A day in Beaune

Dear friends,

A group of 7 other assistants and I went to Beaune today, and it was amazing! 4 of us left Nevers at 7:23 this morning (it was a long day) and met the other 3 in Beaune. As I explained in my previous post, Beaune is already famous for wine, and every year it has a wine auction at the Hospices de Beaune, a really cool old building that was built in 1443 to serve as a hospital for soldiers wounded in the Hundred Years’ War. That wine auction is taking place this weekend, so tout le monde s’occupe du vin (everyone is all about wine)! We spent about an hour and a half exploring the quaint centre ville of Beaune before trekking 25 minutes through the rain to the Fete des Grands Vins de Bourgogne, a big wine exposition and tasting event (if that’s not dedication, I don’t know what is). For €24, we received a commemorative wine glass, a book with a list of all the wines to be found at the event, and unlimited tastings of any wine in the exposition – and there were over 3,000 different types of wine! It was in a big hall, and there were 14 different circular booths, each of which had many different wines, grouped by the communes in which the domaines (the wine houses, like the name on the label) are found. While I certainly didn’t love all the wines I tasted, I did find a few I really liked and would definitely consider buying at some point. We ended up staying for a few hours, and it was a wonderful way to pass a rainy Saturday afternoon!

In other news, Sarah and I had been having a lot of problems with our wifi in our apartment – it was going either really slowly or not at all, so I had to call the technical support line. I spent about 20 minutes on the phone with the technician, which was immensely more challenging en francais than it ever would have been in English! Luckily he was super-patient and even went through the process twice with us – once for my Mac, once for her PC. It all worked out well though, and now our wireless works perfectly! (Knock on wood for me, would you?!?)

I don’t have much other news à ce moment, I hope you all are well!