Share your Experience in Burgundy
 

Planning a stay in Burgandy in July 2007. Looking for a nice hotel with good restaurant in it or nearby so we can tour countryside.
Any hints with what to see in the area and where to have a base? Thanks

http://www.lesliecaron-auberge.com/index.html

I have not stayed there but I plan to the next time I am in the region.

Here is my report of Beaune:
We have reserved Hotel Grillon for one night in Beaune, and Hostellier Viex Moulin in Bouilland for one night
I would highly recommend both hotels, very different in styles but both very nice. I will continue to post about Beaune soon!



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Author: pjsparlor ([email protected])
Date: 03/14/2005, 08:13 am
We have arrived in Beaune, we are staying at Hotel Grillon. It is a fairly quick walk from the train station to the hotel.

Very charming hotel, I do not know the owners name, but she speaks wonderful English and is very inviting.
We have two rooms, one double and one twin. We chose the rooms with shower only. We paid 52 euro, what a bargain!
All tile floors throughout,



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Author: pjsparlor ([email protected])
Date: 03/14/2005, 08:25 am
Did not mean to post!! OK, tile floor throughout the hotel. Be careful and do not drop your wine glass on the floor like me!! I have never seen a glass shatter into so many pieces!!!

we walk to the city center of Beaune, our first stop is Hospices. All I can say is wow. Take the audio tour it is good. Such an interesting story. We stayed there a couple hours.

Now we are off the eat! I do not know any of the restaurants we ate at in Beaune. But we enjoyed coq au vin, boef borgonoene, [spelling], and very yummy flatbreads.We tried to eat at Ma Cuisine but it was closed.
There are alot of chocolate shops in Beaune! Good thing we walk alot, we definetely indulged with food and wine on this trip!
We stop in to a couple wine shops, and the owners of both shops were so helpful! They were priming us for our day of winetasting. We learned so much about Burgundy, especially Cote d'Or.
It is time for us to get a good nights rest, we walked back to the hotel at night. There was absolutely no problems getting to our hotel. It is right outside the city center.





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Author: pjsparlor ([email protected])
Date: 03/14/2005, 11:15 am
Our second day on Beaune. Did I say it was green coming in from snowy Paris? Well we woke up to a winter wonderland in Beaune! Of course this is our one and only driving day in France too.
We have breakfast at Hotel Grillon, it was 9 euro. They served grains, yogurt, fruit, croissents, breads, juices, coffee, teas. Very satifying breakfast and cute little breakfast room. We thought it was amusing since this was a ladies trip for us, it was interesting that the whole hotel was filled with ladies on their own also!!
No men at this hotel in March!
We rented our car from ADA, they are located at the train station. They were the most reasonable for one day only rental.
Well we were in for a shock, I rented a midsize car. They upgraded me for the only car they had. A ten person van! It was a boat, we were a little intimidated by the size of this vechicle. But we are on a mission to taste wines, and this is our transport.
We were planning to take some obscure backroads but because of the snow we will be on route 74.
We arrive in Nuits-St-Georges, what a charmining village. I have one winery booked for tasting, the rest of the day we are going to wing it.
Our first wine tasting is at Morin Perre Et Filles. You do not need an appointment for this establishment. The gentleman is very charming, not a lot of English and we speak no French but did communicate.
We have already discovered we like the wines of Nuits-St-Georges better than Beaune regione. Nuits wines are fuller bodied.
We than do a cassis tasting. This is where I fall in love with creme de peche. So, alas, I buy a bottle of creme de casis and creme de peche!
We are now ready for lunch. I order my kir peche [yummy] and a chaud chevre salad. The salad is the best goat cheese salad I have had in France [yet] My friends had coq au vin, boef burgundy, it was all delicious.
We are now ready for our serious wine tasting at Domaine Chantal Lescure. The owner is Catherine Ronne. Unfortunetly she did not have our appointment, but she still found the time to give us a tour. What a interesting tour, the whole overview of the winemaking process, the soil, everything.
Catherine is so passionate about what she does. She really makes you think about wine, in a whole new way. It really is a living thing, and when you drink the wine you are really drinking every flavor from the soil. The earthiness, the sun, all that went into the grape and its skin to produce the wine you are drinking!
I will never open another bottle of wine and not think of some pearl of wisdom that Catherin said.
I bought Chambolle Musigny 2002, Les mombies, an Pommard 2001 Les Vaumuriens. They are still maturing, so I will need to lay them down a few years before I can indulge. Boy this is going to be hard!!
Our next Domaine is Georges Chicotot. We made an appointment when we arrived in Nuits-St-Georges. We met Pasquala, Georges wife. What a gift she is! So funny, full of life, very intersting lady!
We did barrel tasting at this Domaine. PasQuala's husband George is 7th generation wine maker. We tasted the wines in their roman vaulted caves. Wow, just standing in the vaulted Roman caves with all those wines was an experince.
We were priveledged to taste 6 different barrels. We enjoyed their wines immensely. I bought 1st cru Nuits-St-Georges Les Vaucrains, 2002. Another vintage that need a little more aging. Boy it is going to be hard being patient!
I have another footnote, my sister was the designated driver, and after 6 tastings in a Roman cave I am glad I am not driving!
My next report will be on Bouilland. We dined at 1 star michelin rated restaurant and hotel. The name is Hotel Vieux moulin.



