Hospitals and Mustard

Tuesday 31st March. Cormot-Le-Grand 46.96191 4.64267.

First stop today was a visit to the Hotel-Dieu des Hospices Civils de Beaune. A hospital established in 1443 by Nicolas Rolin, chancellor to the Duke of Burgundy and his wife Guigone de Salis. The concept, founding charter and construction are equally impressive and although much of the original internal furnishings and tapestrys have been lost, a reconstruction in the 19th Century was carried out according to the original plans. The barrel vaulted Grande Salle with it's painted beams and 30 hospital beds is looked over by a chapel which could be screened off to avoid the patients observing the funerals of those beyond the help of the nurses and physicians. Rolin insisted the hospital be built over the river to provide fresh water and to carry away waste and this idea contributed to the escalating costs of construction as vaults were built to channel the river under the building. A fascinating couple of hours and well worth the entrance fee especially as the audio guides were included in the price.

The Hospital.

Plat de Jour at a local bistro, back to the van for dry clothes as it rained all day and then off to the Fallot mustard company's factory for our 3pm tour. Unfortunately the lass in the tourist office had marked the location in the wrong place on the map so it took us a while to find the factory and joined the tour ten minutes late. Never mind, we only missed the explanation of the life cycle of a mustard plant and enjoyed the rest of the tour, discovering that the name "Dijon mustard" cannot be protected and consequently the vast majority of the Dijon mustard we buy is in fact produced from Canadian mustard seeds and probably produced in Canada. The city of Dijon has three remaining mustard factories producing some 85,000 tons of the stuff but our little factory in Beaune, which still mills seeds using mustard seeds only from Bourgogne manufactures just a couple of tons per year. If you want the real stuff, which is delicious, look out for Moutard de Bourgogne which is a protected name and must contain only certain ingredients. And keep your mustard in the fridge! Keep it in a cupboard and it will soon lose it's flavour. We were given a few small complementary jars and also bought some more with interesting flavours as well. I must admit that the generic Dijon mustard we've been buying in supermarkets for years was pretty insipid and lack lustre compared to the mustard we tasted today.

Only 6,000 deliveries per year.

 

A short drive brought us back to a pretty parking spot next to a babbling brook in Cormot-Le-Grand, a vineyard which is part of the France Passion scheme. Unfortunately the owners of Domaine Boisson are nowhere to be found at present. I hope they turn up before we leave so I can make a purchase of their delicious Crement de Bourgogne.

Wednesday 1st April St Etienne.

Madame Boisson was found this morning and kindly sold us some wine and then it was off to St Etienne to stay with our daughter and her family for a few days. It's her eldest son's 18th birthday today and a party has been planned for this Saturday. It's the first time all our family will have been together for a few years and so we are all looking forward to getting together and celebrating the birthday.

The last time we came here in the Motorhome I managed to smash one of our windows whilst reversing into my daughter's courtyard. It was a very expensive and time consuming process finding another one so we decided against parking in the courtyard this time. There are a few fought over parking spaces outside the house and the plan was that we would arrive and our daughter and her husband would move their cars and I would have a parking space. Good plan. I arrived but as they were moving their cars I was blocking the road and had to pull over next to some bollards to allow a car to pass but unfortunately the bollards fought back and for the second time some expensive damage was done to the Motorhome.

 

If we ever come back here I'm catching the train!!! It looks like the Zampetas brothers in Greece will have some more business from me in a few weeks time.

Pat

 

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