Beaune is a delightful walled town at the heart of the Burgundy wine making area. It retains its medieval street pattern with concentric rings of streets radiating out from the Church of Notre Dame du Beaune.
Streets are lined with the houses of wealthy wine merchants and have gateways leading into yard and most have cellars which were used to store the wine.
Being a Saturday, it was Market day in Beaune. This was a very traditional French market with stalls selling local produce, all of very high quality. The cheese stall with its huge rounds of traditionally produced cheese with rinds was doing a roaring trade. There were samples of the different cheeses to taste and they all had plenty of flavour without relying on salt for taste. The charcuterie stall also provided samples. There were stalls just selling onions or tomatoes, as well as olives and local honey. The market stretched over several streets in the centre of Beaune with the clothes and hardware type stalls further from the centre.
We visited Beaune on Day 3 of Burgundy, the River Rhone and Provence, a river cruise with Riviera Travel. The main purpose of our visit was for a wine tasting in “Cellier de la Cabiote”:https://www.silvertraveladvisor.com/review/attraction/176069-review-cellier-de-la-cabiote
Unfortunately there wasn’t time to visit the Hotel-Dieu with its brightly coloured tile roofs. This was founded in the C15th to care for the elderly, destitute, sick and orphans. The hospital owns vineyards and holds a prestigious wine auction every year to support its work. After exploring the goodies on sale in the market, I did have time for a quick trip round “Church of Notre Dame du Beaune. “:https://www.silvertraveladvisor.com/review/attraction/205330-review-notre-dame-de-beaune
My full account with all the pictures can be found “here.”:http://wasleys.org.uk/eleanor/otherholidays/rhone/index.html
