adventures in dijon

On Monday we went to Dijon, the capital of Burgandy. Our trip did not begin well. We had to buy a train pass before we boarded, and then the train was delayed, so we didn't get into Burgandy until around one in the afternoon. Then we ended up waiting an hour for the bus that Lonely Planet told us would take us to vinyards for wine tasting. Finally, after we got off at the last stop, which LP had advised me was at the beginning of the best stretch of vineyards in the region, we found ourselves in the middle of a suburban housing tract, not a scenic vine-covered hill in sight. We wandered around for a while, having a stupid fight and scaring an old lady out for her afternoon walk, but only succeeded in finding the train tracks and the back of a warehouse.

Fortunately, just then we met Lady Luck, who came to us in the form of Bertrand, a drunken Frenchman. We found Bertrand in a bar where I stopped in to ask for directions to the vineyards. He told us, in impressively good English, that he made wine, and he'd take us to his house to taste some if we'd wait 15 minutes. That sounded potentially hilarious to us, so we sat there while he slowly drank the rest of his beer, and then polished off a second, all the while bantering with the his best friend Jean-Marc. Jean-Marc was the only other customer in the bar, and from what I could gather, he and Bertrand go there a lot. They're both fire fighters, and they're kind of guys who rip the filters off their cigarettes because filters are "for zee women." Also, Jean-Marc had a beret and jean shorts on, and Bertrand uses a Winnie-the-Pooh keychain and carries around cardboard box with one boot in it, for no apparent reason. So you can see as how we didn't expect these guys to serve us world-class wine.


We were wrong, though. Bertrand's family has been in the business for a long time. Part of the cellar he showed us dated back to 1728. And he and Jean-Marc made great wine tour guides. Jean-Marc even showed me how to aerate the wine as I drank it, which was particularly impressive given that all his instructions came in the form of hand gestures and loud lip-smacking noises. I snorfed a lot of Grand Cru into my nasal cavities before I mastered it.

All in all, it was an amazing day. We bought Bertrand and Jean-Marc a beer before they drove us to the bus station, and while we drank Bertrand explained that he was returning a favor that came all the way from Australia. Apparently while he was on vacation there, some friendly locals took him under their wing and showed him around. When we stumbled into his favorite bar, he jumped on the opportunity to do likewise. Thanks, mysterious Aussies! I will most definitely pay back the karma bank when I return to San Francisco.