We sailed overnight to Macon, but we didn’t get to see it – instead, we boarded buses to drive up the A6 for our “Burgundy Landscapes, Beaune and Hospices” tour, enjoying the landscape along the way (rapeseed is one of the major crops in the area).
They took us to an area of vineyards in Puligny-Montrachet, where we got to see Grand Cru Chardonnay at a very early stage in its growing season.
We thought about waiting for the grapes to be ready to be made into wine, but we just didn’t have enough time in our schedule.
We boarded the buses again for the short trip to Beaune, the wine capital of Burgundy.
We weren’t really there for wine, though; we were there to see the Hôtel-Dieu, which was the original site of the Hospices of Beaune, which was founded in 1443 as a charitable hospital and continued operating at the same site until the 1980’s. We had a few minutes before our tour to walk around the town and enjoy a quick lunch (yes, there was wine).
The Hôtel-Dieu itself is quite impressive; the founders, Nicolas Rolin, the Duke’s of Normandy’s Chancellor, and his wife Guigone de Salins built it as a charitable act (our guide said it was for a cause even more important than a tax deduction – it was to ensure they went to Heaven!), and they spared no expense. The artwork and architecture were there to help the patients (who were unlikely to recover) decide that they wanted to repent before they died so they could go to Heaven, too.
The hospital also had kitchens and a pharmacy, of course.
We had a few minutes to walk around Beaume after our visit, and then it was back on the bus to return to Macon, board the ship, and start sailing south.
