Bob and Gayle's France Trip

Beaune – Buildings, Wine, and One Big Problem

Beaune – Buildings, Wine, and One Big Problem

Going back over my notes, this all started in the wine caverns of Beaune. Patriarche, the grand father of fine burgundy wines has been in business since the mid 1700’s. Alec was no fool. The self guided, self pouring, wine tasting tours threaded their way across over 4 acres of caverns. Ancient walls built sandwich style of misshapen bricks slathered together with mortar of questionable nature. Four million bottles of wine, some more than 100 years old. Larger rooms were supported with ice cream cone shaped columns, the sharp cone point tapered to the floor to a meager 1’x 1’ section. If it wasn’t for the wine I could get claustrophobic down here. The wire I hastily attached to Alec’s coat on the slow bullet train down from Paris was coming in loud and clear. He had left my sight behind one of the 1,000 gallon casks which covered a fancy wrought iron doorway and the dark passages beyond. The only thing I needed to know was that this was all about oil, a fitting location for such a discussion, lost in the candlelit caverns of Beaune.

When Beaune (pronounced “Bone”) residents want to build a roof, they really know how to do it with class. Several of the historic buildings have a mixed tile roof composed of a red, yellow, and green mosaic. They also must have a big heart and probably horrible livers, as the two most popular sights is a hospital for the poor that was created over 500 years ago and was still being used in the 1970’s. They also house in underground caverns some of the best burgundy wines anywhere. Burgundy wine in the US is called Pinot Noir. Gayle and I still like Bordeaux a bit better (Cabernet Sauvignon in US) but some of these went down pretty darn smooth.

Speaking of hearts, we ran into a perky shopkeeper, whom we will call Anna-Malena. Rarely is one first name enough in France apparently. Anna was so delighted that we stepped into her shop. She said she had missed the Americans. 70% of Beaune visitors used to be Americans. She was truly saddened because she felt that either the Americans were mad at the French or even more ludicrous to her, fearful that the French were angry with the Americans. She told us that French children were taught never to forget what the Americans did for them in WWII. She said: “We love the Americans and always will.” She also said that French children are taught never to fight another war unless they are physically attacked. For example Anna-Malena lost every relative in French concentration camps except her grand mother. This not only includes her grandfather but all of her cousins, everyone! Her last words were that the French are not upset with us about Iraq. They think Saddam was a bad man, although she said there exists many bad leaders in the world.

Now the One Big Problem. When we left Patriarche my $700 digital camera fell out of it’s case. Chunks of the camera pored across the rocky floor. When I reinstalled the battery the camera was dead. It was a very sad night after that. This morning I was able to get the camera to work but it will never be the same. A dark cloud still hangs over the Selby’s over this one important avenue of creative expression. Life goes on in Paris! !

Picture Set 1

posted by Bob and Gayle @ 4:39 PM