Paris_ The Collected Traveler - Barrie Kerper [229]
La Part des Anges (24 rue d’Alsace / +33 03 80 22 07 68). This wine bar offers a cozy ambience and great food. Run by young guys, La Part has a large selection of local dishes and some amazing wines on their wine list that can be enjoyed by the glass. Closed Sundays and Mondays.
L’Hôtel de Beaune (5 rue Samuel Legay / +33 03 80 25 94 14 / lhoteldebeaune.com). This mansion is the gem of Beaune. With only seven rooms, it oozes grace and charm, and is now considered the top property in the town. The spacious rooms are furnished with fine linens, mahogany furniture, and interesting artwork. Since the hotel is located right in the center of Beaune, the town awaits just outside your doorstep.
Bastion Ste. Anne (bastionsteanne.com). For a longer stay, you may want to rent our home in Beaune, Bastion Ste. Anne. Forming part of the centuries-old walls of the town of Beaune, this combination of secret garden and lovely cottage is a totally unique experience.
Other Burgundy Resources
“In Burgundy, Picking Up the Pace,” Alexander Lobrano (Gourmet, September 2006). Inspired by Samuel Chamberlain’s “Bur- gundy at a Snail’s Pace,” which appeared in the first issue of Gourmet, January 1941.
“Burgundy I: Parsleyed Ham, Two Burgundian Cheeses, and Spice Bread,” Edward Behr (Art of Eating, Number 59, 2001).
“Burgundy II: Chablis,” Edward Behr (Art of Eating, Number 81, 2009).
“Beaujolais: The Goal of a Gulpable Wine,” Edward Behr (Art of Eating, Number 67, 2004).
Puligny-Montrachet: Journal of a Village in Burgundy, Simon Loftus (Knopf, 1993). This fascinating book is de rigueur reading for anyone with an interest in wine, Burgundy wine in particular. Perhaps the most interesting detail about it is the front endpapers, a color reproduction of Le Terrier de la Seigneurie de Puligny et Mypon, preserved in the mairie (town hall) in Puligny “for the delight of anyone with an inquisitive nose.” This remarkable land register, compiled between 1741 and 1747 in three enormous leather-bound volumes, is “one of the earliest, most detailed and most complete surveys of any of the classic vineyard regions of France.” It indicates the name of every landholder, every tree, and every house in the village, the boundaries of each field and the subdivisions of every vineyard. What the wine enthusiast discovers, with Loftus’s curiosity and expertise, is that a mere seven and a half acres of terre became the “most precious agricultural land on earth, producing the grandest of all white wines: Puligny-Montrachet.” Three appendices—appellations, vintages, and tastings—complete this eye-opening and memorable work.
An Hour from Paris
Several years ago, writer Annabel Simms found herself in the middle of the woods, as completely lost as if she were in Africa instead of nineteen kilometers from Paris. There were three paths in front of her with no indication of where any of them led, so on impulse she chose the one on the left. She soon came upon some houses and knocked on the door of the nearest one. After following the owner’s directions, five minutes later she was in front of a magnificent sixteenth-century château. It turned out to be the Musée National de la Renaissance in Ecouen, twenty-three minutes from Paris by train (and it happens to be one of my favorite museums in northern France). It was this experience that alerted Simms to how accessible the countryside around Paris really is, and how few foreigners—and the French themselves—are aware of this. (Those paths, by the way, are now signposted.)
More excursions (with much note taking) into the old pays de France—the fertile plain surrounded by rivers to the north of Paris—led Simms to conclude that the Île-de-France has escaped the effects of mass tourism and is one of the least visited parts of France. She also realized she had the makings of a unique book geared entirely to foreign visitors arriving by train. These visitors, she envisioned, would be “curious about everything, rather than with a specialist interest in walking,