Beaune Railway Station

it's time to depart the beautiful quaint Beaune and train is the best mode of transport. The town of Beaune is so small, the limo driver that we used a few years ago came to get us. What's even smaller was we recognised each other!!!!! Either they don't have many visitors or our faces were that easy to remember. I guess it's bcoz there's not many Asians that visit Beaune unless if you are in the Wine Industry.

The Moroccan limo driver is now driving better car as in more luxurious, he's married with a baby and gained quite a few pounds too. It was only like 2 years ago, isn't that long. But alwiz lovely to see him again for he's such a great person with a big heart.

Despite it being a small stations, the system used by SNCF throughout France is the best. We purchased our tickets online bout a month earlier, with options to print ur own ticket at home or print at the station. Even by printing at the respective stations, it's really easy to use. Don't worry, there's english on that ticketing machine. Just key in ur name, email and ur reservation numbers....and voila!!! ur tickets are printed in nano seconds.

From the steps of the train station u could see the outskirt of Beaune, with trees lining the boulevard. Most of the trees were turning brown/red welcoming the arrival of autumn.

So where's next after Beaune? We were catching a 1hour and 44 minutes ride down to Lyon, the capital of gastronomy and of coz our tummies can't wait!!!


Monkey forced a smile....eeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeee
yeah our luggages were not that many. Most of them were resting in Paris still. When u are travelling with train be it first class or economy, u dun wanna lug too many pieces together.


reading some of my new purchases from Beaune. We bought so many wine books...yeee haaaa!!!! that's the place to get everything and seriously EVERYTHING including almanac...when to plant, when to seed, when to fertilize, when to harvest, when to viniculture and including when to drink wat wines.

I am sure the chinese do have some form of almanac like this....all I knew was my grandmother used to tell me to make chinese wines, it has to be during full moon. After reading so much these years, I finally understood the scientific explanation on this. Gravity pull during full moon is at its peak. So the next time ur grandma tells u not to consume chicken when u are having a cough, listen to her too. Coz chicken is acidic, acids irritates the hell outta of ur throat and u will cough even more. When u cough more, the lining of ur throats will take even longer to heal. So roughly bout 3 months? that makes it 100 days.

Get it? :)))))))))))))

and after 20 mins or so *I can't remember how long*, our train arrived. I like it that the system here is so specific like in Japan. u wait at the exact platform exact spot. So when the train arrives, u are right at your coach, almost at its doorsteps. Hehehehehe.

plus trains are alwiz on time to the dot, just like in Switzerland and Japan. I am sure it does in other countries too, prollie except back home in our country.

So do book ur tickets early and there's alwiz promo even for First Class coaches. Click the below link to start browsing for ur tickets.
http://www.raileurope-asean.com/

Le Bistrot Bourguignon, Beaune

U can't drink anything else whenever in Burgundy, else the sommelier will throw u that look. Hahaha. Le Bistrot Bourguignon is a decent place run by flying sommelier Jean-Jacques Henner and Chef Benoit Roux. I guess they must have deep chemistry in running this establishment pairing regional cuisines with locally produced wines.  

We just finished a wine appointment and was hungry. So where else to eat if not here? Simple bistro where locals hang out, located right smack in the middle of the town.


one must eat snails in Beaune. It's their local cuisine. Can't get any yummier than this. With parsley butter. U notice how it doesn't drench the snails but the sauce coated each snails nicely. The texture of the snails were so heavenly.


Parma ham, with pickled pickled artichoke hearts on a bed of garden greens and baby mozzarella cheese. Hearty lunch, just wat I needed after all the walk and wine tastings!!!!

the main dish that u must try here is the famous beef bourguignon. Afterall it's the regional dish, beef stewed in burgundy wines, with loads of pearl onions, garlic and carrots. Soft juicy and tender, even the bland looking potatoes were so good!!! I don't know why potatoes here are very intense in flavours with that fluffy texture.

he's one happy boy after all the hearty food and we had more wines as we sat there watching time passed. No desserts for us...only coffee as we are not really dessert person, hence we are really poor in recommending ppl for items in this particular "department" hahahahaha.

along the same street from where we sat, u can see Hospice de Beaune at the end. Plenty of quaint shops lined this pedestrian street. Trust me, plenty to buy too. From locally made parfums to artisanal nougat!!! the nougat in France is outstanding. Also some shops selling kitchen accessories, Knives shops, shops that specialised in brass pots and pans and of coz wine accessories shops.

