw a couple of places still open and serving. One was a pizza place, but eventually we decided to eat at a more typical french restaurant, Le Galion. After looking at their menu we decided that we would give it a try. After all, when in Beaune do as the Beauneians do (haha!). 

We opted to sit inside for the meal since everything outside was still a little damp from the earlier rain. After looking through the menu (thankfully supplemented with the dishes listed in English, YES!) we decided upon the plat du jour (Dish of the Day) which consisted of beef flank steak with mourade sauce and fries. Since we were in France we also ordered escargot (snails)!

So the first thing to arrive at the table was the escargot. They also gave us each the tools we would need: a long pronged fork and a grasping tool. We were each going to get two escargot. My first impression when looking at them was... the insides are green, like really green. Am I really about to eat a snail?! I proceeded cautiously, picking up my first snail with the grasping tool (not as easy as it might seem!). I then grabbed the fork and went for it. Soon I had a large, goopy, green mass on the end of my fork. Don't think about it, just do it. I did it. Then I was chewing on that large, goopy, green mass. To my surprise it was really quite tasty! It was obvious that they had used garlic and other seasonings to enhance the flavor of the snails. It was really tasty! I actually wished that we had ordered more.

Shortly after the escargot arrived we got the rest of our meal which was artfully arranged and also very delicious! Bon appetit! The fries were great and fresh. The steak also was quite a treat!
By the end of the meal the three of us were quite content and thankful for such a filling meal. As I sat back in my chair I looked outside to see how light it was. It was nearing sunset by this time and so I decided to go and explore the town on my own. It was a small enough town and easy to navigate so I headed off to see what I could see.

While walking down one of the nearby streets I saw a man walking casually toward me. I noticed that we were the only two on the street so I checked myself, holding my items closer to me and guarding myself. The guy noticed this and jumped, folding his arms in front of him. This reminded me of something a gangsta' would do. He then lifted both hands up and shrugged, asking me something in French. I am guessing it was something about me upping my guard. Oops! I did not meant to offend him, but seriously, better safe than sorry.

My little walk took me around the back of the Hospice where I got a chance to walk through the back garden that we had only seen from the gate inside the museum. It was lovely. From here I made it back to where the bus was parked and waiting for our departure tomorrow. Near the parking lot I saw several types of different flowers. Very pretty! I found the river which runs underneath the hospice. Sitting near the waterway was a lovely Blue Heron who sat peacefully by the water's edge until I sketched him out to the point where he felt the need to fly away. While walking around I was looking for the surrounding walk which I could climb and walk upon. I found what looked like an entrance onto the wall, but that was not the case. Instead I found a really neat looking tower which reminded me of a gnome's hat. Too cute! By this time I found myself back at the Hotel des Ramparts. Due to Richard's helpful instructions I was able to easily find my way back to the room. It was a nice little walk, but I was ready to get back and settle into the room. 

When I got up to the room I was thankful to find that the sofa sleeper had been pulled out and it was waiting for me. I settled in to edit some photos until I was ready to go to bed.

Fearful of the broken toilet I went downstairs to use the restroom. When I went to the door I found that it was locked. I waited for a couple minutes before realizing that no one was in there. At this time I went to the front desk where the lady was packing up for the night. I explained to her that we were in the room with the broken toilet. "But I sent someone up earlier to fix it." I explained to her that he did not fix it and that it was not working still and so I asked her to unlock the restroom downstairs. "I am going home now. I cannot do that." She said, absolutely refusing to help us out at all. I do not get mad or upset often, but I was fuming over that. I honestly don't see how unlocking the bathroom door would have hurt anything. So I returned to the room to use our broken toilet with the determination that it was their problem to deal with. 
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Other than that incident it really was a good day. We saw a lot and had a good time exploring this little town. Tomorrow we drive to Paris, which will be a real treat! I look forward to that adventure. So heres to a new day and a new place to stay. For now bonne soiree!