During my recent trip through France we hit the Burgundy region during the vendange, the annual grape harvest. Wine country is beautiful anytime of the year, but doubly so in September. The vineyards are a visual feast, with straight rows of neatly tended vines, broad green leaves and tightly packed fruit bunches. As the season's first chill winds bring hints of Autumn, the vineyards buzz with excitement. Months of anxiously tending to the grapes is over. Tractors laden with their cargo rush from vineyard to winery as the workers descend on the rows like hungry locusts, stripping the precious fruit from the plants.

The Burgundy region stretches in a thin line from Dijon to Lyon, but the true heart of Burgundy is the Côte d’Or (golden banks), centered around the village of Beaune. Known as La France Profond, or Intense France, Burgundy exemplifies the characteristics that the French themselves hold dear -- small villages, beautiful countryside, good food, good wine, and a care-free way of life. Think of a little old man riding a bicycle down a tree-lined country lane, wearing a beret, a fresh baguette strapped to the back of his bike, and you’re visualizing Burgundy.

As part of the Discover France tour, my group spent one day enjoying many of Burgundy's great pleasures. We started our day at the weekly farmer's market, one of the best in France. Thousands of shoppers, locals and tourists alike, stroll through the stands admiring the season's offering and jostling for position when they find something they like. I gave each member of my group a task -- bread, cheese, fruit, meat, wine, etc. -- and sent them out into the market.

With picnic fixings duly assembled, we drove out into the countryside for a tailgate lunch with a view of La Rochepot castle, a remnant of the Hundred Years' War. The picnic spot was cooler and windier than ideal, but the food and the view made up for it. On our drive back to town, we ambled through the vineyards, enjoying scenes of the workers busy gathering a treasure we'll enjoy in years to come.

Many of the items featured in the market make their way into the local restaurants. The Burgundy region is one of the major reasons that France is famous for food. Some of it’s most famous specialties are boeuf bourguignon (beef stew with red wine sauce), coq au vin (chicken in red wine), and jambon persillé (ham in a parsley and wine gelatin). With Dijon as the capital of Burgundy, mustard also figures large in many dishes.

Below I've listed some of my favorite restaurants in Beaune. For more recommendations in Beaune or for information about other areas of Europe, contact me about our trip planning services.

Relais de la Madeleine
44 Place Madeleine, Beaune
✆ 03-80-22-07-47
Open: 12:00 to 14:00 & 19:00 to 22:30
Average Price: €12 to €23 per person
Good meals, a wide range of choices, and very reasonable prices.

Caveau des Arches
10 Blvd Perpeuil, Beaune
✆ 03-80-22-10-37
Open: 12:00 to 14:00 & 19:00 to 22:30
Closed: Sundays and Mondays; two weeks in August
Average Price: €20 to €35 per person
It’s hard to imagine a more atmospheric setting for a dinner in the wine country than an underground wine cellar. Nice choice of fixed price menus, all well-prepared. Friendly, attentive service. Reservations recommended.

Le Jardin des Remparts
10 Rue de l’Hotel Dieu, Beaune
✆ 03-80-24-79-41
Open: 12:00 to 13:30 & 19:00 to 21:00
Closed: Sundays and Mondays
Average Price: €55 to €85 per person

Excellent food in a garden setting. Reservations essential.

Tags: Burgundy

"This is one of the lessons of travel: that some of the strangest races dwell next door to you at home."

-- Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 - 1894), Across the Plains

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-Athens may not be the bargain it once was, but it's still cheaper than much of Europe. http://bit.ly/PtOF7

-New web site seeks to connect local Parisian with visitors for walks, talks and more. http://bit.ly/f96mY

-Guinness turns 250. http://bit.ly/LiO5V

-Hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold found in England. http://bit.ly/4yqT5S

-Some detailed photos of items found in the Anglo-Saxon hoard. http://bit.ly/Rlu01

Tags: Archaeology, Athens, Dublin, England, Guinness, Paris

If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay at home. You are like a pebble thrown into water; you become wet on the surface, but you are never part of the water.

-- James Michener, American novelist, 1956

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One of the many advantages of my small group tours is the fact that we fly under the radar when it comes to certain sites that prohibit tour groups. The Font de Gaume cave, home to some of the most stunning pre-historic paintings in the world, is one such place.

Deep in the southwestern part of France, about 75 miles east of the city of Bordeaux, lies the Vézères River Valley. This small river winds from the Massif Central in central France, eventually joining the Dordogne River near the village of Les Eyzies-de-Tayac. The region around Les Eyzies is riddled with natural limestone caverns that provided shelter to early humans about 35,000 years ago. The first Cro-Magnon skeletal remains (named after a cave in the area) were found here.

Lascaux cave, which has the most famous paintings in the region, is just a few miles away. Unfortunately tourist visits to Lascaux were causing irreparable damage to the paintings, so the site was closed to the public in 1963. Lascaux II, a perfect copy of the cave, was opened nearby. Visiting it is interesting, but you always know in the back of your mind that what you're looking at are modern copies, not the real thing.

Font de Gaume is the real thing. They manage to stay open because the cave has good natural ventilation to get rid of all the carbon dioxide and other pollutants visitors introduce into the cave, and because they limit the number of visitors to just 180 per day. Naturally with that kind of restriction, regular tour groups are not allowed. Four or five bus loads, and you'd be at the limit. Big tour groups visit Lascaux II. With less than eight tour members in tow, I visit Font de Gaume.

A guide leads us into the cavern to discover just a few of the more than 200 images that line the walls. Bison are the most common theme, though the most famous painting is a scene with two reindeer. Facing each other, the one standing is clearly licking the head of the kneeling reindeer (the image shown here is a stylized copy, that does not do justice to the real thing). Around 14,000 years old, it's the world's first story, a love story. Male and female? Mother and child? We can't say for sure.

What impresses me most about the paintings at Font de Gaume is the skill of the artists. The paintings are polychrome, made with a mixture of iron oxide (red) and manganese oxide (black), which were blended in various proportions depending on the effect the artist wanted to produce. The artists used the natural contours of the cave walls to achieve a three-dimensional effect and give volume to the bodies. We could not do better today.

These pre-historic artists did not just wander into a cave one day and decide to paint. This was a skill that had to be learned, and by necessity, taught. Painting deep in the cavern, using only fire light, they achieved incredible realism. It demonstrates a sophistication that belies the image of "cave men" as unintelligent, thick-browed apes dragging their women around by the hair.

If you're visiting the area, reservations for Font de Gaume are highly recommended, and should be made at least a month in advance. For more details about visiting Font de Gaume, or for help with planning a self-guided trip to France, please contact us.

Tags: Caves, Custom Tours, Dordogne, Font-de-Gaume, Pre-historic