Le Bistrot Bourguignon
8 Rue Monge,
21200 Beaune,
France.
Tel: +33 3 8022 2324

Dalineum, Beaune

Do I need to remind everyone again on this lil town of Beaune which is so beautiful and quaint, and yet it's the capital of Burgundy wines, where merchants round the world come here to trade and buy.

It is also the only city that I could find great collection of wine books, materials, gadgets, accessories related to wines. Friends alwiz wondered where the heck we got all these beautiful unique stuffs....it's usually from travels. The number of books we brought back, I tell ya!!! definitely more than the kilos of cheeses that JS lugged home.

also maps, socks for blind tasting....socks to cover the bottles not my feet that's for sure. And even more unique wine labels, tags etc. Yeah ppl wondered why the hell do we even wanna buy a 4 foot long map of Burgundy. Hahaha I can't explain why. We are just so obsessed with geography and terroir. Plus climate now...hot years cold years, that's the only thing I have yet to master....which vintage has the warmest climate, which one with the most rain. In fact 2014 rained a lot here in Burgundy, most winemakers said there's too much of rain...but down south in Provence, the winemakers gave different notations. Now I'll need a new map where I can plot on bcoz the one we have right now, JS won't even let me touch it.


It was not that early in the morning anymore....bout 10-ish? But it's still very quiet. Windows and doors were still shut bcoz it was a MONDAY!!!

and on Mondays, Musee du Vin is closed!!! This was our 4th trip and we never seemed to visit this museum at all....and when we did, it's closed. Aiks alwiz forgotten that most of the things are closed on Mondays. Now I'm an expert in the number 4 pose. HAHAHAHAHA

dunno which lens that JS used, all his pic looked so ready for prints. Not much editing needed though, I guess if u are good u dun have to edit much. Better not let him know this, he already very "action" pffffffttttttttttttttttttt


Sunny sunny days are so much appreciated here, especially when u are travelling :))))))) and we lurve to do that on foot. All the time...well u have to balance whereby there's so much of food input, u need to exert more and burn those calories.

Mr. Dali, can I just twist ur funky moustache? hehehehehe.

Salvador Dali.....a surrealist artist whom experimented so much with cubism which was somehow influenced by Paul Cezanne another important artist. This vacation had been so enriching, we did so many Picasso, Monet, Van Gogh, Cezanne, Emile Bernard and of coz Dali....all of them were somehow related and influenced by each other.

Hahahaha no!!! this wasn't the original one...the ori one is sitting proud in the Museum of Modern Art New York. *Oh New York New York, when am I coming to thee?* Dali is famed for his The Persistence of Time where his favourite pocket watches melt.

Monkey entered into the realism of Modern Music at 9 years old? It wasn't by choice, it's like part of the syllabus if I wanna graduate in Music which I did and I didn't like it.....I've alwiz been a classical person.

So Arts and Musics are very much related. Composers created pieces that reflect that certain period of time....so when the lecturer entered into the Modern period chapter, I remembered grousing like my grandmother. So apparently it's quite easy, modern music are just like modern arts, never follow the rules, alwiz surreal, there's hardness and softness at the same time, and basically everything was so dissected.

Hence my memory of Art pieces, Artists, Composers, Period of time, Centuries, techniques were so strong. Now I should thank my mom for sending me to horrifying Music Classes for 12 years and my dad for spending so much on me!!! LOL!!!

