...recounts the retirement travels of Mark and Vicki Sherouse since 2008...in Asia and the Pacific, New Zealand, Europe, South America, and Africa, as well as the US and Canada. Our website, with much practical information, is: sites.google.com/site/theroadgoeseveron/.Contact us at mark.sherouse@gmail.com or vsherouse@gmail.com.
Monday, July 11, 2011
Riquewihr in the Alsace
From Beaune we headed back east to the Alsace, more great wine country (and sausage and other things), to the little beautifully-preserved Medieval village of Riquewihr, a few miles from Colmar, and headquarters of the great Alsatian negociant, Dopff Irion. We spent the night there, as at Beaune, in a free municipal camperstop. The pix are just scenes in Riquewihr, which we enjoyed very much.
Hotel-Dieu
The Beaune charity hospital, the Hotel-Dieu, was founded in 1443, and operated continuously for centuries. Now it is simply a great museum of life in late Medieval times and of charity and human kindness.
The main ward
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Detail
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Gorgeous ceiling
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Surgical--ouch!--instruments
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More ditto; or possibly for lubicating your transaxle
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Intensive care; aka, rich person's ward
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In the kitchen, a spit-timer
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In the hospital's pharmacy
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Producing whatever's good for whatever ails
you
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The Hospices' artistic masterpiece, Roger van der Weyden's
15th century Last Judgment polyptych
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Funny Beaune
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Patriarche: Visiting Des Caves
I did the Patriarche wine-tasting tour in 1989, while Vicki and Rebecca and Rachel shopped. For a wine neophyte, it was quite an experience. Now I am simply lazy, thirsty, in the market for a bargain, and happy to reconnect with the past. So I did the Patriarche tour again. (Patriarche is one of the largest Burgundy negociants...blenders and marketers of fine wine.) Hey, 13 wines, including a few really good ones, for 10 euros?! It was a slow day, and I had the place pretty much to myself.
Patriarche
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Entering the caves; I have forgotten how many acres beneath
Beaune Patriarche owns, but it's quite a walk just to see the parts open to the public |
Halls and halls like this
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And this
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Meursault, my favorite Burgundy white; my favorite white
wine
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One of the best years ever
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Not the cheap stuff; I had to get several helpings to really
discern its quality; ditto with the Pommard and Rully and
the Chassagne Montrachet
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And of course the Meursault; ah, the soft amber glow...
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I was glowing a bit myself by the time I
reached the last of the tastings
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Hey, if it's good enough for the Sun King, it's good enough
for me
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Beaune
Burgundy is my most favored wine, and so we have been to Beaune several times. Burgundy wine country is beautiful--vineyards, villages, and especially Beaune.
But first, another random chateau, Rochepot, approaching
Beaune
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Sitting above its village
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It's about here you start seeing the vines and the grapes
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Someone's beautiful garden in Beaune; the whole city is
dressed up like this
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Ditto
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The Athenaeum--the best store there is for anything wine-
related--across from the Hospices
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I loved this t-shirt
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The great names are everywhere
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Nice well treatment
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And courtyard
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1243
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Autun, 2011
We first visited Autun in 1979, probably en route to the Cote d'Or. I remember visiting the Roman amphitheater at Autun, but not much more. This time we camped across the lake from the amphitheater (in the city's free camperstop) but came to Autun to see its 11-12th century cathedral and in particular the reliefs that adorn it.
But first, another random Burgundy chateau from the road
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At Autun, another hemmed-in city cathedral, difficult to get
any full view
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As I said, it's mostly the reliefs that are of interest, 12th
century; this the west door tympanum, a Last Judgment
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Hellish detail (Heaven is so boring)
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Interior; great light and color, not huge, but very old
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Very old windows
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I love these older buildings; you can look up
and nearly everything you see is architectural,
and there is little mystery in how everything
fits and hangs together
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A few other examples: Cain killing Abel
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Judas hanging (with devilish assistance)
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An angel tells the three kings that mum's the word with
Herod
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View of Autun from the cathedral
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Autun was founded by Augustus; here the remains of one of
the Roman gates
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But before Romans, there were Gallic Celts; here is the ruin
of the so-called Temple of Janus, an apparent Celtic temple
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