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ABOVE: The Marché aux Vins (left) is on the
same square as the Hotel-Dieu, a charity hospital-turned-museum..
Beaune, France
Continued
from: Chalon-sur-Saône
Need
a place to stay in Beaune?
Check Venere's Beaune
hotel listings for competitive rates.
The MS Maribelle offered a
Sunday-morning shore excursion to Beaune on our first full day aboard ship.
Beaune is the capital of Burgundy's wine country, with walled
fortifications and innumerable shops, restaurants, and cafés for the hordes of
tourists and oenophiles who come to savor medieval atmosphere and sample wines
from the region's world-class vineyards. During our brief visit to the city, we
visited:
The Hôtel-Dieu of the
Hospices de Beaune, a hospital from the Middle Ages (now a museum) that was
built in 1443 to care for sick and starving residents of the town. You can still
see the rooms and beds where patients received care until the 20th Century, and
the building itself is a beautifully preserved Gothic masterpiece with an
arcaded courtyard and a multicolored tile roof. (Today, medical facilities are
in a newer building, but the hospital is still supported by revenues from its 61
hectares of vineyards and a world-famous wine auction.)
The Clos St-Bernardin, one
of several wine caves where visitors can walk around the dimly lit cellars and
sample a variety of wines. During our tour, we we were offered red and white
wines along with crème de cassis and kir royale, which involves
diluting a splash of the blackcurrant liqueur with Crémant de Bourgogne
(the Burgundian version of Champagne). The experience made for a boozy Sunday
morning, especially for those who aren't used to taking Communion.
For more
information on Beaune and its attractions, see:
Cruise Photos: Beaune
europeforvisitors.com
These are from the 169 images in my MS Maribelle
Photo Gallery.
Beaune Tourist Office
Hospices Civils
de Beaune
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Durant
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