Beaune

As you can see, we’ve decided to try a few new things on this trip. France (as opposed to Italy) and using extra miles to fly business class being just the first two. The next new thing we decided to try was driving. It seemed like it would provide an opportunity to see the French countryside, be a little easier to deal with the bikes and give us some flexibility for sight seeing. So after our luxurious flight, we picked up the car and jumped on the Parisian freeways…at rush hour. Talk about Baptism by Fire. With Ali navigating and my eyes on the road we managed to get out of Paris without incident. There was a major accident that caused a huge traffic jam…reminded us of home.

It’s a long drive from Paris to Provence so we decided to take a day and investigate Burgundy (Bourgogne) and spend a day in the town of Beaune near Dijon. We had a great day walking around town, taking a spin through the vineyards and generally getting adjusted to the time zone.

Tuesday evening we set out for a classic French dinner. On the way we made a quick stop at a bar for a little aperitif, the local favorite is a Kir, yum! Then we headed over to the restaurant which was a converted wine cave. We shared a couple of classic French entrees and of course we had to partake in the cheese course. We half expected Julia Child to step out of the kitchen at any moment. We enjoyed everything but agreed that we’re not huge fans of ‘classic’ French food.

Tomorrow we head South…can’t wait.