Beaune voyage

After Troyes my next stop was the tiny town, or village, of Chablis. The place is of course known all over the world for its dry white wines, made exclusively of Chardonnay grapes. I spent two nights in Chablis, visiting wine cellars and enjoying the different appellations (there are 4) on the several terraces on and around the Rue Auxerroise. The weather was sunny and warm so I, for once, had the chance to use my bike (which I'd just been transporting around Europe so far). The tiny area where the best vines are situated, the grand crus, was fortunately just outside the city centre, making my bike debut 2005 relatively agreeable. As I woke up on Sunday morning preparing myself for 2 hours' drive towards the southeast I realised that the entire main street was turned into an outdoor market where fresh foods, cheap clothes, dvds etc were sold. And I thought the French would all by busy carrying banners around Paris on May 1st... The reason is probably that little Chablis is very prosperous compared to other villages the same size.

While I was staying in Chablis I drove the 19 kilometres between the vignobles to Auxerre, a beautiful small city on the banks of the Yonne river. The heat was intense, somewhere between 28 and 32 degrees, way too hot for me. Far too hot for doing touristy stuff too, but I still managed to walk around town and see the main sights. At this point my 256MB camera card was full so I popped into a shop to get the 251 high-resolution photos on a disc. When I returned to Chablis a unknowingly sat down next too five Norwegians on a terrace. Of course, being socially starved I naturally started up a conversation with them. Bad idea. These were, by the way, representatives of all the hotels in the norwegion town of Voss (there are three apparently). They were on some sort of "studietur" and were constantly telling each other (and me) how much money they had to spend, without providing figures. They treated the poor waitress accordingly and got shitfaced, no less, in the afternoon sun and started asking everyone in a loud voice where they could find a kebab place.... Is there anything worse than Nordic gorillas abroad? I don't think so. And if anyone should know, please don't tell me.

At the time of writing this I'm in Beaune in Burgundy (Bourgogne) where I'm staying a record four nights. The place itself is quite small but its importance makes it a worthwhile place spend several days. It's perhaps the capital of the Côte d'Or wine region, a strech of land between Dijon (north) and Macôn (south) that creates the most magnificent Pinot Noir red Burgundies as well as several high-quality whites. To a greater degree than originally planned this trip has turned into a wine safari. But what can you do when you look at the map and realise that you're quite close to several great wine-growing regions? Exactly. Beaune is perhaps the only place in the world where wine shops outnumber ordinary shops. Those shops not dedicated to selling wine will most probably sell bottle openers, glasses, caraffs and the like.

In Beaune I live with a lady d'un certain âge in what she herself calls a hotel. Ok, it doesn't have a tv but it makes up for it with lots of old-fashioned charm. There's also a golf course right outside the city limits, a not too challenging course where I managed to score 31 stableford points, for me, an excellent result. After that I visited what must be heaven on earth (Benôit XVI will probably excuse me for saying this), the Marché aux vins next door to the legendary Hôtel-Dieu. Here you're given a small silver cup, a taste-vin, to sample no less than 18 different wines from across the Côte d'Or. Some of the best wines cost up to 50 euros per bottle... Even though you pay 10 euros to get in it is, for many reasons, very difficult to get out without spending money on a fine wine (pappa, vi kan dele denne naar vi ses i Malmö). There's also a wine museum here, also quite interesting.

Today I had snails for lunch. Ok, it was a starter but nevertheless. And quite tasty they are too. I'll probably have some more before I head home.

Finally, some other French curiosities. In today's newspaper (at least in Le Monde, my newspaper of choice here) you'll always find yesterday's tv guide as well as today's weather, not the forecast for tomorrow. How useless is that?