Burgundy France, Part Un

For those of you who know Klaus and me well, Klaus is the family travel agent. He has been traveling abroad since he was a tiny Klaus (hard to imagine anyone named Klaus ever being tiny, right?), and has done so much travel during our years together, there were times when I thought I was a single parent. He really does a great job on our vacations, so no complaints from my end.

The tables turned this holiday weekend, when Klaus and I ventured across the border to Burgundy, France. Since Klaus is so busy at work, it was my job to plan our three-day weekend in one of France’s most famous wine areas. Boy, was a worried that Klaus wouldn’t like my choices, but and I’m going pat myself on the back and say it was a success.

In the past, we have done wine tasting in Spain and Germany, and have found that quite often reservations are needed to do a wine tasting. Since Klaus and I are such wine aficionados we pretty know how wine is made, so winery tours which always accompany a wine tasting are a snoozefest. We also hate being tied to a schedule when so many variables are out of our hands. One wrong turn or a traffic jam could leave you missing an appointment, and having a schedule can prevent you from being spontaneous. So we usually end up at a wine bar sharing glasses of wine to get a sample of the local vino. I highly recommend this in Spain, because tapas are usually involved!

So this time, I managed to stumble into a few wine events in the region during our stay.  I also concluded that a trip to the city of Beaune was a necessary stop on way to understanding Burgundy. Next, where to stay?

I plotted the events and Beaune on Google Maps, and then used Trip Advisor to narrow the search for a hotel. Pardon the use of my French, but Voila! I found a hotel in a small town in the middle of Burgundy. Did I mention it was OK to bring Norton?

Addresses plugged into the GPS , paper copy of maps in hand, all our passports and Norton’s paperwork in hand we took off bright and early on Friday towards Burgundy. We sailed past the border crossing with not so much as a casual glance at à notre chien, Norton. Whew !

So here is a bit of useful advice if you are traveling in France by car, bring plenty of change and cash. It was about 25 kilometers when we hit our first toll, and a good 10% of the people acted as if they had never seen a toll road before. Some lanes did not move for a good ten minutes before a French bureaucrat wannabe marched across the lanes to help out the poor lost soul who could not master the automated toll machine with its Brazil like design.

The Swiss couple in front of us must have popped in a 100 Euro note into the machine for a 2.50 Euro toll, only to spend the next 5 minutes fishing out the jackpot-sized coin return from the awkwardly place change basket.

Unless you enjoy the sounds of car horns, bring the change and the bills, people. The French have no patience for idiots. D’accord!