day 13 Beaune and Burgundy

Day 13 Beaune, la Chateau Dree
The chateaus just get more and more gorgeous! This one is near Charolle, south of Beaune, which is where the Charolais cattle come from of course and we chatted to some during lunch.

Madame la Comtesse has this as her country residence, having bought it from the Belgian Royal Family in 1993 who bought it from the family of Napoleon's brother. So very old, 1620s in fact, but was derelict when Madame took it over. She spent 2 years restoring the building and then went to work on the gardens which are perfect. She's not in residence today.

We had a guided tour of the inside of the chateau and I took a photo of the dining room before discovering photography is not allowed...

I'm not sure if this is the back or front door but either way it's pretty good.

There are 40,000 box plants here to make all the hedges and it looks like a gardener is employed full-time to cut them.



Lunch is a Lucy and Fab special prepared and served from the side of the bus with fresh salads, terrines and local cheeses bought this morning. We love these lunches and sit happily on the ground with our loaded plates and glasses of wine while watching the Charolais cattle in the nearby field.

This farmhouse, le Jardin du Zephyr, is a much more modest proposition than thew chateau, but what a lovely friendly couple who welcome us. The village of 150 people have never had Australians there before and send a press photographer around to take a photo for the local paper. Madame and her friend made (unasked) afternoon tea for us with fresh madeleines and jam sponge roll - not that we need more food - but the people were so nice we had to do our best.

David loved this country of rolling hills, Douglas firs and sawmills.
The garden is famous for its roses, alas over, and now its rose hips, so Merryle gave us a little talk on the bus about using rose hips for good health. Every day she comes up with a gem on the bus to keep us interested during the drives. I resolve to do something with 'Buff Beauty' rose hips.

Back in Beaune for the evening and fiinding our own dinner, but we were full of madeleines so no snails tonight. I had them last night for entree and really liked them - well what's to not like about lots of garlic butter and parsley - maybe one more time...