Beaune Market

 

Saturday Market Day in Beaune.

 

The sausage man. He's been here at least 13 years. Same corner every time, sausages 3 for 10 Euros. Yummy.

 

Fall produce, moving into root vegetables and wild mushrrooms...

"Tapenade is a Provençal dish consisting of puréed or finely chopped olives, capers, anchovies and olive oil. Its name comes from the Provençal word for capers, tapenas." Translation  --Deliciousness.

Deja vu

Today, we are picking up our good friends, Jo Ann Hay and Richard Whitman from the Dijon train station. One email from me sparked this trip back in February for the four of us. I wrote to Jo Ann, "Are you still thinking of going to France for your anniversary this fall?"

They exchanged wedding vows aboard "Imagine" in 2000. Here they are back then:.

Here's the group of us waiting for a taxi on our first year cruising:

 

That's me, Jo Ann, cousin Renee, Richard and Gary.

 

 

We'll be celebrating their anniversary and my birthday together.

 



Along the Burgundy Canal

 The beautiful Burgundy Canal.

 

 

The towpath runs alongside, good for walking or biking.

 

 

A lockkeeper's house next to one of the locks.

The lockkeepers' well-tended gardens

Châteauneuf-en-Auxois

We're home in Burgundy, where we spent over five years (10 years worth of cruising seasons.) Paul & I stayed at a Chambre d'Hote, a B & B in Crugey, on the Burgundy Canal.

Those of you who cruised with us on this stretch know this small village as the "Summer Home of Santa Claus." He was still there, fishing in the canal.

We took a short drive to  Châteauneuf-en-Auxois, a favorite spot we've shared with many of you who have cruised with us.

It's still officially one of the five villages in Burgundy named Les Plus Beaux Villages de France ("The most beautiful villages of  France.")  Here's  an example why it qualifies:

View walking down the street, toward the ruins of the chateau.

We tried to go to our favorite creperie in town. They were open, but not for us. A large group had reserved for lunch. So, we ended up at "Le Grill du Castel." We've wanted to try this place in the past, so we decided it was fate.The chef grills over the open fire that provides great ambiance on a chilly, rainy day.

Jambon Persille, a Dijon favorite

 

 

Since this was our first true Burgundian meal, we went the full Monty: jambon persille, (ham, garlic and parsley terrine) followed by boeuf bourguignon, the classic beef stew. Great cheeses - chevre, tomme, and strong, gooey epaisses. For dessert, a light ile flottante, floating island. A formidable meal.

 

No escargot...yet.

 

 

The view down from Châteauneuf-en-Auxois. That's the canal below.

The view up the hill.

 

The "new house" built in the 12th century

We'll always have Paris

 

This is author Colette's tomb in the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.

She died in 1954, but she still has fresh flowers:

the banner is from "The friends of Colette."

There was only one tomb I had to see...Jim Morrison's. What can I say? It's why I came here.

For lunch, Le Cafe du Marche, on the Rue Cler, right near our hotel.

Following is my picture of the Eiffel Tower:

WORST EVER! It's there. I promise. See if you can spot it.

I'll give you a hint. It's kind of behind the tree.

In my defense, we were driving out through the streets of Paris, and I spotted the landmark, so I grabbed the camera as we were rolling. Sigh. At least you've all seen pictures of it before, right?

More pictures from Normandy D-Day beaches

The D-Day Beaches in Normandy

We stayed in Arromanches-Les-Bain, where the British built temporary Port Winston to launch the invasion, a feat of incredible engineering.

It's a pretty little tourist town now...

Filled with postcards and trinkets

WWII memorabilia is everywhere, including tanks in parking lots.

The museums tell the story of the momentous invasion.

The thousands of crosses and Stars of David, tell the story of sacrifice and bravery.

Normandy delights

My first Normandy dinner: Sole, fresh from the English Channel a few blocks away, local cheese assortment including rich Camembert, and apple sorbet with Calvados made from the nearby orchards.

Below is a true Normandy buckwheat crepe, which we had for lunch.

Naughty Little Squirt

Brussels' "mascot". the Manneken Pis, is a bronze fountain sculpture of a little boy...peeing.

If this isn't funny enough, there's a committee to select what he will wear at various times of the year. You can see above, he was au naturel.

In the City of Brussels museum, some 100 of his various costumes, which have been donated from around the world are displayed.  The current count is over 700 for the little squirt.

This costume was featured...it's been donated by Harley Davidson. Real leather.

Cases and cases of his costumes... My favorite was a white Elvis one.

There's even a life-size chocolate statue of him in the corner of this shop.

The highlight of the museum visit was a continuous film of various people's reactions to seeing him for the first time. A nun commented, "He looks like an angel."  Little girls and grown women giggled, a concerned young boy wanted to stop him before the basin overflowed.

Mostly, people seemed disappointed by his size - everywhere.

Mussels in Brussels

Here are some pictures from our first evening in Brussels, Belgium:

The beautiful Gallerie of St. Hubert, the first indoor shopping mall.

The Grand Square setting up for a beer festival this weekend.

Dinner at Chez Leon, mussels in Brussels.

You know you’ve had an “interesting” flight when...

you get an apologetic email from the airline after you’ve landed. 

It all started at check-in.

After planning this trip for over six months and saving our airline miles for years, I’d checked and rechecked our flight details. . The weather forecast was great in both Chicago and Brussels. Our check-in went smoothly until I glanced at our boarding passes and noticed our seat assignments had changed. I’d just looked at them in the morning on-line.

No one seemed to know why they were different. Yes, we were still on a Boeing 777. Once on airport Wi-Fi, I looked at our current flight seat map and realized there had been equipment change. The fantastic lie-back Business Class seats…gone.  Instead, the old seats from years ago.

The boarding area was chaotic as many people seemed to have no idea how and why their seats had changed. The confusion in the cabin continued and we took off about 40 minutes late because of it.

The flight attendants bore the brunt of the change. The airplane had been provisioned for the original configuration, so they were short on some meals. We heard storms in the Far East were to blame for the change. Our flight attendant told us there were only two planes in the entire fleet still not reconfigured – this was one of them. Our promised 150 channels of entertainment weren’t available, but economy had it worse: the AV wasn’t working at all.

 To their credit, the crew supplied superior and friendly service, apologizing for every inconvenience. The food that was available was very good, and the beverage service fantastic.

We arrived on time and the weather was beautiful, as forecast. As we deplaned, our Belgian flight attendant said, “Maybe I will see you on your flight home.”

I told her that would be nice, but better on a different plane.