The Final Day: Changes, observations and pictures

As our time in Nimes France is ending, I have felt good about having planned ahead for the next two weeks.  Yet, a thought refused to leave me alone. My background in the wine industry left me with a love for Pinot Noir. We are leaving for Grenoble France tomorrow and 5 days later for Colmar France. The train to Colmar goes through Lyon France which is less than 2 hours south of Beaune France. Beaune is the heart of the Burgundy region of France. That means it is the heart of the best Pinot Noir growing region in the world.

The nagging thought was “Go to Beaune”. I researched and found price, time and train wise that it would be a simple switch, if the train company would allow a ticket change. I researched last night and found 2 acceptable properties in the middle of Beaune available for the days I needed, if I kept the stay to 4 days. I tried talking myself out of it, then I would try to talk myself into it (never make anything too easy on yourself!)

The train ticket office opens at 9am, so this morning I went for a walk. Sure enough, they allowed the change, and Grenoble to Beaune to Colmar was only about 20 euros more than Grenoble to Colmar for the two of us. So now we are going to the gorgeous center of the Burgundy wine region, Beaune, on June 11th. After that the trip will resume as written earlier, and I get to revisit one of the most memorable places I have been.

Bottom line is, I decided to throw a monkey wrench into what I felt so good about achieving, successful planning ahead. But the change turned out to be a little deal, not a big deal. This gives me hope that maybe I am catching up to the 21st century and its technological demands. I’m very grateful for the ease of the alteration, and quite serious about remaining humble about my elementary travel planning abilities.

Other than the change in plans the past couple of days were much like the previous days, a lot of walking through town, looking at what we had previously overlooked, preparing food and eating. We did go to 2 museums and neither stimulated us much. One was the Musee du Vieux Nimes, a sort of historical museum. We went there because Nimes claims to be at the epicenter of the development of denim clothing and Sheila wanted to see their version of this. My favorite things in that museum were the exquisitely carved wooden items.

The other was the large and sparsely art populated Museum of Contemporary Art. The best part of the two museums was the views from the top, 4th, floor veranda of the Museum of Contemporary Art Cafe.

We felt enthralled as we viewed the area of town we have come to know well from our elevated position. The buildings, streets and plant life were transformed for us, and it was impressive to see the Tour de Magne we had climbed (all 140 winding steps) many days ago towering above the tree line.

Another museum, one we failed to enter, other than the garden space is the Natural History Museum. Like any good natural history museum, it had dinosaurs. See also the featured image.

Finally, I depart with pictures of the butcher shop we came to rely on. Tonight, will be our third night of feasting on one of the rotisserie chickens pictured below, incredible, and the tray below the chickens that catches the drippings is filled with potatoes cooking in the juices from the poultry that are the most flavorful potatoes I have ever had.

You’ve seen the charcuterie shop, so now view the Chocolatier. The two photos below are of some of their machinery that transform beans from around the world into the chocolate we crave.

The rest of these are the store front and the artistry of “Chocolat”.