Ibis Ferme Aux Vins Beaune

... is that everything closes for lunch from 12 to 2. They are serious on their lunchtime here, and when its raining and there's not much sightseeing to do in the small towns, well, lets just say we were lucky to have enough wine to get us through it. We also tried a proper french dinner in the town of Beaune, a 4 course meal for 12 Euros. Caity got Rabbit and Tom got Veal, or so we thought. We still aren't sure ...

... for a week and Angela and I were ready to get out of the city and taste some wine!<br><br>Friday night we ate at a local place near Angela's and my building that we have been eying for a while. Its a little Italian place which proved to be an excellent decision. Friday night we stayed at the time share Angela's mom had on the outskirts of Paris in order to minimize the commute in the morning since our goal was to leave around 7:30am. You read that right, 7:30am. To ...

... hours. <br>I got to Dijon at about 1840. My guidebook said the tourist office would be open until 1900 so I could get a map but it closed at 1830. Luckily I had copied down the directions to the hostel from the internet just in case. I had to take two buses. However, the second bus' monitor wasn't working and it was only by chance that I turned to look at the name of the next stop which I thought was mine, and so got out. Lucky I did though because I found that the bus ...

... bottle. Walking back to the van clutching our precious bottle - we're not used to paying £8.60 for a bottle of wine - we were stopped by a Begian couple who had pulled up in their camper. Being Belgian, their English was very good, and we described our tasting experience, mentioning that a single bottle of the second cheapest was a full 10eu!. Ten minutes or so later, they were on their way back to their van towing a trolley laden with three cases ...

Today we left Paris and headed for Burgundy. Our first stop was the historic project Le Chateau Guedelon. It is a medieval castle, built using medieval tools and tradesmen, but started in 1997. It is an active construction site as stone masons, rope markers, carpenters, tile makers, and laboureres all work to build this castle. It was fascinating. Our guide explained the different techniques in building an ...

... impressive<br>88 mph while the temperature guage registered - Gobi desert. Despite being ridden hard the <br>old girl took everything Kev could throw at her leaving him spent but happy.<br> Somewhere along the way a turning was missed and an extra hundred km's were added to the<br>journey. So we thought we knew better than Dashboard Doris and decided to go native and <br>head across country. Turns out that Doris is a smug cow but we did see some lovely ...

... easy enough to get this right on the motorways, ********* junctions of smaller roads! But the mistake lasted only a few seconds and the surprised French driver who alerted us to the mistake was really nice about it, slowing down gently as I eased (well, lurched) to the right side of the road, and not even offering a corrective beep - very polite indeed in the circumstances.<br><br>The last stretch of our day's journey ...

... police decided to shut down the stores/all vendors at the station, and I had a passport check and a few questions just to get to my platform, because the students of Milan were rampaging the station....    Yes, the university system crisis is actually a really big deal.  Anyway, once in Grenoble, I met some of Alex's friends and found out that we have some OTHER "friends" in common.... which was crazy, but a long ...

... telling. You know those teachers who ask questions about material they are about to teach to get an idea of who knows what? Well, that's really all she did, and I began to wonder if it was for her own amusement. She smirked at our wrong answers and only offered the right ones after we all struggled. I definitely learned a lot, so I can't say she was all bad, but I really wasn't a fan of her style and wondered if I could have learned more had she not been borderline ...

... s just that it can be a little awkward at first in the company of strangers. It goes against the grain of all the deep-seeded social graces I have ever been taught. But one thing I learned quickly, once you do decide to spit, you'd better really commit to it. Go to expel those juicy contents and waiver even in the slightest and you run the risk of a bad spit, wine dribbling down your chin or, worse, spotting that nice new cardigan of yours. No, once you lean in over that spittoon ...