A day in Beaune

Beaune is a short drive from our house so we decided to spend a day there. Monday disclosed ample parking, possibly because many things in this tourist town are shut after the exertions of Sunday.
The town inside the ramparts (mostly built to keep the various marauders out during the 30 Years War 1618-1648) is compact and we feel can be sufficiently explored by tourists such as us in one day.

The hotel de ville is neat, and it was pleasing to see artichoke flowers in its garden.

The amazing jewel is the Hotel-Dieu, and although we had seen it on our last visit to the town in 1986, our memory suggests that it has been much restored and is now more extensively and far better displayed. Flash photos are not permitted and I had no tripod, so my internal photos are blurred or to dark to show without light correction not possible with my current iPad skills.
But the external court of honor, a straw model by an 18th century patient, the kitchen and pharmacy with bottles of woodlice powder, crayfish eyes, vomit nuts powder etc are all worth the camera eye. The polyptych of the last judgment has a giant magnifying glass installed in front of it's centre so that the exquisite detail may be appreciated.

After a picnic lunch outside the ramparts we took a walk along them but there was not much of interest to see for those who are not war historians of the 17th century.

We then took the recommended visit to the caves of the largest wine agent, Patriarche Pere et Fils. There are literally kilometres of caves and millions of bottles, punctuated by videos in the language of your choice. We set a cracking pace to keep ahead of a group of Germans seeking to watch the shows in German. At the end of the exploration we were presented with traditional tin tasting cups and offered a carefully arranged group of 13 of the region's wines to taste with them (10 pinots). Our verdict is that metal cups are not good for tasting (a fact also well known to Cleopatra, who used to insist on glass). However we gave very positive marks to the Mersault (white) and Gevrey Chambertin 2008 & Pommard 2007 (reds).

A visit to E.LeClerc to buy milk on the way home demonstrated again what we already knew, that a French hypermarket far outsizes any Coles or Woolworths.