Off to the Capital
On boarding the bus, the driver showed us the Saturday newspaper - with a story about the students' stay in Pontigny. The photo shows us with Régis Pasquier after last Sunday's concert.
We left Pontigny for the last time on Sunday morning and headed southeast to the capital of Burgundy. One extra feature this year was our multi-talented Kate Messitidis, who took this course when she was a student at SMC and has been my assistant for the past two years. In addition to all her other tasks, she kindly provided a mobile hair-dressing unit on the bus.
Our first stop was Beaune, where we continued our study of medieval medicine. This hospice was founded in the 15th c. by Nicolas Rolin, chancellor to the Duke of Burgundy. Rolin was not born to a noble family but worked his way up to this high position, an unusual feat in the Middle Ages. Since life had been kind to him, he wished to repay society for his good fortune, and founded this hospice for the poor. It was funded by vineyards that still produce revenue for the hospice in Beaune (though not in the medieval buildings). The colored tile roofs are a trademark of the southern Burgundy region.
Having studied medieval medicine and visited the hospice founded by Marguerite of Tonnerre last week, the students were easily able to identify the various elements and saw what a furnished hospital looked like. In (what was once) the main sickroom, now a museum, each student chose an object and explained it to the group.
Lunchtime was on our own; each student was given cash for meals and could choose how adventuresome they wished to be.
We met in the afternoon at the park, ice cream cones in hand, the found more entertainment.
The wine museum in Beaune is excellent. We learned about terroir - how geography, climate, and other local elements influence how wine tastes, and also about the accessory activities necessary, such as barrel-making.
To become a wine connoisseur, you need to develop an acute sense of smell, and how to describe it. These "sniff test" tubes each have a distinctive – if subtle – odor that might be found in a wine (raspberry, mushroom, hay...), and the answers are hidden until you look them up to see your olfactory skill level.
The shape and size of wine glasses has varied through the ages, as has the way they were held. Glasses here range from Roman (3rd c.) to modern.
Our last visit in Beaune was to Notre-Dame, as 12th-c. parish church which has an entire cycle of 15th-c. tapestries about the life of Mary. At this time there was interest in details of her life, far beyond information in the bible, such as her conception by elderly parents, Joachim and Anna, An angel appeared to each of them (Joachim was a shepherd, out in the fields; Anna was home), and this is their meeting at the Golden Gate of Jerusalem.
We drove from Beaune to Dijon through the "gold coast" - the great vineyards of southern Burgundy; this one is the Clos de Vougeot in a spattering of rain
