Panorama 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 ...

... to Beaune we had a 3 hour car ride ahead of us. I tried to stay awake and look over some school notes but that was doing more harm than good as did my magazine so I ended up falling asleep. I woke up with around 30 minutes until our destination, at least thats what the GPS told us. We were on the highway so the parts of the 'countryside' that I saw seemed pretty bleak and boring, just like driving the Florida turnpike in some areas. <br><br>We reached our destination ...

I only stayed for one night here because there was nothing in particular that I wanted to see, I just came to see what it was like. I caught the train back to Paris and had to use a different train station because Paris has several, all of which have trains going to certain places. My metro ticket should have expired but the other morning it had worked so I tried it again. After a couple of goes it was accepted, Yes! Machines can be foiled, and then 'stole' my way to Gare De ...

... distance. (Or anything else, come to that!).<br><br>18th July 09 Giffaumont-Champaubert 48.33'15"N 4.45'55"E<br>Free parking at a leisure park on a huge lake.<br><br>20th July 09 Piney, near Troyes 48.21'30"N4.20'05"E<br><br>21st July 09 Sens 48.11'53"N3.17'24"E <br>At last we have arrived in Burgundy. At the moment our intention is to explore the Bourgogne unti our return in October. However, plans can change....<br>Sens is a pleasant town with a ...

... There we met a lovely French/Hungarian family (Attila makes a point of talking to everyone he hears speaking Hungarian... except in Hungary, of course). The gentleman was from France and spoke English so he helped by clarifying what the extremely-fast-speaking tour guide was showing us.<br><br>After leaving the castle we finished our drive through the vinyards of Burgundy and headed back to Beaune for dinner.<br>

... which was lit up quite spookily. Beaune is a place we would definitely like to come back to and to explore properly. <br><br>We only had time to walk around a small part of the town, but it seemed quite sleepy: the bars were closing up at about 10.30pm. We trooped back to the campsite and had a late beer sat by the Bongo. Toppling into the van to sleep we were both shocked at how warm it still was - sleep seemed ...

... buffet. Free, except for the watchful eyes of the people behind us. Believe me, anyone who got a little piggy got a glare! North Burgundy Now for the afternboon. We rock and roll through the grand cru region of Burgundy. The families who own the grand cru vinyards have had them for centuries and they are rarely for sale. When they do come on the market, the Japanese, English, and Americans ...

... Even though it marked the end of my trip, I had been looking forward to these two days nearly since the idea for the whole excursion hit me. Wine tasting in one of the most famous regions of the world just seemed the natural way to wrap it all up. So far, things were definitely measuring up to my expectations. The food and, of course, the wine I anticipated would mesmerize. What I hadn't counted on was the beauty of the French countryside. The colors, as I said, were stunning this ...

... little B&B for only 60 Euros for all of us. The town (can't remember the name...sorry) was really cute and had a nice little hike that took us by a crystal clear meandering stream, by an old castle and neat old cemetery and through the town. Oh yeah, and as we were walking by a little park at dusk, we looked over in the shadow of a tree was a large animal. We looked a little more closely and Nate almost shrieked with glee because it was a camel...actually there ...