Burgundy

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In May of 2007 Kate had a meeting in Geneva Switzerland and asked if I'd like to come along. We've had some cool weather in the spring before, and we were to be in Budapest later, so I was not too keen on another trip to the area ... but then Kate mentioned that the Burgundy wine region of France is right next door. Well then, Ok, count me in!

We met our niece Paula at the Geneva airport and she travelled with us for the duration of her stay. She had been travelling in England with Gordon, her dad, and Eva, her sister and it's a short flight over to Geneva.

Geneva is on Lake Geneva (of course) but is a very short distance from France (it's not clear to me why Geneva isn't in France!). It's in the French canton of Switzerland. We rented a car for our trip at the airport and found our way to Annecy France which is due south but not that far. We had reservations for a place in town but it was one of those "You can't get there from here" problems. Paula, who is reasonably fluent in French, was some help and we stopped for directions several times. We ultimately found the hotel and squeezed our car into an impossibly small parking spot in an under ground parking lot beneath the hotel.

We found navigating the Burgundy region much easier. We found our way to the city of Beaune in the heart of the Burgundy region. We had a lovely two story suite for the three of us in a converted building (perhaps it was an animal or wine barn at one time) called the Hotel Belle Epoque which was just a short walk from the walled city. Our room was on a warm sunny courtyard and every morning we dined on fresh bread and croissants with fresh butter and jams, strong coffee. Every night we dined out and always had escargot (snails: it was the season for fresh snails). Escargot in garlic butter, escargot in pastry, escargot in lots of things. Each morning Kate swore she'd had enough snails and garlic but each night we were back for more.

On our first day we visited around the city. There's a city shuttle train that takes you around the city and out into some of the vineyards. There's even some vineyards right in the city. And there are wine caves to explore and lots of wine to taste.

Burgundy wines are some of my favorites. There's the major region Cote de Beaune with Beaune at the north end, then the Cote de Nuits region to the north with lots of minor regions nearby. We visited several wineries to the south of Beaune and enjoyed them all. At one we could have bought a 1980 Burgundy (from the year we were married) for only 100 euros. They have an extensive library in their underground caves and would open, taste and recork a bottle for us -- they might have to open quite a few bottles to find one that hadn't gone bad. We travelled as far as Mount de Sene where there's a scenic overlook of the valley.

After Burgundy a friend (a sommelier) back home had recommended we explore the Jura Region. This is a recommendation I'd not pass on. It's an interesting area to explore but the wines are oxidized and tast awful. That's apparently how they're supposed to taste.

In Geneva for Kate's meetings we stayed at Le MontBrillant which is right in the CBD and beside the train station. Paula was a great help with shlepping our luggage from the closest parking spot (several blocks away). It was great to have her there, it would have been very difficult without her. I took the car back to the airport and then returned by the city metro system. We had dinner at our hotel that evening. Everything was very expensive and we ended up having "Raclette" -- boiled potatoes, pickles and melted raclette cheese. Well, it was the only thing that made any sense!

While Kate was at her meetings Paula and I explored the city, which is quite scenic and very historic. There's a very old well maintained cathedral that we explored with great views from on high of the city. There's the waterfront of course and lots of lanes and alleyways to explore.

Another day Paula figured out that we could take a train (from our hotel door step) along the north shore of Lake Geneva through Lausanne and just a little past Montreux to find the Chillon Castle -- a medieval fortress on the shore of Lake Geneva which was used as a choke point on the trade route through the Alps. We spent the day there, it's authentic and fun to explore (e.g. a prisoner in the dungeon of the castle was made famous by Byron in a poem "The Prisoner of Chillon") and walked back to Montreux where we caught the train to return to Geneva. It was a good day.

Here's some photos from our visit for those who are interested.