Hotel Dieu - Beaune

Another fine day and the plan is for a self guided trip - to Beaune, one of the wine communes of the Côte de Beaune subregion of the Burgundy wine region. But for us it was just another interesting old city to go ramble about. It was only about half an hour by train from Dijon. Stevie, our guide from the day before had marked out some suggestions on our map, but we were pretty much on our own to explore the city.

The Hotel Dieu was a highlight - run by the Hospices de Beaune it was a hospital for the poor (and not so poor - you could pay for a bit of extra comfort). It was certainly ahead of its time and even got support from Louis IVX who seems to pop up all over the place.

A wine tasting tour in tunnels under the city was another interesting diversion for the day, even if we still can't really taste the difference good wine and really good wine and really, really ... well you get the picture.Read more