Our "Sideways" Weekend

Amongst the vines

In the Marche aux Vins

some bottles behind this gate were from 1904!

Tasting at Marche aux Vins

At one of the vineyards on the Route des Grands Crus View along the road

Grape harvesters-we think that the entire family who owns the vineyards go out to work, even kids!

The signs we followed from Beaune to Dijon

Aidan drinking frothed milk at breakfast

Jason's escargot

Silly Lainey in the wine cave

One of the many wine growning towns

Entrance to the walled city of Beaune

In the town

Aidan's 2003 vintage

Checking out the barrels in the caves

Our first glass of Pinot Noir in Beaune

Aidan took this pic

Do you know the movie "Sideways" about the guys that go on the wine tasting weekend in Napa Valley? And the one guy who swears he'll never drink merlot again, only Pinot Noir? That guy is Jason after our weekend tasting Pinots in Beaune.

We went to Beaune, France (in the Burgundy region, just south of Dijon) for the weekend. I love that we can do that-go to France for one night! We were supposed to go to Portugal this weekend for 5 nights, but Jason couldn't take the time off after all-typical. So, I decided we were going somewhere and since we had to drive and only for one night, I took out my map of Europe and figured out where we could go within a 4 hour drive. I was amazed to see that Burgundy was within my radius!

We made it to Beaune by 11am Saturday. Beaune is a cool old town surrounded by vineyards. The town itself is surrounded by walls...all the better to protect their purple treasure that is stored in caves all around town! Burgundy mainly grows Pinot Noir grapes, and a bit of Chardonnay. The fields were beautiful and it is harvest time now, so we were able to see lots of people out in the fields picking grapes as we drove along the Route du Grands Cru (main wine road).

There were tasting rooms and caves everywhere. The kids (and we did take them with us:) thought the caves were really cool. They liked reading the years on all the labels and looking for bottles with their birth year on them. Aidan even convinced Jason to buy a 2003 bottle and save it for him. We tried to explain how long it is until he will be 21 and can drink his wine, but he didn't care. I gotta say, this is one cool (or seriously messed up)kid! What other 6 year old picks out a bottle of wine to save for his 21st birthday? It'll probably be skunked by then, but we'll do our best to keep it for him.

The coolest place we went was called the Marche aux Vins. We went underground in caves and saw tons of wine in various stages of maturation-from the press to the barrels to the bottle. Jason and I got to taste a bunch of wines there, and Lainey tried to taste wine by sticking her finger in a spill until we caught her! We switched her to grape juice real quickly! This is where the kids had fun looking at the labels and exploring the caves.

We took a nice mini-train ride all around town and into the vineyards, which of course, was Aidan's highlight. There was a merry-go-round in the city center so Lainey was thrilled. There was something for all of us there :).

I was able to introduce my kids to the Jambon et Fromage sandwich this weekend. This French ham and cheese specialty is my number one memory of my high school trip to France. I ate one every day I was there, because I didn't like French food. Frankly, I still don't. Anyway, the kids agreed that Jambon et Fromage are great sandwiches. But, they were happy to leave so they didn't have to eat yet another. France is just not a kid-friendly (or Christine-friendly) place for food, other than bread and cheese. Jason, though, is not as picky and thoroughly enjoyed his escargot at lunch yesterday. Ew.

It was a great weekend getaway. We even snuck in a bike ride around town. We had hoped to bike through the vineyards, but the routes were too long for Aidan. So we drove through them instead. It was such a pretty drive through the rolling hills and valleys. The towns along the Route du Grands Cru were so old and charming. It was kind of weird to think that the grapes we saw being picked and carted into towns could someday become fine wines.

I wonder how our 2003 Pinot Noir is going to taste on July 22, 2024?