A Stopover After Leaving Méribel

Hi everyone, and welcome to another post from your favourite blogging Méribel ski instructor. As mentioned in my previous post, on the way back to the UK last month, Harriet and I had a stopover. It's always nice to break up the big drive, stretch the legs, and explore some more of the fabulous towns that France has to offer. This time we chose Beaune - located between Lyon and Dijon, which is just a handful of kilometres from the motorway.

We arrived late afternoon, checked-in at our hotel, and then went for a stroll towards the old part of town. I had stopped over night a couple of winters ago on the way to start a ski season, so was keen to retrace my steps from that visit. Two years ago, the town was cold and felt deserted with hardly anybody around. This time it was the opposite with warm late summer temperatures, with plenty of people about; this was the complete opposite to a ghost town like Méribel in September that we had just travelled from.

Beaune has heaps of character, and I guess could be described as quintessential France. Cobbled streets, historical buildings, museums, outdoor bars and restaurants are all in abundance, a feast for your eyes and senses. Although Beaune is not primarily known as a tourist centre, due to being mainly focused on the wine industry, you certainly got the feeling that plenty of tourists were there. On the Saturday morning there was a large market in the old part of town that definitely attracted a lot of people, I'm guessing from the local area as well.

We only had a few hours spare that morning, up until just after lunchtime, and wanted to make the most of that time. We had two major attractions available to us, the famous Hospice de Beaune, and the Wine Museum. We didn't have enough time to do justice to both, so we opted to visit the Wine Museum. Beaune is the capital of the Burgundy (Bourgogne) wine region, and is the main hub of the wine business. The very famous vineyards go back centuries, and have a high concentration of Grand Crus, including Nuits-Saint-Georges and Gevrey Chambertain among others.

The Wine Museum is a fascinating place, and well worth a visit if you have the time, especially if you are a wine lover. Not the easiest of museums to find, it is hidden in the middle of a network of narrow cobbled streets, but I guess that all adds to the fun of exploring Beaune. A printed street map certainly helps, oh, perhaps Google Maps would as well?

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to Beaune, and will certainly return another time, and next time we'll squeeze in a trip to the Hospice. It's always nice stopping over between the French Alps and Calais, not only to break up the 600 mile drive, but to also see more of the country.

In my next post I'll report back on several upgrades to the ski area that I noticed last month, including photos of course. A new bubble, a flattened then rebuilt mountain restaurant, plus replacement bubble cabins will all feature. I'll also be reviewing a number of upgrades made the previous summer (2020), which hardly anyone saw thanks to Covid last winter; these will include a brand new chairlift, a new snow cannon water reservoir and a new black piste in Courchevel. Thanks for stopping by, and do return again soon. Live With Passion, Martin.