the original hospice

After lunch we reach our overnight destination Chagny and we take our little bus into Beaune... a charming town - which is renown as the wine capital of Burgundy.  Here we visit the Hospices de Beaune - perhaps the oldest extant civic structure in Europe - dating from the 14th century and in continuous operation through 1971! Here is my favorite of the photos I took that afternoon- you may recognize it as it is currently my blog cover photo...

the Hospices now owns a number of fabulously expensive vineyards in Burgundy (made as donations over the centuries) and each year chooses a winemaker to make the wines under the label Hospices de Beaune. These wines are auctioned at an annual event to raise funds for the continuing existence of the Hospices.

we have  a lovely afternoon in Beaune- first some photos from the Hospices de Beaune-

I am sure the poor who came here for there last days already thought they had died and gone to heaven- they lived out their lives in the chapel on individual beds with clean linens - attended to by the "sisters" - this is more luxury than any of them saw in their daily lives-

the on site pharmacy-

exit through the gift shop- LOL

then it was off for free time into the village-

the renown wines of Burgundy!

other goodies!

as we leave town we spy the Maison Joseph Drouhin where we had a fabulous visit 15 years ago - and toured the cellars which snake all underneath the entire town of Beaune!

We head back to our boat docked in Chagny to get ready for dinner out---- a three star Michelin restaurant called Lameloise- stay tuned!

oh- two last photos for the afternoon- one- our group photo (not stellar) and second one I took with my phone and used one of those pre set filters on- made it look old timey! LOL

off to the fancy dinner---