Today was a mustard day as we drove to Beaune which is a city about 40 minutes from Dijon. We visited the last mustard factory in Burgundy for a tour and it was wonderful.
Not only do you receive a tour of the factory and learn how Dijon mustard is made, they boys also had the opportunity to make their own mustard. David and Alex loved it.
After making the mustard we tasted it.
After the tour finished (about 90 minutes) we sampled the mustards the Fallot factory makes and it was delicious. We bought a lot of mustard to bring home with us.
After the Fallot tour we visited the L’Hotel-Dieu of Beaune which was established 1443 as a charity hospital for the poor. It is an amazing facility with a long and rich tradition of providing free health care for the poor. It also housed paying patients. The tour took about two hours and while impressive, it was a bit depressing because in some ways the French of the 1400s had a more humane view of health care than we have in the USA in 2012.
Virtually any tour that has audio guides is an instant hit with David and Alex. The audio guides are usually easy to use and provides loads of information.
The finished the day back in Dijon with a visit to the Moutarde Maille house of mustard which has been making mustard for 265 years. No factory tour, just a great little shop filled with mustard. I bought mustard here, too.
Is there anything that makes the heart bladder than the sight of boys with mortars and pestles? We have a great cold ground factory in Me (Ray’s Mustard) that you’ll have to visit when you visit!
Hi Peggy, We’ll be there next summer. The mustard factory was outstanding and is up there on the trip highlights. Thanks. Rich
Gents your diary reads like a travel magazine – I’ve learned so much history keeping up with you!
Hi Richard
We have it in our diary from sometime ago that you are arriving in Taunton tomorrow. However having read your blog, we presume your plans have changed? Perhaps you could let us know. Hope you are having a lovely holiday.
Hi Helen, thanks for the note. I responded to this message via Facebook as well and I’m also responding through our blog just in case the Facebook message doesn’t get delivered. I called Wednesday evening and left a
message with our schedule though it appears you might not have received
it. The blog can be misleading in that I’m sometimes a day or two behind
in writing it. We arrive in Taunton today (Friday) and I think it will
be around 7:30pm. We arrive in London at 2pm, then take the tube to
Heathrow to pick up rental car. I figure it will take two hours to get
to Heathrow and sort out the rental car so I hope to be driving to
Taunton by 4pm or so. I think it takes 2.5 hours to get from Heathrow to
Taunton, plus we’ll eat on the way there. We’ll check in to Lowden
House upon our arrival and then head over to your house. I’ll call you
when just before we begin our drive to Taunton. We depart Taunton
Tuesday morning July 24. We’re looking forward to seeing you! Thanks.
Rich