Journée avec des amis aka Day With Friends!

Every time I walk down a street in Dijon (and many other places too) I see another fantastic sculpted building and it makes me wonder what if I looked up in downtown Minneapolis...or Duluth...or Bemidji or even little Red Lake Falls!  I'm going to try it.

 Thanks to Philippe and Jon (Ross' childhood friend) they drove from Paris to meet us for lunch and a walk around town and a drive to the country - thanks to Philippe who is the most excellent navigator!!!  So far we have met them for dinner in Paris in 2008, dinner at their house in 2011 and 2012 and now again in 2015.  It's always fun to get caught up and hear the stories and have help interpreting French history signs.  This was in front of our lunch spot La Maison des Cariatides or The House of the Caryatids.  A caryatid is a sculpted female figure serving as an architectural column - I say it's the strength of the household.

Click the pic to see the strong ladies! 

One of the most famous towns along the Route des Grands Crus and when we returned to Dijon I did a little googling and we can buy a bottle of 1986 Grand Cru Premier Classe for $2,999.99 all the way down to $749.99 at home - probably won't be doing that as I think the $5 wines are very good here!!!

 I have never seen so many acres of vineyards - all directions, some old vines and some newly planted and we saw workers working in the fields.  I think harvest time is around October?

 Philippe drove us down this narrow road to get closer to the Chateau du Clos de Vouguet (the name of a wine town on the route).  The chateau was built in the 12th century by monks from the Abbey of Citeaux nearby.  It appears that monks have an affinity for wine production - so different from my background of Missouri Synod Lutheran - no dance, no drink - of course I didn't know many people who followed this except my Grandma Schultz!!!

 We took this route from Dijon all the way down to Nuits-Saint Georges and today we will be taking the train for 20 minutes to Beaune for a day trip.  (Nuits means "nights") - now I need to find out who this Saint George is!

 

Voyage d'une journée à Beaune or "Day Trip to Beaune" ready to roll!
And the only slightly odd thing about the apartment - the toilette (no sink) is in the "kitchen" but the kitchen sink is just outside the door to the toilet for appropriate hand washing - I'm sure there is an architectural reason for his.  The shower, sink, clothes washer are attached to the bedroom.