Saturday Chalon-sur-Saone , wine and Beaune

This morning we wandered around Chalon where we were moored over night.  We thought we would first go to the lookout on top of a nearby tower. However, we could not get to the tower so we walked down some old atmospheric cobbled streets of old shops and had a coffee instead , skipped the churches and watched the world go past.

In the afternoon we went by coach through fields and fields of grapes.  We were given lots of information. However Noel was often asleep and lots of the info went over my head. I did manage to note that 80 % of white grapes grown are chardonnay and the rest aligote (with an acute) and most of the red are pinot and the rest gamay noir.

We stopped in what is considered as the centre of the burgandy wine area, Beaune.  We went to an interesting wine tasting . Amongst other things we were told to smell the empty glass after drinking the wine, the smell will probably have changed. After that we visited a place initially established in the 1400s as a hospice and hospital for the poor and destitute. It had an interesting display of how the different rooms were used.