Bourgogne - French wine tasting

We got to Beaune, France on Monday afternoon after a train ride and car trip from Geneva, Switzerland. We picked Beaune in a very random fashion for this trip. My friend Julie was going to be in Paris until June 3rd and Jessica and I had our plans in Switzerland, so Dijon seemed to be a happy in between. And after reading reviews, Jessica ended up booking us in a cute B&B in a town right outside of Beaune. We have a room with a Kenya theme. It's pretty awesome. 

Kenya Room at La Marelle

Beaune is an adorable little French town about 45 miles from Dijon, in the Burgundy region of France. We were only staying in this region for 2 nights, so Jessica and I took full advantage of heading into the town for some wine tasting and yummy french cuisine as soon as we arrived. We ended up at an amazing gastropub called Maison du Columbier and enjoyed french wine, french cheese, french bread and foie gras! 

Antipasti, cheese, french bread and french wine!

Foie gras tartine

Church off the square in Beaune

Pretty sky over Beaune 

On our second day in Beaune, we picked Julie up from the train station and rented bikes to go wine tasting at the nearby vineyards. I am so excited to travel with Julie and celebrate being done with our MBA! We will be together from now until I leave on June 13th. 

So we rented bikes and got a map and off we went to explore Bourgogne. We rode a total of 36 km up some crazy vineyard hills. It was beautiful. Vines in every direction. Julie said it best when she said, "wow, anywhere they can grow grapes they do!" 

Ready to bike

At the start of the bike path through Bourgogne

Vineyards

We stopped for lunch in a cute town and started our food tasting day! 

Clockwise from top left: poached eggs in a burgundy sauce, escargot, squid in a pepper tomato sauce, meat and cheese plate

The wine tastings were kind of a let down. We stopped at a cute cave with a nice old french woman and tried 3 reds and 3 whites. We learned that all reds from the region are pinot noir and all whites are Chardonnay. None of us particularly loved any of the wines we tasted. 

First of 2 tasting rooms 

Second tasting room, a Michel Picard vineyard 

So after a tasting, lunch and another small tasting, we rode back to Beaune to do some in-town wine tastings to see if it was more enjoyable. And it was!!!! We had some wine at a cute cave bar we had read about and then at a recommended little cafe. Both were fantastic! I decided south french red wines were much more my flavor after a few glasses. 

Caves de l'Abbaye

Overall Beaune was a fun stop in France but we are all very excited to get down south and explore Provence!!