Dalineum was opened by a Burgundian Monsiuer Jean Amiot, who has amassed a huge collection of Dali's works. There's more than 150 pieces of works from sketches, to paintings, even some rare ones....also sculptures and creations of Dali's. Also included were some reproductions of his works.

some of the pieces u'll need a prism cube to "merge" both paintings into one....it was actually Jesus Christ, crucifixion on a 4th dimension. How the heck do u even do painting in such dimension???? No wonder there's only one and ONLY Salvador Dali in the world.

This was a reproduction of the famous lip couch made for actress Mae West, who was then the sex symbol of that period in the 20's

a standing lamp with interconnected tweaks/branch liked pieces stacked on top of each other.

Dali's works incorporate so much of dream-liked fantasies, u'll only see things like those in ur dreams. Just like The Persistence of Time. Also he lurves Ants, bcoz to him, ants = decay. You'll notice some ants here and there in his paintings. How poetic!!!!

Lookin for Ants, Monkey?
there's no ants in this piece though.

As we explored this museum, u'll notice how his painting style changed over time. Just like Picasso the confused artist. When we first saw his early pieces, we were liked...hey I can actually tell what it was!!!!

outside Dalineum there's another sculpture by Dali.

This is a rather new museum, having recently opened in 2011 by Mr. Amiot. He decided to curate all these pieces at his hometown. Nestled in the middle of Beaune. 

The other place/chateau that have quite a number of Dali sculptures would be Chateau Pommard. It's no strangers to frenchies that Arts are extremely good investment. Almost all large winemakers have amassed some form of art pieces, if they could, there's also a separate art gallery to display these.
*click here to read about Chateau Pommard visit with its Dali and Picasso works*

Le Dalineum,
30 Place Monge,
Beaune, France.

Bistro de l'Hotel, Beaune

L'Hotel Beaune is a very quaint and beautiful hotel right smack in the middle of Beaune city....despite the status being a city, it's more like a lil village to me. You can just walk around it in 10 minutes and done!!! However Beaune is the capital of burgundy wines and this hotel is like the famous place to be among the wine merchants and wine trades. But I was wondering how come only 4 stars??? Prollie bcoz they dun have a swimming pool that's it. Seriously in all my travels, I hardly use the pool anyway unless it's like a beach resort or island villa kinda thing. When u are staying in a villa, u would be buzy at ur own private pool isn't it?

We did not stay at L'Hotel Beaune during this trip, instead we went to another famous historical Hotel Le Cep which I will blog sometime later. L'Hotel Beaune is known for its personalised and top notch service for its clientele. They only have 10 rooms here....so u can imagine that all the staffs from the kitchen to the door bell to the chambermaids will remember your name and preferences.


the hotel managed to secure the first unit of this row of building, along Rue Samuel Legay, which happened to be next to the courtyard of L'Hotel Beaune. They turned it into a classical bistro with access from the main road and also from the courtyard.

a few years ago during our visit to Beaune, we stumbled upon this bistro and decided to give it a try. Our very first visit didn't disappoint, in fact it was so good that we have short-listed into our "To-Dine" list for this year. Later, we found out that Bistro de l'Hotel is highly recommended by the locals here.


Appetizer of cheeses and shaved hams, with extra virgin olive oil, some awesome creamie butter which wasn't enuff for Mr. JS alone, what's more that he had to share with me....and warm bread basket. Again butter and bread are too dangerous in France, coz it's so yummy that u tend to devoured the entire thing b4 ur actual meal arrives on the table.

Amuse bouche was full of umami-ness with sweet and savouriness that startup ur palate and makes u hungry. Basically it's bread cooked with a lot of sweet tomatoes, drizzled with more olive oil and chopped basil on top. So simple but then so yumzzz....it has the right balance and JS was spotting my tiny bowl hoping I have some leftover for him. Sorry!!! not this time.

Wine list here is pretty decent and u could find really rare gems as well. Ranging from everyday wines to stunning ones like this bottle.

