Traveling to Dijon



The next day, we traveled to Dijon by way of Troyes ("Twah") and Chablis.  The day was overcast and raining hard here and there.  These are a few of the scenes of the countryside from the bus.



Troyes was a former capital of the Champagne region. We visited the "old town" which had interesting construction called "half timber" - there was a lot of wood in the local forests and the builders centuries ago created this unique design.

The bus dropped us off here where this very clever carousel was located.

Many of the seats in there were interesting - cars, lions, mermaid, rocket ship . . .

Half timber construction - very old!

Troyes Town Hall



Chablis is a region in Champagne that is famous for its white wines.  We visited a 13th century wine room to taste the 2014 and 2015 white wines.  Chablis is made only with Chardonnay grapes with very little or no oak barrels involved.  The day before (when we landed in Paris), Chablis suffered a devastating hail storm and had recently also suffered a rare spring frost.  The crop for 2015 is mostly destroyed - the vintner who spoke with us today explained that 2015 will be a very small crop.  After centuries of producing wines, they are used to such calamities - he seemed very calm and resigned to yesterday's blow to the 2015 crop.

 

Scenes of Chablis

We are disembarking

A nice stroll to the wine room

Our stroll included walking by one of the canals

We had to duck to enter La Cave de Conneseur

13th Century wine room

The vintner explaining Chablis wines and history

 

 

After Chablis, we traveled to the region of Burgundy and specifically to its capital, Dijon - this is our hotel for the next two nights: the Grand Hotel La Cloche:

 



 

Tomorrow we go on a walking tour through Dijon, visit an old hospice in another part of Burgundy and then have dinner out at a local popular restaurant.