Thursday Loire Valley to Beaune

We didn't get into our hotel until late yesterday and decided forget blogging! We did have a fun day roaming through the Loire Valley and seeing the beautiful scenery and chateaus - it is a beautiful area. We didn't visit any of the chateaus since we did this many years ago (about 25 years to be exact) - now we are feeling old!! We roamed around so much that it got to be around 4:30 and we had a 200 mile drive to Beaune where we had a hotel reserved! So we hit the "autoroutes" and off we went!

France has done a great job with their major highways - 4 lanes or more - so many of them look new - most of them are toll ways though. You can really make time on them and the countryside is beautiful!

We got to Beaune which is the center of the red wine area - the Burgundy area. A popular guide book says, "the rolling hills of Burgundy gave birth to superior wine, fine cuisine, spicy mustard, and a sublime countryside!" Now, I will forget the mustard bit and move on to the amazing countryside, wine, and food!! We had the best meal last night - most of you will go ugh though! We both had escargot and boeuf bourguignon and a creme de cassis dessert. Yum-oh!! We didn't finish eating until 10pm!