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Author: pjsparlor ([email protected])
Date: 03/14/2005, 11:52 am
The road to Bouilland is totally snow covered. It is quite hilly also. We arrive in this sleepy little village around 8:00 pm. The front desk thinks we are quite brave to forge ahead with our plans to drive here. In fact every guest has cancelled their dining reservations except us!!
we are now dining at a one star michelin restaurant with our own private chef!1
I will print out what we ordered

Tarte de trompettes et chataignes, jus mousseux, cylindre de queue de boeuf, speck seche

langoustiness sautees, mangue et legumes, sorbet avocat

dorade sauvage rotie en ecailles, pulpe de celeri, emulsion d asperges

1/2 poitrine de pigeon rot encage de pomme de terre et la cuisse comme un paramentier d'oignon
notre selection de fromages frais et affaines
of course we received all kinds of amusements!
My dessert souffle, we ate and ate and had wonderful wine pairings also!

The hotel was nice, maybe some updating is in order. But the beds and pillows were outstanding!




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Hi PJ,

Thanks for the report.

We will be staying at the Grillon in May.

((I))

Ira, lucky you! PJ

our Cocoindigon has a lovely place.

I've not stayed there but I like her posts so I'm sure that the place is nice! I'll stay there when next I get cross over

Thanks for your trip report. The Hotel Grillon looks very nice. Do you think Beaune is a good base?

Link to my comments and pictures about Burgundy and yes I think Beaune is a good place to explore from.
http://tinyurl.com/v2asy

This past Sept we spent 2 weeks in a Gite just 10 mins south of Beaune - fabulous views & surrounded by vineyards.

We found ourselves spending too much time in the car getting to sites in the region around Auxerre. There are many things to see in the Beaune area, and also lots of stuff around Auxerre - which is 1 1/2 hrs away on the freeway.

For example, one day we visited Auxerre (allow 3 hrs), Vezelay, and then Ch de Bazoches. There was 3 hrs of freeway travel time getting to/from - and the freeway is not that scenic, except in a few places where you can see Ch Chateauneuf perched on a hill.

Next day it was on the same freeway & 1 1/4 hrs to Noyers, Ch Tanlay, Ch Ancy le Franc, and then Fontenay and 1 1/4 hrs back to Beaune.

Another day it was 1 hr to Semur en Auxois, Epoisses, Flagvigny (big disappointment), and Ch Bussy Rabutin, then 1 1/2 hrs back to Beaune.

Sens was way too far away for a day-trip, so we did and overnight and explored Sens, Provins, stayed overnight in Troyes (fantastic), and then Langres.

We did not want to do another 2 1/2 hrs of traveling to the Auxerre region again to visit Avallon, so we had to skip that and we also skipped Chablis.

If I were planning this trip again, I would have stayed 1 week in Beaune, and 1 week in Auxerre - which would have cut down the "dead" travel time and allowed us to see more things in a single day.

Stu Dudley

Thanks for the pictures robjame. it really gives you a feel of the place.
Stu: I appreciate you comment on all the driving. Sometimes it is better to change hotels.
You gave me some info on the Alsace region. Which did you like better, Alsace or Burgundy??
Thanks

I know you asked Stu but if I can butt in... We much preferred Burgundy area to Alsace. We would go back to Burgundy but we have finished with Alsace... too much kitsch. I am sure others would disagree but I can't think of those "cute" villages without breaking into "The hills are alive with the sound of music...". And touristy...

>>Which did you like better, Alsace or Burgundy<<

I'de call it a tie!!!

Dijon is my favorite city

Colmar is my favorite town (town is smaller than a city), but Beaune is not far behind.

Auxerre is a very interesting city - as is Strasbourg.

The small villages in Alsace are much, much "cuter" and more interesting than the small villages in Burgundy. Actually, only Noyers in Burgundy would make my list of "150 cutest small villages in France". There would be about 10 from Alsace.

The Route du Vin in Alsace is 10-20 times more interesting & prettier than the Cote du Beaune - especially if you travel the small roads west of the Route du Vin..

Many more interesting chateaux in Burgundy than in Alsace.

More interesting cathedrals & other religious buildings in Burgundy.

I think there is more variety in Burgundy than in Alsace, but Alsace, on the whole, is "prettier".