Monkey: "This is a bistro, we gonna have bistro kinda food.....u sure u wanna have a Richebourg?"
JS: "Everyday is a celebration Monkey, if not now when?"

and soon our sommelier was pretty happy to pour us some. I still couldn't believe it that there's Richebourg in this bistro!!!!! JS added that we are in Beaune, of coz u could find all these stunning wines. 

we started off with half a dozen of fine de clairs oysters. Seriously it's not enuff BUT, we knew we had to put a rhythm to our dinner. Afterall this is Beaune!!! the cuisine is rich and big in flavours. So we gotta plan our menu. Funny how these days, dinners were taken so seriously, we needed at least a minimum of 15 minutes to discuss on the wines, then on the food, from starter till the end if we gonna have cheeses or sweets. We alwiz believe with good plannings and visualization, you will have such an awesome dinner. Yes visualize the taste, how it will flow with the evening from courses to courses and most importantly with the chosen bottle of wine. If there's more than the 2 of us, we would have ordered more.

Egg Cocotte with some truffle oil and loads of thinly shaven white truffles. The head waiter must have liked JS a lot......kakakakakaka.

sorry for the picture quality. Must be too excited bcoz he was about to chomp chomp nom nom nom some organic eggs with so much of truffles.

He must have been overly excited bcoz the next course, he was still shaking his camera!!! LOL!!!!

This was the mixture of a few types of mushrooms cooked with thick cream, served on crunchy bread. Looked so unappetizing right? but it was so creamie and flavourful. Different mushrooms have got different intensity, flavours, texture and bite so this was really clever.


staying in Beaune can really make one fat.
Firstly all the heavy rich provincial cuisine, next all the yummy wines...and lastly the town/city is so small u can't really walk much.


JS had more white truffles with his awesome perfectly grilled beef.


This isn't any normal fries, it's so goooooooodddddd. The nose of the potatoes was so pure, I guess they fried them with animal fats? or really good oil? Then sprinkled with sea salts, u could actually bite into it. Sea salt isn't as salty as those chemically produced ones.

So in the end, both of us were fighting over this plate of chunky fries.


the awesome must have - roast farmer's chicken with olive oil and lemon jus. By the way it's boneless except the wings. The other must have chicken in its menu is the famous chicken from Bresse. I can attest that Bresse chicken are the best ones in the world!!! but because it's for 2 person, I could only order this half farmer's chicken.

Our last visit, we managed to ordered it and my my....underneath its skin with black patches were black truffles and of coz it was so yummy except that JS was complaining that the chicken smell was overwhelming he almost puked.


You can order any sides u want for your main course and I had these sugar snap peas with carrots and radish.


The semi open kitchen where u could see plates and plates of food being served out to the diners.

caramelised pineapples with lovely creme on top of biscotti, some lime zest and voila!!! It's good to have these after a heavy hearty meal :))))))))

not to forget homemade petit four of financiers and dark chocolates.

The service here is really friendly, they do have english menu and don't be surprised, if u manage to rub shoulders with the famous and notable ppl here, including the famed wine critique Mr. Allen Meadows which we did a few years ago.

Bistro de l'Hotel
5 rue Samuel Legay,
21200 Beaune,
France.
Tel: +33 3 8025 9414
http://www.lhoteldebeaune.com/en/

Loiseau des Vignes @ Le Cep *One Michelin Star*

with red shot eyes, obviously I was really tired then. Can't remember which day was this, must be one of those with a hectic appointments. Wine appointments that is. Or prollie it could just be the alcohols. All the wine tasting and tastings and more degustations. No complains though.


Beautiful knife with the signature letter "B" 

The B stands for Bernard......Monsieur Bernard Loiseau....the late Monsieur Bernard Loiseau. Why is it that people find it so romantic that people kill themselves over something that they are so passionate about....Passions, Romance and Death somehow has got very strong ties....just like Romeo and Juliet.

Bernard Loiseau was the only french chef to be listed in the France Stock Exchange. I guess by now there should be more chefs are doing the same. He had a great dream, a dream to be a 3 michelin starred chef which took him a lot of hardwork and years....He dedicated 17 years just to achieve that....

