Question 1

Beaune on Your Own

Accepted Answer

Free time on a Beaune excursion is a walk inside the walls, where the Hôtel-Dieu, the market hall, the collegiate church and the wine cellars are close together. Visiting the Hôtel-Dieu takes about an hour, which leaves time for a walk along the ramparts or a tasting. The Hôtel-Dieu: The former hospital for the poor, now a museum, has glazed-tile roofs around a stone courtyard. Les Halles: The old market hall stands opposite the Hôtel-Dieu and holds the Saturday market. Notre-Dame: The collegiate church of Notre-Dame was built in the 12th century. The ramparts: The battlements, ramparts and moat have largely survived in good condition, and the ring road follows the old walls. Wine cellars: Many wine producers, large and small, have their cellars in the historic center, as they have since Roman times, and some offer tastings. Back to the coach: Be at the meeting point at the time your line gives, and leave a margin, because the return to the ship is by road and a ship will not wait for passengers touring on their own.

Question 2

Food and Wine

Accepted Answer

Burgundy's classic dishes include beef bourguignon, coq au vin, œufs en meurette and escargots, or snails. The red wines around Beaune are Pinot Noir and the whites almost all Chardonnay, and a white called Aligoté goes into kir. Époisses is a pungent soft cow's-milk cheese from a village in the Côte-d'Or, with a red-orange washed rind that is edible. Kir is crème de cassis, a blackcurrant liqueur, topped with white wine, originally Bourgogne Aligoté. It is named after Félix Kir, a mayor of Dijon who served it to visiting delegations. The Fallot mustard works has made mustard in Beaune since 1840.

Question 3

Tipping in France

Accepted Answer

France uses the euro. The cost of service is included in menu prices by law, so a tip is neither required nor expected. Restaurants: A tip is for outstanding service only, and French diners who do tip usually just round up the bill.

Question 4

Wine, Auctions and Film

Accepted Answer

Beaune is the trading center of Burgundy wine, where many of the region's major merchant houses are based. It is also one of several European towns that claim a role in the invention of film. The Hospices de Beaune have held a charity wine auction every year since 1859, on the third Sunday in November, during a three-day festival called Les Trois Glorieuses. The Hospices own about 61 hectares of donated vineyards, much of it classed as grand cru or premier cru. The Route des Grands Crus, a tourist road of about 60 kilometers, runs along the foot of the Côte d'Or from Dijon in the north to Santenay in the south and passes through Beaune. Étienne-Jules Marey, a physiologist and chronophotographer widely seen as a pioneer of cinema, was born in Beaune in 1830, and murals in the town take up its claim to the invention of film. The painter Félix Ziem was also born in Beaune.

Question 5

A Brief History

Accepted Answer

Beaune grew up around a spring, became a Roman fort and then a town closely tied to the Dukes of Burgundy. Its great monument, the Hôtel-Dieu, was founded in the 1440s as a hospital for the poor and cared for patients until 1971. The spring: The name Beaune comes from Belena, the Gaulish name of a spring around which the settlement grew, linked to Belenos, a god of fast-flowing water. Roman Beaune: A Roman fort was built here in the 1st century AD, and by the 13th century the area was a prosperous wine region. The Hôtel-Dieu: Nicolas Rolin, chancellor of the Duke of Burgundy, and his wife Guigone de Salins founded the hospital in the 1440s, when the people of Beaune were destitute after war and plague. 1477: When King Louis XI claimed Burgundy after the death of Duke Charles the Bold, Beaune took the side of Mary of Burgundy against him. 1859: The Hospices held the first of their annual charity wine auctions. After the First World War: At the end of the war, the American Expeditionary Forces set up a university in Beaune. 1971: The Hôtel-Dieu stopped serving as a hospital, and patients moved to modern buildings. 2015: The vineyards and the historic center of Beaune were inscribed by UNESCO as part of the Climats, terroirs of Burgundy. To learn more ashore: The Hôtel-Dieu, on Rue de l'Hôtel-Dieu, is a museum of its own history, with its great ward, its chapel and Rogier van der Weyden's altarpiece.

Question 6

Beaune with Children

Accepted Answer

With children, Beaune is a short walking town, and the Hôtel-Dieu is the visit to build the time around. A turn along the ramparts and a stop at the market fill the rest. Younger children: The walk around the old walls and a look at the Saturday market stalls, with cheeses, chickens and seasonal produce, keep small children moving. School age: In the Hôtel-Dieu's Room of the Poor, 50 meters long, every curtained bed held two patients. Look up at the painted ceiling, shaped like an upturned boat, and at the caricatures of leading townspeople carved into the beams. Teenagers: Marey's experiments with moving pictures make a good starting point for a talk about how cinema began, and the town's murals take up the theme.

Question 7

Shopping

Accepted Answer

Most of the old town's shops are near the central square, and many of them sell food and wine. The Saturday food market is the big event of the week, with a smaller market on Wednesday. The Saturday market sells produce from Burgundy and nearby regions, such as Bresse chickens, Jura cheeses, cured meats, spices and seasonal truffles. The town is very crowded on market days. Mustard from the Fallot works and wine from the merchants in the old town are local products to take home.

Beaune

Good to know

Reaching Beaune