HOME AGAIN

Suitcases unpacked and stowed away till next time,

dogs back home and asleep in front of the TV,

photos being viewed up on the big screen,

souvenir mug ready to put away with the others.

Almost feels like we've never been away!

Almost.

Home in time for Mothers' Day.

Lovely new scarf from Sally.

Lovely flowers from Scottish " children"

and

morning tea today in my new French mug

Cheers

PARIS AGAIN

What a difference four weeks makes.

When we were first in Paris the trees were bare and Wintery.

Three weeks later the leaves have appeared and what a difference  it makes.

Look at the crowds. It was Labour Day weekend.

There was a big increase in the volume of traffic too.

And though we thought Paris was lovely on our earlier visit ...

it is really beautiful now!

A final dinner at our favourite restaurant ( Equinox in the Marais district )

and our lovely holiday in France was at an end.

Twenty-four hours in the plane and it would be " G'day Brissy "

But we'll be back!

Cheers. ( and   Au Revoir Paris  )

FINAL DAYS IN BURGUNDY

                   Early in the week we headed off towards Beaune to have a quick look at

 the vineyards that line the road.

  

We stopped to take a closer look to see what made this such an ideal place for wine production.

The surrounding hills had become a little steeper with exposed rocky limestone cliffs topping many hills and when we looked closely the soil was dry and rocky too.

Apparently this is ideal.

 Because it was so early in the Spring there was not much action in the vineyards but dotted along the road were lots of " Caves" ( cellars ) offering degustation but we drove on to Beaune.

We made our way to  the celebrated Hotel-Dieu des Hospices de Beaune, a charity hospital founded in 1443.

The old hospital finally closed its doors in 1985 and is now beautifully preserved.

It is one of France's architectural highlights and is topped by a Gothic style roof of multicoloured glazed tiles.

This charity hospital offered accommodation and treatment originally for the poor but eventually for all who needed it and was run by nuns and priests.

Grateful, wealthy patients bequeathed  fotunes to the hospice which invested the money in local vineyards and it now owns 60 acres of prime vineyards in the area..

A huge auction of their wine is held yearly in the coutryard of the hospice and netts 1.5 million Euros. This money helps to finance the new, modern  hospital.

On our final day in Burgundy we drove through beautiful countryside to Dijon and we were glad we made the effort as it is a very nice city with some lovely old buildings.

 We strolled through the streets

 and came upon these huge undercover markets

selling all sorts of curious food

 

and of course cheese.

 

 We headed home through Beaune and noticed quite a change in the amount of growth there was in the vines

 since our visit earlier in the week.

.

A pale green sheen was beginning to appear.

Though we didn't try the degustation offered by all the "caves" (cellars) we have managed to sample a different bottle of the local wine every night with our dinner, randomly chosen and always appreciated !

Next stop Paris

Cheers. 

EXPLORING BURGUNDY

Autun, an old Roman town , was close to where we stayed, so off we went to find the remains of a Roman ampitheatre.

Wow, there was really a lot of it still remaining and it was lovely to see a modern stage constructed so that performances of some sort are still held there.

Below it there is a beautiful lake and park which is well used by the residents of Autun.

We are getting very good at taking photos of ourselves with the timer on the camera !

Another place we visited was the old medieval town of Semur en Auxois. This is the best medieval village we have seen so far and we followed narrow lanes as they wove their way up the hill towards the oldest part of the town.

Some parts of the town wall are still remaining and some have strong supports in place to keep them safe.

You can see the wooden construction below the blue section of the photo.

Below the village the Armancon River winds its way under a very old , narrow stone bridge.

Picture postcard perfect isn't it ?

Next we moved on to the village of Flavigny-sur-Ozerain. It is another delightful hilltop village straight out of the Middle Ages where the film Chocolat was filmed.

This is the only hotel - it has seven rooms but is very spartan.

It was the only place open in the whole village and as it was lunchtime, we found ourselves a table and before long were tucking into some really authentic, home cooked food famous in Burgundy.

Yes, Beef Bourguignon !

and it was GOOD !

As it was only 3 o'clock by the time we had finished lunch and our exploration of Flavigny, we pushed on to Abbaye de Fontenay.

This gem was founded in 1118 and has been restored to its medieval glory.

The chapel is very imposing but quite stark with little decoration in keeping with the spartan lives of the monks.

It offers a fascinating glimpse of how the Cistercians used to live.

Carefully tended gardens surround the abbey.

The weather was perfect - warm and sunny and the trees were greening up nicely.

Everywhere we went the blossom trees were heavy with flowers especially pink ones.

Spring had finally sprung!

Only a short time left before our lovely holiday would come to an end.

Cheers.

BEAUTIFUL BURGUNDY

For our final week in France we moved to the little village of Epinac not far from Beaune in Burgundy.
This is our two bedroom cottage in Epinac once again owned by English people.

We left behind the flat countryside of the Loire Valley that is used mainly for growing crops.

The countryside around us as we drove towards Burgundy completely changed with very pretty rolling hills covered with deep green pasture or golden Rape Seed crops in full bloom.

  

and nestled amongst the hills were small villages.

Dotted in the green pastures are groups of white Charolais cattle. They seem to be very sociable cattle and are always in tight-knit groups making a lovely contrast to their green surroundings.


Of course we needed supplies straight away and there was a Sunday market in nearby Chagny so off we went.
And what a market it was !
It wound through the streets of this tiny town filled with all sorts of goodies.

You would never find food displayed like this in Oz because of the heat and flies- especially chicken but these were roasting away merrily in the open air .

 Then we came upon the strawberries!

Strawberries grown in a cold climate are a divine taste experience for Queenslanders.

Everyone was busy getting their week's supplies.

Lots of exotic looking food that was strange to us

and some prepared in different ways! 

 We soon joined in buying our supplies testing our limited French but helped along by friendly stallholders willing to overlook our poor grasp of their language.

This asparagas was new to us - huge white spears. I managed to ask how to cook it and was given instructions with words and gestures to boil it " like ze pasta" for 15 minutes.

 

So off we went to our new "home" for the week with all our booty.

Didn't we do well ?

And the asparagus?

I cooked it as instructed and it was delicious !

Cheers.