time takes you by the hand, directs you where to go (Autun)

Jayne's song reference, not mine, don't like it. But, as she will point out, we ended up at Autun and not Dijon because of advice we had been given by different people, one of whom was a Dijonaise.

Autun

OK, it was lovely, cobbled streets, Roman, another Notre Dame, Museum closed because it was 'random' closure day - Tuesday? WTF? Am I sounding jaded?

Military school.

Roman theatre

 

There was a clear connection to Beaune, there were several buildings with the same Flemish roof tiling, including the Military School and the Cathedral itself.

The Temple of Janus

Cathedral window

The Cathedral was undergoing restoration, but was very impressive anyway. We walked from there to the Temple of Janus and then to the gate on the side of the river. After that it was back to the car, drop the pack and over to the Roman theatre. The theatre itself now surrounds (well half surrounds) a soccer (football, whatever) field. It was good to see it in the original state and being put to good use.

That chalked up about 2 and a half hours of walking in the heat.

THE meal

and so, we bought a nice sort of cake (gateau) for Wonnie's birthday and prepared our salad, dusted the bottles and got ready for the dinner.

While we were waiting for the action to start, we decided to have an aperitif on the balcony. As we were seated there, the hot tub downstairs in the residence of the owners was fired up. I remarked that the spa was on, although it wasn't until later that we found out that Chris (the 74 year old male owner) has wandered back and forth to the hot tub a number of times - naked! In full view of the American girls. I'm not sure they'll recover anytime soon.

Dinner was great. Everyone contributed something. We all had food to be bbqed. We all brought wine. It was a great night. The American and British components were suitably in awe of the Australian prowess at barbecuing all manner of meat and fish to arrive on the plates simultaneously (Brad assumed charge of cooking tonight - just like a weekly family dinner really).

Jude, Wonnie, Kam, Vickie, Chris, Trent, Casey, Tom and Jayne.

After we sang joyeuse anniversaire and happy birthday to Wonnie, it was time to move to the American terrace to complete the lovely night, swap cards, and go our separate ways to Lyon, Paris and Epernay the next day.

As we drove away on Wednesday morning, we agreed the stay had been great but only because of the excellent group of people we had been fortunate enough to share the place with.  Otherwise, both the venue and the owners are tired and slipping and we would not go back there.  The serenity and the possibility of the place are enormous but we have been welcomed much more and the attention to the little details that really count when you are on the road for 12 weeks was really lacking here.  Burgundy is absolutely a place to which we would want to return - the scenery, the little gems tucked away from the mainstream tourist tracks - glad we went off the beaten path.

But now onto God's own country - the Champagne region and a little place just out of Epernay where our hosts are atypically French (not ex-pat Brits) and communication should be interesting...