France Adventure - May 23, 2012

Hello, everybody, and welcome to Burgundy.  Bonjour à tous et bienvenue à la Bourgogne.  And welcome back to Cépage et Cuisine, Mary’s and Brian’s wine and food blog.  Our last full day in Burgundy began with a breakfast of eggs from Yves’ and Marie’s chickens at the gite in Magny-les-Villers.  Eggs come from the chickens, not the supermarket!  Who knew?

Their son, Florent, also brought over a vegetable that grows wild, sort of like asparagus, but not exactly.  We chopped some parsley and used the tops of the asparagus-like plant to make a delicious scrambled egg dish.

In three trips here we’ve never visited the Hospices de Beaune, so we decided to spend an afternoon touring this historic museum.  Here’s a photo of the courtyard and the buildings with their distinctive patterned roof tiles. 

Originally known as l’Hôtel Dieu, Hospices de Beaune was a charity hospital founded in 1443 by Nicolas Rolin and de Salins Guigone to serve the poor and sick.

With the support of the pope and the Dukes of Burgundy, the hospital was built and staffed with nuns who nursed patients. Later, “spinsters and childless women of good character” were also allowed to serve the Hospices.

The main building was a combination hospital ward and chapel.  It was known as the “Hall of the Poor” and housed 30 beds, 15 along each wall.

This painting depicts one of the sisters ministering to the needs of a patient in l’Hôtel Dieu.

The nuns lived on a second level where they could look down upon their patients at all times.

The sisters attended daily mass and prayer services in the hall.

The hall is constructed in an arched, cathedral-style building.  The support beams had elaborate figures and etchings.

Here is a display of some of the medical devices they used...

… including a hand drill that was used to open the skull, which was thought to relieve high blood pressure or to treat mental illness.

This photo is of a statue of Monsieur Rolin.

These next three photos were of particular interest to me because they display the apothecary of the hospital, the pharmacy.

This is a photo of the polyptych of l’Hôtel Dieu.  The polyptych, considered perhaps the most precious element of the exhibit and the highlight of the tour, is a painting of more than three adjoining panels  It depicts The Last Judgment by the artist, Rogier van der Weyden.  Commissioned by Monsieur Rolin, the painting was completed in 1451.  It originally hung in the Hall of the Poor, but is now housed in a temperature and humidity-controlled room. 

As described in the museum guide, in the lower part of the polyptych, the dead rise from their graves. Their souls are weighed by the archangel Michael.  Above the earth hangs heaven, with a golden background.  In the center panel are Jesus and the archangel Michael, who holds a scale. Next to them are Mary on the left and John the Baptist on the right.  On the second row are the twelve apostles. Behind them are a pope, a king, a monk, and to the right, three women.  The outer panels show the final destinations, paradise and hell. 

The Hospice served patients in the Hall of the Poor until the 1950s and served elderly patients, similar to a nursing home, until the 1980s.  It was supported by donations or the sale of wine or grapes from property it owned.  Even now, the Hospice owns prized vineyard sites in Burgundy.  Wine produced from the vineyards helps to fund charity care in the area.  A famous charity wine auction is held every year in November.

For our last evening in Burgundy, we wanted a casual dinner, not too expensive, something local that people who live there would enjoy.  Yves and Marie suggested a couple of places in the countryside.  We selected the nearer of the two, Auberge du Coteau, in Villars-Fontaine, about a 15 minute drive into the hills.

It is a rustic inn, perched precariously on a steep hillside next to the road in a tiny hillside village.  The dining room has wooden tables, old, dark wooden beams in the ceiling, a large fireplace, and a wood-fired grill.

It is a family operation with three employees the night we were there, one server, one chef on the grill, one person in the kitchen.  The server is the sister of the chef.  Once again, we were the first to arrive.  Dinner in France is just not done until after 7:00 p.m.  Even families with baby in tow don’t show up until after 7:30, and this was a Wednesday evening.

Watching the production was hugely entertaining, like performance art.  The crew was definitely a blue jeans and plaid shirt operation.  Our server was pleasant and friendly, but she was also a “get the work done” kind of gal.  Not “what’ll it be, Bub?” but definitely not La Ciboulette or Le Saint Laurent.

Mary ordered a duck breast and I ordered an entrecôte, which is sort of like a ribeye, except mostly cut away from the large fat or bony part.

Our cook brought the meat out and put them on the side of the grill, occasionally lifting the grate to put more wood onto the fire.  He whistled, sort of between his teeth, not a pursed lip whistling.  He would amble out from the kitchen, turn the meat, then walk back into the kitchen, whereupon much animated chatter between him and the kitchen cook would ensue.  Then, he would whistle himself back out to turn the meat again.

I had œufs en meurette again and loved them again.  They are tangy, savory, and delicious with bacon and onions.  Mary passed on an appetizer this time.

The chef had a pot of Époisses sauce on the edge of the grill and a large aluminum pan of frites, what we would call French fries in the U.S.  The fries weren’t part of what is ordered on the menu.  You just get them.  You order duck, you also get fries.  You order steak, you get fries.  He would scoop out a portion of fries onto the plate, sort of toss the meat on there, spoon on the sauce, and she would take about a half-dozen plates at a time to the tables.  The aluminum pan of fries would then spin for a while on the marble slab next to the fire.

Guess what.  The duck and the steak were perfect.  The Époisses sauce was richer and much better than at Au Caveau Nuiton.  Both dishes were tender and flavorful.

Our server brought out a cheese tray, left it on the table, and basically said, “Help yourself.”

Mary had sorbet.

The wine was a Fixin (pronounced fee-sahn) premier cru by Domaine Guy et Yvan Dufouleur.  The Fixin appellation is not one of the prestige sites in Burgundy, so the wines tend to be priced more affordably.  This was a briskly acidic wine that demands food to show its best, but enlivened the dinner, keeping it from being as heavy as it otherwise could be perceived.  It had enough age on it to express some advanced tertiary flavors.  It met our needs for a casual dinner just fine.  Here are my notes.

Domaine Guy et Yvan Dufouleur Fixin Clos du Chapitre 2004.  The aroma profile was subtle with mostly dark fruit characteristics.  The color from the bottle was garnet and the palate showed bright acidity, almost what I might describe as sharp, with a smooth texture, and an initial impression of dark plum and berries that evolved quickly to bright red cherries, cranberries, red berries.  It was well balanced, a bit acidic, moderately complex, had medium length.  13.0% alcohol.

We enjoyed going out into the countryside for a dinner of authentic local food with local people in a rustic setting.  It was a fitting evening for our final day in Burgundy.

That’s our post for today.  We hope you enjoyed it.  Keep checking back at Cépage et Cuisine for more posts about our wine, food, and cultural adventures in France.  Tomorrow, we’re off to Alsace.  In the meantime,

Cheers,

Mary♥Brian