A slow start to the morning with our breakfast of yoghurt and some bread stick with freshly sliced tomato grown by our land lady.
We spend the next couple of hours very frustrated as we endeavour to locate and book accommodation in Avignon for the next few days. The web sites we were using were becoming quite cumbersome and requesting all sorts of identity proof to enable any bookings.
We give up and head into Beaune and find parking behind the picture theatre, outside the old city area. We walk across the road down into what appeared to be a Roman semi-circle amphitheatre. Currently the building area of the Theatre de Verdure is fenced off, but opposite there is multi tiered well maintained grassed area, surrounded by landscaped areas containing bench seats under shady trees……a very pleasant and relaxing area.
It is then off to a patisserie to find our first coffee of the morning, along with the compulsory patisseries of a raspberry macron EACH!!! After this we went a wandering throughout the fascinating cobblestone laneways. We visited another cathedral [older than Australia discovery in 1770] with Notre Dame as part of its name.
We met up with some travelling Aussies from Perth at the Musee de Vin [Museum of Wine]. They have just come off one of the large European River Cruises, with a bad dose of Bronchitis requiring anti-biotic treatment. Apparently most passengers [circa 150] of the Cruise Ship were affected by the infection and some of the more elderly quite badly…..They were not impressed.
We stopped for a casual lunch at one of the street-side patisseries to both have a quiche of sorts, followed by coffee and a very rich chocolate ganache Saint Michel delicacy. The shopkeeper said there were no calories, only the need to jog for a couple of klms.
We decide to buy a rottisserie chicken and some salads for our evening meal to save having to come back into Beaune, as we are approximately 6 klms away, and there are no eating facilities in our little village. We have to wait around till 2.30pm till the necessary shops reopen, so some more wandering the cobblestone laneways.
We get back to our village and are still none the wiser on accommodation at Avignon, despite attempting to book in on the web…….they have to accept your booking once you tell them a little about yourself.
We head off for a walk to the village centre and pick up an almond & pear tartlet for tonite’s dessert and then across the road to sit outside the “Bar/Tobacco Shop/Post Office” and have a afternoon beer and wine and watch the village go by. Numerous small trucks with groups of men on board drove through the village centre with lights and horns honking. Apparently this symbolised the finish of the local grape harvest.
Dot again brought her 1964 Matriculation French to the fore, and was successful at being understood by the elderly patisserie/ boulangerie owner, plus the young lass owner of the bar. I think for Dot’s efforts, we were only charged for Michael’s [2] beers, and Dot’s local delicious white was complimentary.
We got back to our little apartment around 6.00pm for a leisurely tea, followed by update of the blog at the kitchen table with the front door open and the sounds of passing traffic, some 5 or 6 metres from the front door.
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