I would get a little bored with Alsace after about 7 days, but not so in Burgundy.

These are just my personal opinions & observations.

Stu Dudley

I agree wih robjame's assessment. Like I stated in the Alsace write-up I sent you, after awhile, all the "cute" villages in Alsace start to have a certain similarity to them & you might get a little bored. I think there is certainly enough variety in Alsace to keep entertained for 6 days or so. Last time we were there for a week, we took a day-train to Nancy for a visit. We did not tour Strasbourg, because we have visited it several times before.

Stu Dudley

I have narrowed it down to these two areas but am having difficulty making a decision. Thanks to both robjame and STu for your thoughts.

We only have three or four days enroute to Paris so we would probably enjoy either one. On the other hand only having 3-4 days you want to make a good choice!

If you have only 3-4 days, I would visit Alsace. Burgundy will consume more days because of the Chateaux closings for lunch, & the additional driving around you will have to do. You can certainly hit Dijon going to or from Alsace & stay overnight there. Last time we visited Alsace, we spent a week there, drove to Dijon, dumped the car, stayed overnight, then off to Paris. We went directly to CDG, but there are frequent trains to Paris Lyon station. If you arrive at the station round noon, have lunch at Train Bleu - one of my favorite restaurant in Paris for the "ambience" (not the food).

Stu Dudley

I learn so much from these threads -- based on recommendations from posters here, in May/June I'll be staying at Coco's flat in Dijon and hope to have dinner at Leslie Caron's auberge.

By the time I go, I will have gathered a million restaurant names too. I love you guys!

bookmarking

bookmarking

There's been several recent questions about Burgundy hotels and I've been wracking my brain trying to remember the name of the place we stayed at about 5 years ago...well, I finally found it by doing a search on Trip Advisor.

Chateau de Messey, near Tournus
www.demessey.com

You can't get a more authentic vineyard experience than this; the hosts are wonderful and the food excellent. They also gave us a good recommendation for a restaurant in Tournus when we decided to eat out one night. Eating at the chateau is family-style so you never know who you're going to meet. They offer quite reasonable nightly and weekly rates. You can walk around the vineyards, meet the farm animals, and generally get a feeling for what it's like to live on a working vineyard. Highly recommended!

As I told some one this morning. In Dijon, try Hotel Phillippe Le Bon at 18 Rue Sainte Anne. Nice large rooms with modern decor. Good sized bathrooms for Europe. Don't have the phone number but you can get that elsewhere.

hdm - we got shut out of Leslie Caron's place as it is closed Sunday and Monday. Keep that in mind.

Well, I can not recommend a hotel,but we had a fabulous time in Burgundy last fall. It has been one of our favorite places on our multi year world tour.

My husband is a vinter by hobby and we grew a small pinot vineyard at our last home from scratch, so it had special meaning to us, but I can not imagine anyone not loving it. Even our 6yo loved it!

You can see our trip report and some pics on our blog Soultravelers3.com, the Burgundy section starts here:

http://www.soultravelers3.com/blog/A...631FD2610.html


I think you might find some nice hints there. ;)

A wonderful hotel in Beaune is Le Cep. I believe that make Conde Nasts list of best hotels every year. Superb gourmet restaurnt but also lots of dining nearby. All the rooms are unique. We had a excellent stay here.

robjame, I'm so glad you mentioned that! I was planning to go to LC's auberge for dinner one of the nights we're in Auxerre because I understand it's not too far from there. As it turns out we're in Auxerre Saturday, Sunday and Monday, so I guess Saturday is our only option. I'd better make those reservations!

hdm - We are staying in that area at:
http://www.hotel-parcmarechaux.com/
and
http://www.hostellerie-des-clos.fr/uklhotel.htm
The later is a StuDudley rec and supposedly has a great 1* restaurant.
We are hoping to stay at Coco's flat sometime in the future so don't wreck the furniture!

We have stayed three times at Leslie's place. Beaware, the top room suite has very narrow steep stone stairs . Anyone wuith big feet (blush!) or bad feet, must climb at an angle.
In September we are going back to a favorite of mine in Avallon, The Moulin des Ruats. The only place I know that serves Truite Bleu.

robjame,
we're also staying at the Parc Marechaux (I believe we have the red room on the website). When will you be there? We're in Auxerre from May 26 to 28, when we go to Dijon.

Cigal -- you made me laugh! I have been feet and always have to go downstairs at an angle!

Sigh. Big. Big feet. Not been feet. Although who knows? Maybe I've been feet in a past life.

October 21 & 22 - a shame as it would have been an honor to meet you.
We are staying in Murat - is that the red room?

I'm sorry we're going to miss you, robjame. I don't know the name of the room, only that Rosemary said it's the 'red-coloured' room on the website. It looks lovely, so I hope I'm looking at the right one.

bookmarking, for ira's choice of Grillon...