Beautiful Beaune

Day 18
It was a pleasant and picturesque drive exiting Switzerland and heading toward Beaune. Ferdie had his selection of CDs, and a few other people asked to put in their CDs.

The architecture was distinctly different in France. I was especially intrigued by the steep rooflines in Beaune. Almost all of the roofs were stone, with many chimneys and gables coming out in a fanciful way. There were several multicolored patterned roofs that were quite distinctive. The old hospital had fancy spires like a cathedral. The streets were cobblestone. Our hotel had portions which were part of the old medieval wall. Nancy’s and my room was incredible! A spiral stone staircase with a hand-wrought iron rail in part of a medieval tower took us up two flights to our huge suite. The room was at least 15 by 20 feet, with a high hand-carved beamed ceiling, hexagonal terracotta floor, kingsize bed, carved stone fireplace with an antique mirror over it. There was an antique armoir, a round wooden table and 4 upholstered chairs, nice paintings, end tables, lamps, TV and so forth. The bathroom was large also, with a marble floor, tile walls, and a large gray modern bathtub and fixtures.

We had an orientation walk around town and then free time to explore Beaunne. I got a little disoriented and luckily ran into Lynda and Rosana. We had a special person come to the patio in our hotel and we had an informative lesson on regional French wines and a generous wine tasting. We tasted a chardonnay, a light red wine and a heartier red wine, then a plum liquor mixed with champagne. We had little puffy pastries in between glasses of wine. We had to walk directly from our wine tasting to our evening meal.

We had about 10 first and second course choices, 2 cheese course choices, and about 7 dessert choices. I decided to try something I had never had before. I had 6 escargot (snails) in garlic and butter sauce, rabbit in a creamy garlicy mustard sauce with mushrooms, potatoes, 3 kinds of cheeses (camembert, goat cheese, and another semi soft cheese), and chocolate mousse. We walked back to the hotel. Some people went back out. I took a luxurious bath and enjoyed the ambiance of the suite.

Day 19
I was still full from our dinner the night before, but we had breakfast and strong coffee in the hotel before departing Beaunne. Ferdie and Drew stopped to pick up picnic supplies in Beaunne. The bus drive was fun, sometimes wild, and nostalgic because it was our last day on the bus. There were a few songs in which almost everyone on the bus was singing along with some oldie CDs. We had really bonded as a group and it suddenly seemed too close to the end. Someone had a Bee Gees CD and everyone egged Drew into dancing to “Staying Alive.” People seemed to mix more on the bus and there was a different feeling in the air.

We stopped for a break in a motorway park. We had French baguettes, brie, goat cheese, 4 kinds of pate`, pears, apples, almond-stuffed olives, pickles, 3 kinds of quiches, an assortment of fancy delicate cookies, lots of wine, juices and miscellaneous other things.

We were all realizing that we were on our way to our last destination, and we did not want the trip to end. We would be saying "goodbye" to Juan in Paris.

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