Burgundy: Syrup and Wine 🇫🇷

After driving through the Swiss and French Alps we headed to the Burgundy region of France. We had a short stay in the beautiful region and took advantage of our time tasting wine, black currant liquors, and following an owl through Dijon. Our first stop was in the town of Beaune where we visited Hôtel-Dieu de Beaune; a hospice built in 1443 by Nicolas Rolin and his wife Guigone de Salins. It was built as a refuge for the poor following an outbreak of plague. It was used as a hospital seeing patients for over 4 centuries with its last patients being seen in 1984. Afterwards it was converted to a museum.

 

We stayed in the village of Fixin next to the Domaine Joliet vineyard. The vineyard was established in 1142 when the monks built Manoir de la Perrière to age their wine. It transferred through several families until the Joliets acquired the vineyard in 1853.  Since then it’s been passed down through generations producing the same high quality wine. The vineyard consists of 5 hectares, mostly Premier Cru fields. The Burgundy region ratings are tied to the fields based on their location and soil quality with Grand Cru being the best followed by Preimere Cru and then everything else. They produce two Pinot Noir wines (one Villages and one Premier Cru rating) and one white Premier Cru Chardonnay. Burgundy is mainly known for their Pinot Noirs, but towards the southern region there are more Chardonnay fields.

A lesser known specialty of the region is Crème de cassis, a black currant liqueur. We visited the Le Cassissium an interactive museum dedicated to the production of black currant. We didn’t do the tour but went straight to the bar for the tasting. While we enjoyed the blackcurrant liqueurs the kids went straight to the syrup bar, which we payed for later. The wall was decorated with all sorts of cocktails to mix blackcurrant liqueurs with including white wine and beer! The kids picked out the bubblegum and blackcurrant syrups and we got a bottle of blackcurrant to go with with our vending machine pizza. Yes, France has pizza vending machines and we thought Germany was special with their sausage vending machines.

Our last stop in the region was the town of Dijon (pass the grey poupon).  Despite its mustard being an international commodity the owl has become the symbol of the city. There is a magic owl carved in the side of the Church of Notre-Dame. It was added to the church in the 16th century but nobody knows exactly why or who added it. It is said that if you touch the owl with your left hand and make a wish it’ll come true. The city has several golden owl triangles that guide visitors around the city on the Owl Trail. The kids loved searching for the owls as we ventured around the city. We grabbed a yummy lunch before heading out of beef bourguignon and pork poutine with old fashioned mustard sauce.