A Valentine's day in Beaune

Sunset from my window...

One of the many vineyards in the Burgundy region. This picture was taken on our way back to Dijon from Beaune.

Baguettes really are everywhere! I took this photo in Beaune of a mail carrier's cart. Notice the baguette sticking out? France certainly doesn't disappoint when it comes to the stereotypes that we all hope are true, in particular that French people carry bread by the armfuls. You know it must be quitting time when you start seeing people with their baguettes around 5 o'clock. Sometimes I do wonder, why don't we live like this? It's taken are group some time to get use to just how leisurely the French do things. For example, meeting for coffee isn't a 30 minute ordeal, oh no, one cup of coffee can easily buy you a few hours at the cafe. My host mom for example had lunch with a group of friends last week (a monthly ritual for them) and it lasted a mere five hours! (Not to say that every lunch is five hours, but every lunch has the potential to be five hours:).

Les hospices de Beaune
In other words, a really old hospital founded in the fifteenth century, very beautiful! And for you art lovers out there, this is where the Last Judgement polyptych is located. It was absolutely stunning to see in person (we weren't allowed to take pictures of it but if you don't know it I strongly encourage you to google!).

Inside of "des hospices," these are the beds where the sick patients were kept.

The beautiful stained glass windows in des hospices

Outside of the wine tasting room (which was ironically located on "Hell Road" or Rue d'Enfer)

This was taken in Beaune (about thirty minutes southwest of Dijon) on a Saturday morning just after we finished a rather informative wine tasting. We learned how to determine the relative age of the wine based on color, smell and of course taste. This was one of those fancy wine tastings where you were expected to spit out the wine after sipping so as to cleanse your palette or something, let's just say this was one girl who swallowed! It was the most beautiful tasting room in yet another cave filled with crates of wine. I know it's kind of hard to see but you'll just have to take my word for it. What ambiance!

This was Valentine's Evening in Dijon: it made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside:)