And then we powered straight back to our little house to cook up brunch for ourselves.
Crepes with lime ricotta and mango! Mmmmm!
We did manage to drag ourselves out of the house again though, to see what there was to be seen (tourist-wise) in Beaune.
First stop, the gorgeous church.
During tourist season the church houses a very old tapestry that tells the story of Mary the virgin mother, from her birth onwards.
Tom had to scratch this eagle very carefully - they had alarms attached to everything to make sure we didn't touch.
Next stop, Musee De L Hotel Dieu Des Hospices, which was originally built by the very wealthy chancellor of Burgundy as a hospital for the poor, some say in an attempt to save his immortal soul by doing something dramatically charitable.
No dogs allowed inside! It's an outrage!
The hospice is known for its extremely colourful roof.
I can't imagine why.
It's hard to see, but Tom spotted a Louis!
The main ward is very luxurious, considering it's a hospital for the poor.
The ward has a chapel down one end, so patients didn't even have to leave their beds to attend church.
Anyone care to have one of these syringes stuck into them? Ow!!
Tom was impressed by the roof construction.
I was impressed by their kithen spouts.
Tom had a bit of a face-off with a nun. Tsk tsk tsk.
We both liked the well.
They had their own little in-house apothecary. This crossbow-type thing is designed to help take the weight of the giant mortar and pestle (well, the pestle at least). Ingenious!
How cool are these built-ins?!!!!
Yet another mortar and pestle. Fortunately no alarms on that one.
They like their tapestries in Beaune. We walked into another wing and discovered a few very very old ones.
The story of this one went something like... a guy owned a horse. He couldn't be bothered taking the horse along to get re-shoed, so he cut off the horse's leg to take it to the blacksmith for a new shoe. He then discovered he couldn't reattach the horse's leg (DUH!), so learnt his lesson.
French horse owners are smart.
We took a parting look at the gorgeous hospice courtyard, then made our way back to the big bad streets of Beaune again.
Those big bad streets look like this.
And then... home cooked dinner! Lamb, this time. Tom had fun purchasing said lamb at the supermarket, since he didn't know the French word for 'lamb'. He ended up having a conversation that involved an inordinate amount of "baaa"-ing with the butcher, who took him out the back and attacked a lamb with a cleaver right in front of him.
Fortunately Tom made it out un-cleavered and holding some beautiful lamb racks, so roast lamb with smashed potatoes it was!
And then... because we couldn't possibly waste them... more ricotta filled raspberry tarts (with a bit of chocolate added this time to just be absolutely certain they would go to our hips). Gotta love no-guilt holiday eating!
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