Syracuse - A Less than Complete Recap

It Started With a Surgery
The matriarch and her petite Asian helper sneaked into the hospital, past security and up to the third floor.  I, of course, was stopped and interrogated before finally receiving a name tag, which later gave me great leeway to roam the halls and buy muffins from the cafe un-pestered.  I lorded it over the helper, pointing at it and mocking her for being stuck, muffin-less, in the room.

Syracuse - Carpentry from Bali

Recreating the Bali "Bar Rocker"
While in Bali we visited a coffee shop for breakfast and sat in ingeniously designed rocking chairs.  The "Bar Rocker" is a typical plastic lounge chair fastened onto a set of wooden legs.  As we sat on them rocking, I non-chalanted that "I could make these, they're pretty simple."  Of course, Dodo jumped at the chance, taking three photos of them and smiling.  She won't admit it now, but she didn't think I could.  Nothing like a good challenge.

Menetou Salon - Hunt for Wine

Out of Burgundy and into the Loire Valley
A few years ago in Paris I had dinner at a restaurant in the 11th with colleagues.  The wine was really delicious and inexpensive and I took a picture of it thinking I would pick up a few bottles.  I looked everywhere for it in vain.  When planning the Burgundy trip I noted that the small village of Menetou-Salon was not that far away from our last stop of Vézelay.  We dialed it into the GPS and off we went.

Vézelay - Hilltop Town

The Natural Beauty Continues
On reflection I think I prefer the French countryside to the grit of Paris.  No doubt I am a city person but that feeling is not as strong as it used to be.  Vézelay is a small village with a large church perched along a narrow spine of hill in central Burgundy.  We stayed in a tiny hotel with a tinier veranda and a larger than life view of the surrounding countryside.

Chateauneuf - Unplanned Side Trip

The Expected Unexpected
We usually plan a loose itinerary so we can get sidetracked.  As we zipped along the A6 on our way from Beaune to Vezelay we saw a castle at the top of the hill and had the same thought - "let's go check it out." We never would have made it without GPS, which took us on a large counterclockwise loop through some lavender fields.

Beaune - Wine Capital of Burgundy

Market Behind the Walls
Beaune is a small town thirty minutes drive from Puligny-Montrachet that sits behind medieval walls and a moat.  It's the epicenter of the Burgundy wine trade, just about all businesses here relate to it in one form or another.  We lucked into a thriving food market and bought a block of cheese, mustard, some strawberries and a bottle of wine.

Puligny-Montrachet - Wine Epicenter

How Do You Know You're in Wine Country?
Well, for one, you're surrounded by vines.  Everywhere you look - along the road, in backyards, on the hills.  We arrived at the village of Puligny-Montrachet in mid-afternoon and took a walk along a small winding road to peek at the vines.  Strange tractors puttered by us - four small wheels and then five feet of suspension up to the enclosed drivers cab.  We later saw one crawling through a vineyard - it looked like a spider on wheels.

Auxerre - First Stop in Bourgogne

Medieval Lunch
Auxerre dates back to Roman times when it was a provincial capital of the Empire.  Since then it has seen its share of history: the 100 years war, the Wars or Religion, its capture by the Huguenots, Nazis and the most bizarre of all - the drunken wolves.  During WWII a pack of starving wolves ate grapes off the vines and became drunk.  They lay down in the city center where the townsfolk took advantage with swords and knives.

France - Next Up, Road Trip

Burgundy & the Loire Valley
When I booked the rental car I did it on a French website so I wasn't completely sure what I was doing.  It got even worse when we arrived to pick up the car - nobody there spoke good English.  So, as the clerk chattered away at me in French and I signed each piece of paper I knew something was going to go wrong.  When we got in our car, I noticed it was a standard, not an automatic.  It took a few days to adjust.  Good thing it came with GPS or we never would've made it.  We were headed to Bourgougne otherwise known as Burgundy with a short jaunt into the Loire Valley.

Paris - Stopover No 1

Same Old, Same Old?
It's hard to reconcile my idea of laissez-faire France with the brewing controversy over gay marriage.  After spending years living in the Marais, the gay epicenter, I didn't think the Frenchies would give a hoot.  The city was covered with anti gay marriage messages like this one that reads "We need work, not gay marriage."