French menus are dangerous and even more dangerous when you think you recognize the words…

French menus are dangerous. The first night we arrived we went to dinner at a local bistro. Ben played it safe by getting the regional hit: Boeuf Bourginone. It was delicious and just what he expected. I decided to be a little bit adventurous and get the Crepe Andouillette—I was OK with the word crepe and Andouillette seemed a lot like that wonderfully flavourful and spicy sausage that I have had in New Orleans—which is where the French liked to hang out back in the day—how could I go wrong? Well, the crepe was as advertised—light and delicious…the andouillette—let me just say it was a sausage but it was not at all like Andouille—it was slices of pig innards—or parts as Ben likes to say. It tasted like poopy. I forged ahead, I crossed andouillette off my list of approved French foods. We had been doing well for about a week—no untoward surprises, no glands and no offal—phewww. That is until we got to Chablis—home of that delicious dry wine made from the chardonnay grape (that visit is covered in another blogisode). We found a lovely restaurant and ordered from the “menu du jour” which included one of our favorite salads—poached egg on baby greens with lardons and a mustard dressing—and what I thought was a veal cutlet—veau =veal. Well, this is where I learned that it is helpful to know all of the French words like “longue”. We received a lovely crockery dish steaming hot that was filled with a light colored but beefy smelling broth, potatoes, carrots and …wait for it…TONGUE!!!!!! How did I know it was tongue? BECAUSE I COULD SEE THE TASTE BUDS—medical school anatomy was not wasted on me. Lesson learned: if you don’t know all of the words, ask and don’t guess –because every animal has nasty parts and the French apparently like to cook them all. I hope you don’t mind that there are no pictures included with this blogisode.

Autun: Market Day and Roman Ruins

May 6: Wednesday is Market Day in Autun. It is a typical midweek market with your basic produce, shoes, clothes, the guy you buy your mattresses from etc. We got some great olives—Ben even ate them and something called tomato caviar—I think this name is for the tourist. This is like a tomato-y tapenade—very delicious. We also bought 6 giant cooked shrimp which were delicious and we had them for dinner that night.
Autun is unique in that it has ancient Roman ruins—I guess that doesn’t make it unique because you can find those all over Italy and even in Germany. Autun lays claim to a Roman amphitheatre where they still hold plays in the summer. They also have the remains of an old Roman temple and 2 of the stone gates.

Window in wall of Roman Temple at Autun

View of Autun from Temple of Janus

Roman Gate in Autun

The Amphitheater is behind us!

Wine Tasting in Burgundy—-mmmmm!

OK so we went on a wine tour with some lovely people from England who now live in Burgundy next to Charrolais cattle (good beef).  They run a company called “Discover Burgundy”.  We went to 3 vineyards and had a lovely lunch.  This is not Napa Valley.  These places are family owned and there are actual law on the books about what you can call your wine and the quality–ie village (you can put the name of the village on the wine if the grapes were all grown within the village), vineyard–all the grapes came from the same vineyard, premiere cru–the grapes came from a certain plot of earth in a certain vineyard in a certain town and grand cru–same as premiere cru but more chi-chi.  Luckily Ben and I are are more village and vineyard sort of people–we don’t plan to cellar these wines for any period of time–I forgot that “cellar” was a verb as well as a noun.  Anyway, on this tour–very personal–we went to a guy’s house–Baptiste Gay–and we went to his basement or in this part of the world, his cellar and low and behold there were wine barrels down there.  He popped one open and let us taste his 2008 Burgundy which was quite done lactofermenting yet–out of the barrel–I am not kidding.  Anyway, the 2007 Chardonnay that was bottled and came out of the “Belle Filles” vineyard in Pernand-Vergelesses was even better–we bought 3 bottles which is not enough and will go back and get a case later this week.  All in all a very successful day!

We don’t even need to add yeast! It is all natural.

Baptiste, Molly and Ben

Baptiste dishing Burgundy to Ben

Vineyards and a little “cabot” to get in out of the rain.

First 24 hours in Semur-En- Auxois

Well, Ben and I have completed the first 24 hours of our 2 week trip to the Cote d’Or in Burgundy France. We are staying in a quaint hill town that sports 4 towers. We had dinner in town last night and our waiter recognized us this morning as we were walking through the market. We have had red wine, a delightful cocktail called a ‘kir’, boeuf bourgignogne, some sausage with pig entrails (I wish I had brought my french menu decoder ring!) and walked about 5 miles. Oh yeah, we have sat out on our backporch overlooking the river that runs by our house and fed the ducks. So far so good. Tomorrow is our first wine tasting expedition so hold on to your hats! By the way, Lily quite contentedly made the 4.5 hour drive from Bitburg with us and is lounging on her ottoman in the sun.

Our Mill House

The view from the top of the hill in Semur en Auxois

Wipe your chin Ben…

Molly in Semur at the base of the town

Lily in France