From yesterday's location Blois in the Loire valley we drove some 220 km east to Vézelay at the western edge of Burgundy. We passed by this well-known hill-top town some 30 years ago on another one of our drives from the Loire river, noticed the hilltop setting but did not have the time to explore it, but it remained in my memory for all these years as a place to visit. We had a good stay in this charming place and then visited a number of other interesting towns in Burgundy, finishing off in Dijon.

Each of these often small towns has its own charm and place in history. After Vézelay we stayed in Semur-en-Auxois, Beaune and Dijon and visited the other places during our drives. Beaune is of special interest to me: From 1964 to 1965 I spent one year working in Paris and I do remember my probably first ever guided day-tour by SNCF (the French railway company) which brought me to this city, famous for being the wine capital of Burgundy and particularly for its colorful Hospices de Beaune where their annual wine auction is apparently the primary wine auction in France - I would have thought that this distinction would belong to the Bordeaux region, but I am always happy to learn something new.

Beaune with its 20,000 inhabitants is dwarfed by its nearby, much larger neighbor Dijon with close to 160,000 inhabitants. It’s known for its traditional mustard, vineyard tours, autumn gastronomic fair and building styles ranging from Gothic to art deco. The distinguished 1787 Musée des Beaux-Arts, housed in the vast Palace of the Dukes, which I picture below, holds a rich collection of paintings, sculptures, crafts and antiquities.

The few images shown below hopefully can give you a "first feel" for these places, I provide below a couple of links to articles in Wikipedia should you be interested in learning further details on these locations:

Vézelay: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%A9zelay
Semur-en-Auxois: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semur-en-Auxois
Beaune: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaune
Dijon: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dijon


Notes
TRIP INFO: Set # 1 provides a brief introduction to this series. Please use the link below if you would like to review this intro:
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