I guess goals and objectives do not just end there once you achieve something that u have set out to do...there is also continuity. So to maintain the 3 michelin stars is another story all together. He maintained it for 12 years until he couldn't take it no longer....when rumours were spreading that he may lose one of the stars, he put a gun into his mouth and shot himself after a full day of service at his restaurant in the commune of Saulieu.

Why Loiseau? WHY????
it was such a tragedy that not only shocked the culinary community of France but in fact the entire country for Loiseau is such celebrity chef. Even the France Government awarded him the highest knighthood when he was still alive.

after his death, his beloved wife Dominique Loiseau runs the establishment together with his line of books, frozen food and other restaurants throughout France. We were very honored to have a table to dine here which was also the restaurant at our hotel in Beaune.

Really really crispy and dough bread. Crispy on the outside, chewy and doughy on the inside. If you are a bread lover this is wat you yearned for.


Dinner started with hearty slightly warm chickpeas soup with a touch of spice on top.

The late Bernard Loiseau was also the founding father of French Nouvelle cuisine. He was such a perfectionist that every single plate of food has to be PERFECT as in 10 out of 10. Basically he's really really anal, no odour no additional smell must be presence in his kitchen. He's really a mad genius.


uh-oh!!! this is dangerous. When the bread basket came, there were only 4 slices of really really really crusty bread. This was definitely insufficient for we lurve bread so much especially those that were baked in stone oven like this. The center was so soft almost like sponge....how did they do it? It must be slow and long baking at a very low temperature.

and we had to ask where did they procure their bread. You see, not all restaurants make their own bread....and so it was some bakeries down the road, who bakes this exclusively for Loiseau.  

JS the porkie man had really good and well aged ham on top of blinis. There were more ham wrapped inside the blinis. Since the portion wasn't that large, I dare not steal any food from him.


Monkey ordered the famous Egg cooked with Onions and Red Wine. This is like the local cuisine of Burgundy. So much of sweet onions and the eggs were so creamie on top of thick luscious burgundy sauce. This entire dish was really rich but it was so delicious. Not to mention a piece of thin crispy like wafer caramelised bacon.


When u are in Beaune, u have the local wines :))))



JS had a simple piece of steak. I think he ordered pink instead of medium rare.



it came with a side of vegetables.

The cuisine here in Beaune is pretty provincial, with heavy sauces, and lots of wine based reduction. Meat and game.


and yes I ordered game
Pigeon with a piece of foie gras as huge as the pigeon. The pigeon looked black bcoz it was covered with mashed up liver and heart of the pigeon, cooked in red wine sauce.


the famous chocolate dessert with orange sauce at the bottom, layered in thin crispy biscuits. The ice creams was really velvety smooth and bcoz it's dark chocolate, it was extremely sinful. Almost like eating butter. hahahahaha



Petit Four of freshly baked financiers and chocolate macarons. Really petit but in a good way,

We had to talk a short walk after dinner to burn off all the yummy food that we had. Hehehehehe.

The cartoon Ratatouille was also inspired from Bernard Loiseau, I guess basically it's associated on the part where the food critique was so strict and unforgivable in the movie Ratatouille. It also implied the stress and madness that these group of food critique delivered to the establishments. Ratatouille director went and dined at the restaurant for inspirations in his movie.

After Loiseau's death, many parties were blamed...from the Michelin to Gault & Millau and a few writers/food critiques. All parties declined to comment further, some say it was his heavy debts that pushed him off the cliff.

Histories are written by the Victorious one. So they can say/write what they want afterall the one that lost it, is already gone. If there's another opportunity, we would love to visit his main restaurant at the sleepy hollow of Saulieu - La Cote D'Or

Loiseau des Vignes
Hotel Le Cep
27 Rue Maufoux,
21200 Beaune,
France.
Tel: +33 3 8022 3548
http://www.bernard-loiseau.com/uk/index.php