Paintings, Protests, Parking and Pretzels

September 8th

Last year we visited a lovely artist in her studio and purchased a watercolor for our wall at home. We walked by and saw that her shop was open so went in to say Bonjour.  Her work is of local scenes and so many of the streets we walk along every day we just had to purchase a couple more. She told us she has a student from Maine taking classes from her and I asked if I could take a class from her sometime and she said, "Mais bien sur," which means "but of course". It's a little intimidating for me so I need to spend some time painting at home before I sign up for her professional training.  Maybe work on my French a bit more as well?

This is one of the streets she painted

Since we see the dome of the Notre-Dame de Beaune out of our bedroom window I thought it was time we checked out the interior. It was as impressive inside as it is outside.  The church was built from the 12th century in the Romanesque style but after a fire in 1272 Gothic art was introduced with the reconstruction.  It became a major place of pilgrimage because a statue representing the Virgin Mary was located here around 1200.  It is known as the "Black Virgin" because over time it has turned dark. 

Walking through the streets in Beaune is always a feast for the eyes and there is usually a surprise around the corner.  Today as we strolled we came across a statue of a cat guarding the entrance to a mansion and a small protest marching by the main square.  As far as we could surmise it had something to do with water or a reservoir.

Parking is always an interesting project because our parking garage is mostly full with a few empty narrow spots to try to navigate.  So far we've only given up once for a few hours and then returned to capture one of the coveted spaces.  The picture below demonstrate the tight quarters.  We like parking there rather than on the street because it seems pretty secure and we leave our bikes inside the car.

At the end of the day we like to stop by a wine bar on our way to dinner and normally we have gone to Bar 66 but it's getting a little crowded and the service is sometimes sketchy...not that we're in a big hurry...but still.  The Divin Wine Bar is a small place that sells wine and has a nice inexpensive list of glasses to try.  They serve a little bowl of munchies and the first two times we went we had the peanut butter puffs which don't really go well with wine.  This time I was very excited to see a bowl of pretzels coming toward us with our wine.  

We returned to the Bistro Bourguignon for a second dinner and Jay was a little disappointed that the menu had changed but I assured him with the excellent meal we had the first time it would all be fine.  In the end he loved his duck even more than the lamb he had before and I had a wonderful monk fish with delicious sauces.  It seems we will be returning in a few days with the couple I met at cooking class. They have not tried this restaurant and many of the places they wanted to go to were booked up.  I'm sure they'll love it and we will...again!

Jay's Escargot

My Pate en Croute

Jay's Duck

My Monk Fish