#476 Day 14 Beaune Visit (Shopping)

One of the highlights of our visits to the Dijon area is a trip to Beaune. You can google map this one too.

We had planned to visit the Fallot Mustard Museum in the morning. They open at 10 AM and we were there waiting for the doors to open. They no longer manufacture mustard at this site as they once did. Our guide gave us quite a nice tour. One of the most interesting parts was to learn how the mustard seeds are crushed with a little oil. An interesting fact we didn't know about was the taste of pepper when they are first crushed. We even got a chance to taste some of the different mustards. All quite delicious.

The next stop was shopping at Maryann's favorite store. We were in it for about 20 minutes before she realized that we were there. We all had a good laugh about that one. After the requisite shopping we had lunch and then prepared for the next event, the tour of the Bouchard Pere & Fils winery. Google might be of help here too.

We had a fun time locating the winery. Apparently there is another Bouchard winery in Beaune. We stopped there first only to discover that we were at the wrong place. They would have given us a tour there but we had a reservation at the other one. The young lady who was our tour guide was very knowledgeable and quite hospitable. You can see that there are bottles that have been in the cellars for quite some time. She told us that every 25 years or so the vintages are decanted, tested and re-corked. After touring the cellar we toured the grounds and then went to the tasting room. There were only seven of us on the tour. You can see how sumptuous the grounds are.

Our friends had made a dinner reservations at le P'tit Pardis, a restaurant that was highly praised in Wine Spectator. Our reservation was for dinner at 7:30 PM when the restaurant opened. We had some time to kill so we toured the vineyards in the surrounding area and then spent some time at a beautiful park in Beaune. We got a kick out of the children feeding the animals. You might know that I couldn't get my camera ready when the little girl in red was nose-to-nose with one of the deer.

After a lovely day we returned to the main part of town to get ready for dinner. It was around 6:30 PM so we walked around the town and passed the restaurant, la Cave du Paradoxe. We arrived at le P'tit Paradis around 7:15. There were two young woman sitting at one of the outdoor tables chatting and smoking. It was obvious that they worked there and were waiting for the time to open for business. When asked if we could sit at a table until our reservation time, we were quite rudely told NO!!! We informed them that we were tired and just wanted to have rest. NO!!! We mentioned that we had read a glowing report in Wine Spectator. "We don't need that", was the reply. We left. Since we were tired, hungry and thirsty we decided to dine at la Cave du Paradoxe if they had space for us. They did and we had an enjoyable dinner. The wine was good too.

We then went back to "Paradis" to inform the manager of the manner in which we were treated. Much to our dismay the rude young lady pronounced that she was in charge. She mentioned she was sorry. Too little, too late.

We didn't quit with that. Our friends wrote to the local restaurant guide of our treatment. Maryann wrote to the editor of Wine Spectator. Later we learned that our friend, Jean Louis, happened to meet with one of his insurance company agents who worked in Beaun and told him of our situation. The agent said that the owner was a personal friend and that he would have a talk with him. We are waiting to learn what, if anything, happened after that.

In spite of that minor glitch, we had a wonderful day. There is something about sharing such adventures with good friends that makes the experience worthwhile.

#476