So we stop into the Hertz rental place which is located in the catacombs under the Louvre (naturally) and pick up our car. It was the smoothest pick up ever, took like 5 minutes. Of course we probably should have known something was up when the checkout lady asked if we really wanted the compact car. Well, the little Ford was slightly bigger than a bumper car, barely fit 2 people and 2 suitcases, and maxed out at about 75MPH but it was ok otherwise... So thanks to TomTom, we got ourselves our of Paris, onto the A6 South and we were off to Burgundy! It was really a pleasant drive. We ate cheese and baguette and cruised through wonderful rolling pasture land dotted w/ small villages. Once you really got out of the suburbs and into the country it was amazing. Farm land as far as the eye could see and then a small town that featured one central old stone church surrounded by 10-20 old stone farm houses. Everyone was the same and looked like a movie set. Our first stop was the town of Vezelay. It was a slightly larger (but still very small) town set up on a hill w/ a much larger Gothic church in the center. This amazing abbey was built around the beginning of the last century and housed relics of Mary Magdalene. Very cool place. Second stop was a pretty little medieval town Semur Auxois where we strolled around and then had a beer. We then rolled down to our cool B&B Les Roches. This was an old chateau type building that some fancy pants Frenchie bought for his mistress way back. Now it is a beautiful B&B run by a chill gay couple from Germany. Wonderfully refurbished, very nice grounds, great breakfast, plenty of optional activities, clean, and super spacious. 2 thumbs up... it was a great place to stay. Dinner was a local place in a nearby town of Arnay, La Couronne? Very old school French and really pretty solid food. Very nice cheese plate, nice win, ok beef bourgoine... terrible service from snotty little shit teenagers. Seriously, by the end of dinner I wanted to punch the foofy kid in the face. Joke was on them though, some other guy had his dog there who knocked into the table and broke a glass on the floor. 1 thumb sideways.
Day 2 was also great. We stopped in Commarin to tour the chateau. Super sleepy town. Apparently people live in the chateau because even though you pay an entrance fee you can only walk around the house but not go too near it and certainly not in it. Weird right? Next stop was a tour of a much cooler Chateauneuf en Auxois. Really beautiful town and a very cool chateau that was very well maintained and very old. Bonus was that they still had the old school hole in the ground crapper... yeah, we took pictures of ourselves taking fake dumps! We then took a lovely stroll in the woods behind the town. The trees were all sorts of fall colors and it was like being straight in Robin Hood! Needless to say I robbed some rich looking punks and gave their money to... uh, yeah, I kept it for wine money! That night we collected several cheeses, fruit, baguette, wine, and macaroons and had a very nice picnic in our very spacious room. Solid!
Day 3 was a trip through wine country. It was amazing, just vineyards packed into the low hills and valleys surrounding the wine way on the trip to Beaune. Beaune itself is a larger town that is packed w/ stores, cafes, wine cellars, and the hospice where Louis XIV used to stay when he was outside Paris. Cool town... the highlight was certainly our tour of the Patriarche wine cave. http://www.patriarche.com/spip.php?lang=en Holy cats! You pay $20 and they give you 2 tasting cups and send you on your way. The tours starts w/ a history of the label and the family and then you descend into the caves... a vast cellar w/ millions (literally) of wine bottles of various vintages. Pretty cool seeing all of the bottles and looking for the oldest ones. But then... you roll into a series of rooms unsupervised w/ a bunch of open bottles of wine, and it is GO TIME!!! There were some really great wines highlighted by the Meursault, Puligny Montrachet, and Chassagne Montrachet white Burgundies!!! BTW, the pink champagne was an unbelievable value for a very solid wine. That was fun. Of course coming into the light after a few hours (and glasses) in the caves was slightly shocking! After a little sit down and some coffee, it was on to our last Burgundy hotel La Maison de Olivier LeFlaive. This was a really well appointed spacious room w/ an unbelievable tub! Another top selection by my special lady... 2 thumbs up. We also hit up dinner and a wine tasting from the Domaine de LeFlaive. 14 wines... just what I needed! The food was ok at best, very plain by French standards. The main chicken course was very pedestrian. The cheese course was very nice though. The wines were exceptional though... once again highlighted by various white Burgundies from the Puligny and Chassagne regions. Needless to say after another wonderful tasting I was glassy eyed and staring at tennis in French on TV. Good times. 1 3/4 thumbs up... good service, great wine, crappy coffee, ok food.
And that was that... next stop, Chamonix!!!
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