FRANCE part 7, August 2019


Our final day in amazing Annecy. This village is less than an hour from Geneva, so perhaps we'll visit again, it deserves more time! We were up early and packed our bags for a quick getaway after we took our walk. We discovered a great HUGE open air market set up on the streets of the medieval village. Everything you would ever want was offered here and once again I sorta wished I was cooking dinner!! The only thing we bought here were some pastries for our travel day. We did grab a nice breakfast next to the castle to protect us from my hangryness!

























After breakfast it was still early and very nice out, so we walked to the lake. We looked at the small boats and remembering that my wife only had 2 must do's on this trip, a bike ride and time on the water, so we decided to rent a fun little center console and take a cruise! The boat was slow, it wasn't the Mediterranean Sea, but we had a fantastic time!! After our lovely lake cruise it was unfortunately time to say goodbye to this gorgeous fairy tale village called Annecy.

















Next stop Beaune, Burgundy Capitol of the world! Once again we saw so many attractive and potential pit stops during our drive. We opted for Bourg-en-Bresse. What's in Bourg-en-Bresse? My wife says an interesting looking Monastery... ok! We hopped on a side road and after 15 minutes or so of wandering through a so so looking landscape we found it! The early 16th century Royal Monastery of Brou looked amazing from the street!













When we first pulled into town I thought we made a mistake with this pit stop. But once we entered the Monastery we were taken back by the history here. There is a love story attached to this place that would make for a great movie. There's also some uncomfortable facts of the time that this 20-21st century father has trouble fathoming.

See... in 1480 Maximilian of Austria, later Holy Roman Emperor and Mary, Duchess of Burgundy had a beautiful daughter, Margaret of Austria. Some treaty was signed between France and Austria and Maximilian promised Margaret and a large territory to the 11 year old boys father King Louis VI. Margaret was 3 years old at the time of the engagement, thus my angst. Not to worry, after just a few years, the marriage was annulled, she was 11...obviously they just wanted the land!! In 1497 at 17 she married again to John, Prince of Austaria, Son of King Ferdinand II (Spanish Monarchy), poor guy died six months after the wedding.

Then at 21 she married Philibert II, Duke of Savoy, also 21. This apparently was true love, finally!! Unfortunately, Philibert aka "The Handsome", sadly died 4 years later. Margaret went into severe mourning after Philibert's death. Her father actually tried to marry her off again, she refused and vowed never to marry again, good for you Margaret!! Margaret, now Duchess of Savoy, had attained great respect and incredible political influence by then. She became a very strong, independent and intelligent woman and was elected Governor of the Netherlands and served in this position until her death in 1530 at the age of 50!

Now as for the incredible Monastery, she commissioned the massive project in 1506 and it was completed swiftly for the times in 1532, sadly just 2 years after her death. She and Philibert are entombed here as well as his mother, Margaret of Bourbon (I like that title!). The tombs are simply incredible, there are actually 2 stacked ornate marbled tombs for each, top sculpture being their formal royal likeness and the bottom being a casual likeness which seemed peaceful and perfect to me. There are dogs incorporated into the sculptures resting at their feet, represents loyalty, I really liked that! After so much time, wars etc. it's impressive that this Gothic masterpiece survives in its pristine condition. The many sculptures date from the 13th century and the outrageous art collection spans from the 16th to the 20th century. The photo of me is in front of Gustave Dore's Dante and Virgil in the 9th Circle of Hell circa 1861, sinners guilty of malice/treachery frozen in ice, impressive. Isn't history cool!!





































We spent well over 2 hours in the Monastery and knew we would be pressed to arrive in Beaune by sunset, so off we went. We lucked out and arrived with some light and also found free street parking 2 blocks from our AirBnB. We quickly found the wonderful apartment called "Loft in the City". It was after 9pm and we were starving, found most restaurants full or closed uh oh we are not in Nice anymore!, but lucked out with family run Restaurant Le Fleury! 1/2 block from our apartment with sparse French decor and the best Beef Bourguignon I've ever had...and the wine was very nice as well.












To be continued....................

Wonderful stuff! Thanks so much!

New name on the horizon! Beer&Wineman
So cool you got water time!

New name on the horizon! Beer&Wineman
So cool you got water time!

and I had bourbon after the Nats win last night, so conflicted ;-) !!!!! Happy Birthday Tom!!!!