Dijon
This weekend I have taken a train to Dijon, which is the regional capital of Burgundy. I think they also make some mustard here, but I'm going to have to check into that. I left this morning and arrived here at about 1pm. The forecast for the weekend is rain, but what can you do? I checked into my hotel and found that I have a nice balcony room on the 4th floor. I walked into town and it's really neat. Lots of timbre & plaster structures from the 1600s like you may expect to see in old England. They have an antiques district here that puts Royal street in New Orleans to shame - and that's a really hard thing to do. There is an open air market, plenty of boutique shops. The center of town is the old Ducal palace - home of the Dukes of Burgundy. There's some history there, but I forget what it is. I think the dukes got into a spat with the King of France at one point and there was an uprising or something. Whatever - I'll Google it later.
Most importantly I found a wonderful wine merchant! He gave me a Burgundy 101 lesson and a free tasting. Very nice shop, huge selection, and guess what else he has - Woodford Reserve bourbon. He carries Ardbeg scotch and Woodford bourbon and those are the only two liquors he stocks. It's the only place in France I've seen Woodford, and it was priced at $55 for a 750ml bottle - about twice what we pay in Lexington.
Anyway these Burgundy wines are REALLY good so I bought a few bottles. Not sure how many I can take back to the US so will have to check into that. Worst case scenario I'd have to drink a couple of them here - oh well! I will make that sacrifice if I need to. I'm relaxing in the hotel right now, then off to dinner. I found a few places on the Michelin viamichelin website that look really good - especially a rotisserie. If you're ever in Europe, you need to know that Michelin is THE travel authority.
Simple concept really - we sell tires, people buy more tires if they take more road trips, let's make some travel guides. Well they started doing this maybe 40 years ago and today they are THE authority. If your restaurant or hotel has a Michelin star, you are set. If want some quick help narrowing down hotel choices in Europe, look at the Michelin rated hotels and restaurants for any given city. A town the size of Dijon has only 8-10 star rated hotels (1-5 stars) and 12-15 rated restaurants (1-3 stars). Now, they list a lot more than that, some of which are fine I'm sure, but you look for those stars and you know you're getting the good stuff.
Most importantly I found a wonderful wine merchant! He gave me a Burgundy 101 lesson and a free tasting. Very nice shop, huge selection, and guess what else he has - Woodford Reserve bourbon. He carries Ardbeg scotch and Woodford bourbon and those are the only two liquors he stocks. It's the only place in France I've seen Woodford, and it was priced at $55 for a 750ml bottle - about twice what we pay in Lexington.
Anyway these Burgundy wines are REALLY good so I bought a few bottles. Not sure how many I can take back to the US so will have to check into that. Worst case scenario I'd have to drink a couple of them here - oh well! I will make that sacrifice if I need to. I'm relaxing in the hotel right now, then off to dinner. I found a few places on the Michelin viamichelin website that look really good - especially a rotisserie. If you're ever in Europe, you need to know that Michelin is THE travel authority.
Simple concept really - we sell tires, people buy more tires if they take more road trips, let's make some travel guides. Well they started doing this maybe 40 years ago and today they are THE authority. If your restaurant or hotel has a Michelin star, you are set. If want some quick help narrowing down hotel choices in Europe, look at the Michelin rated hotels and restaurants for any given city. A town the size of Dijon has only 8-10 star rated hotels (1-5 stars) and 12-15 rated restaurants (1-3 stars). Now, they list a lot more than that, some of which are fine I'm sure, but you look for those stars and you know you're getting the good stuff.
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