And here comes the Wine...

The title of this might be a little deceiving since there really hasn't been that much consumption of wine, at least not on my end, but we did take a little "vacation" to the wine region, Bourgogne, and oh my goodness it was beautiful!! I have only driven through Napa, California once in my life and I remember not understanding why anyone would ever want to have their wedding in the middle of a grape field, until I saw how beautiful vineyards are. Well the vineyards in France are no different, and thankfully we got to spend some time driving through them, but not before we saw some more sites of the city. Technically we were all over, but our hotel was in Autun, Bourgogne, France. Dang that's a mouthful. Our view was a sight for sore eyes too...

Thursday (5th)- Backtracking a little we left our new homes (update on that coming in the next post) early that morning and met up at the bus station in the centre ville. As much as I have loved living with my family, there was something about all being together as a group again that felt comfortable and good. We hopped on the bus and drove to L'Abbaye de Fontenay, an old monastery for monks. I'm not going to lie, I was thinking about "The Sound of Music" the whole time since the name of it is the "Abbey of Fontenay" and Maria lived in the abbey. It was absolutely beautiful, but I promise there was at least a 15 degree difference between the sun and the shade and I can't even imagine living there without heat... Yikes! We drove to a cute little town named "Semur en Auxois" for lunch, then headed to the Basilique de Vezelay for a quick self guided tour... I learned alot... A fun fact that I actually overheard a British tour guide saying was that who we know in the English language as Mary Magdalene, the French call "Marie Madeleine" because the hard "G" sound is not used over here. This is relevant because there were some relics of hers in the crypt of the church. After our visit there, we went to our hotel in Autun where we able to enjoy that wonderful view and the best of the Bourgognian wine at dinner.

L'Abbaye de Fontenay

La Basilique de Vezelay

Friday (6th)- We were able to have a great breakfast at the hotel, yogurt, confiture, pain au chocolat, fresh fruit, and they even had bacon. We then hopped back on our bus to get a tour of the city of Autun. Our guide was from Australia but spoke French and he was by far the easiest guide I think we have had. He was sporting his Indian Jones hat and just totally fit the role. We got to walk around and drive around to see some pretty incredible places. I learned that the theater in Autun was the largest in the entire Roman Empire at the time. Now it is strugglin' to say the least, but the military academy nearby used it to run stairs and do workouts while we were there, so at least its getting some use, right?! I felt bad for them, I'm just going to be honest. From there we went picnic food shopping and had the most insane amount of food, but in true French fashion, we cleaned our plates and finished all of the desserts we bought. Then we headed to Bibracte, an old Gaul city that has recently been uncovered thanks to some efforts by Napoleon himself in his efforts to find it. Our tour guide there was "straight out of a French romance novel" as my friend Caitlin put it, and there is just no other way to say it. He was a handsome older man who just knew how to work the crowd and he totally fit the role, shirt halfway unbuttoned and everything, it was almost too much and we all got a good kick out of it. We drove back to our hotel and ate dinner there again and y'all, I almost got sick at the dinner table. The chef had a "special surprise" for us and even thinking about it now makes me gag. It was chicken liver. RAW chicken liver and I didn't even know it. Unfortunately this was my 2nd time eating chicken liver in a week. The first was when my friends thought they ordered chicken on their salads and the consistency was just so off, so of course I tried it and then we looked it up in the dictionary... "Chicken liver". Obviously both times were accidental. This time it was so bad though that I started laughing so hard tears were coming out of my eyes. It was raw chicken liver inside a prune. Who eats that for real?!? It was one of the top 5 most disgusting things I have ever eaten. It might be number 1. 

Old Theater in Autun- missing a few levels, but at one point held 20,000 people

An old helmet they recovered at Bibracte

Saturday (7th)- We headed to Beaune and got to visit another market before our tour of the old hospital there. I have found some beautiful tea and coffee mugs along the way to add to my collection so I'm hoping that they will make the journey back to the States in December in one piece. We visited des "Hospices de Beaune", an old hospital for the poor that only went out of commission in 1971, and it was founded in 1442! Then we finished the trip off with a wine tasting at a small vineyard on our way home named Nuit St Georges. The wines were great, but I still can't tell much of a difference between red wine. At least I can tell some difference though- in Cape Town I was hopeless. That night I stayed downtown with the girls and we found a really great to-go pasta place and had some comfort food. It was cold and rainy so while some of our group persevered and went out, the rest of us hung out and had a movie night. After a long weekend spent on my feet and the rain and the cold, there was no part of me that had FOMO from not going out.

Hospital beds at the Hospice

The Vineyards of Bourgogne

Fun things to do on the bus ride: 1- Listen to Ben Stuart's podcast from his Breakaway ministry at Texas A&M. First of all he is incredible and so wise, but second of all I literally find myself laughing out loud on the bus, he is so funny. 2- Listen to the French radio. They play more English songs than French. 3- Take pictures of everyone else sleeping to add to our "worst abroad pics ever" album. 4- Drool over the French countryside and come to peace with the fact that there is just no way to capture it all for y'all at home on a camera. 5-Read Unbroken on my Kindle (but only with dramamine :) It's the incredible true story of the Olympic runner Louis Zamperini whose plane went down in the Pacific during World War II. Absolutely incredible, but it leaves me feeling a little too much American patriotism when I step off the bus at each of our destinations. 

We are headed off to Normandy tomorrow morning so I'm thinking that patriotism will be in full effect on the coast at the beaches. Lots of all love all the way from France. Wish each of you were here!