This video is an excerpt from a much longer France travel talk by Steve Smith.
To view other topics or to watch Steve's France talk in its entirety, visit
ricksteves.com, or check out my Rick Steves YouTube channel. Enjoy.
Let's explore the eastern corner of-- side of this country. I'm not sure which side of
France I like better. My house is here, in the Burgundy region on the eastern side, but boy,
every time I travel through the west, and the places that I get to go every year, I'm
never sure where I'd live if I could choose again. But the eastern side, we'll
start in the Burgundy area and cover Burgundy and the Alps, which adjoin each
other, basically, for a great central eastern look at this region-- at this side
of France, I should say. Here you go, two hours by bullet train, four hours, at
least, by car.
Believe me I know, I've done this a lot of times. From Paris Airport to Beaune, and
the capital of the wine country in Burgundy, another couple hours up, three hours up
to the heights of the Alps in Chamonix, again, not faster by train this time,
because local trains takeover, although certainly doable in a day, let's get going. In
Burgundy, the countryside is sophisticated and calm as the residents. If you've come
to see quintessential France, you've arrived at the right place in Burgundy,
for here, the landscapes are crisscrossed with canals and beautiful canal boats
like this, I just grabbed that one in the guidebook by the way.
Lovely Romanesque chapels like this one in Brancion, and hill towns far off
the normal beaten path. And of course, the cuisine is world famous, snails cooked in
garlic sauce, coq au vin, red meat from the Charolais cattle,
the white cattle, simmered in red wine for hours.
coq au vin, rooster cooked in red wine for hours. "Oeufs en meurette,"
"Oeufs en meurette," if you're French, "oofs," if you're American, phonetically, is my
favorite of those dishes, and those are eggs, poached eggs, again, served in a red wine--
cooked in a red wine sauce.
There's something about red wine in this area, isn't there. Beaune, I mentioned before,
is the perfect base for touring the Burgundian area. This is twenty minutes
from our house and I spent a lot of time in the city. It's a lovely, quintessentially
French town of 25,000 people, and capital of the wine industry here. So there's many
chances to taste wine in the town of Beaune. It works well even if you don't have a car--
does the Burgundian-- does Burgundy. Its most famous monument,
there's one sight that's important to see outside of the wineries, for most
Americans, and that's its medieval hospital here, that I'm showing you. The Hospices de
Beaune. You'll see medieval-- other examples of the Middle Ages in churches, and castles,
hill towns, and walled cities, right, but rarely will you see a hospital from the
Middle Ages, particularly one as glorious as this one. How is it, that this
classically, by the way, tiled Burgundian roof and hospital is in such great state of repair
kits from the Middle Ages? Mind you, Middle Ages is when the nurses were where
nuns, and the primary antidote to any cure was bloodletting. When you travel
through this museum you get to see examples of the-- what looks like a caulking
gun. They would let blood from people's heads, and of course, as a modern-day
person, you realize that you were far better off in the Middle Ages outside
this hospital, rather than within, because the idea of infection had not yet
arrived, and oftentimes two to three, even, sometimes patients would lie these narrow
beds. But the reason this hospital looks like this today, is that it was used as a
hospital until 1971. That makes it remarkable alone, right,
incredible, right. And it's unique in the world because of its financing technique,
method of financing. Every year, over the hundreds of years that this hospital's
existed, when people died, they would donate their land if they were saved and
it felt like they were well-treated at hospital, to the Hospices de Beaune, and to
the nuns, etc. That land eventually grew great wine. That means that this hospital
is one of the greatest landholders of
vineyards in Burgundy, and every year they do an annual selling of their wine, it's
the famous wine that determines-- auction that determines the price of wine throughout
the world, almost,
the auction in Beaune, every third-- it's coming up-- third week of November. Anyway,
that's fascinating.
Beaune has great market days two days a week, Wednesday's and particularly Saturdays.
I love the Saturday Market in Beaune, we never miss when we're there. The
best thing to do, I think, the best place to rent a bike in all of France is in
Burgundy, because short distance from Beaune, easy to do, great guys running the
bike rental store, in a couple miles you're there, in the villages, along these wine
service roads. Cars don't use these roads, maybe tractors do if they're tending to
their grapes. Bicycle riders have free run then, throughout the vineyards,
running wine village to wine village, it's a glorious area, the prettiest
vineyards, I think, in France are here in Burgundy. And stop to taste along
the way if you want to. I wouldn't drink too much if you're riding your bicycle, but
I'm probably feeling better about that than if I were driving a car. So I list
two different bike loops that you can do, because it is early so easy to do. And
bike-only lanes, and paths, and well signed paths allow you to do so.
The importance of abbeys in Europe and in France's history come to life more
in Burgundy than anywhere else, thanks to the Abbey at Cluny, the most powerful abbey in
Europe's history, which had over 2,000 dependent churches and abbeys based on
it, and vied with the church in Rome, St. Peter's, the Vatican, for power for a
period of time. We have Burgundy's importance with abbeys like this one, and
this one, at Fontenay, is maybe one of the best examples, perfectly preserved,
for you to visit today, to understand. This is a Cistercian abbey. St. Bernard,
thanks to him, constructed
in the 1200s, and from the 1200s and 1300s, this abbey flourished, all the way,
really, until the French Revolution. For 700 years, this mini city
gathered the knowledge, and kept the knowledge that was lost after the fall
of Rome, and the barbarian invasions, and the Dark Ages.
Monks retreated to places just like this, or the island abbey of Mont St. Michel,
to study the workings of the clock, to illuminate manuscripts, to study
metalworking, the first forge in European-- in Europe arrives here at the Abbey at
Fontenay, and thanks to abbeys like this,
Europe, and France in particular, makes it through the Dark Ages. People start
moving back into cities, thanks to the techniques, the study of wine and cheese
in particular, at abbeys like Fontenay. And here, just an hour outside of Beaune,
you can get that sense of life. My favorite site in France today is being
built. The Castle at Guédelon is a daring move by the French private
enterp-- entrepreneurs. Imagine building a castle using, from the 1200s,
blueprints that we have, drawings designed in the year 1200, from
the king Philip the Fair. Imagine building a castle using only the tools
and techniques of the year 1200, and building it taking forty years. They're
twenty years into it today at Guédelon, what you're looking at here. Nobody
knows of this site, it's kind of in a remote corner of Burgundy anyway, we have
deviated two of our tours to visit it, we think it's so important.
The reason they did this, they're building this castle, is to learn. There's so much we
don't know,
ironically, about the construction of medieval castles, and it teaches-- they're
learning as they go, and also it's a great showpiece for children,
for tourists to understand, to see how rocks are taken right out of the quarry nearby, and
and then dressed into squares and rectangles, and then pulled up the squirrel wheel,
continuing the structure, taller, and taller, it's all happening in front of your
eyes when you visit. Is it at the Castle of Guédelon, that's Burgundy's latest
sights.
For many people though, that's nothing compared to being face to face with the
awesome Alps. Whether you're in Switzerland, or France, or Italy, the Alps
are one of the more remarkable mountain ranges in the world, and here there's, I
don't think there's a better place in Europe to appreciate the drama of the
Alps, and the glaciers that you can see flowing down from the high Alps in
France, just two and a half hours east of Beaune, of Burgundy. Here, melted cheese
matters. You won't find this in most-- I mean there'll be fondu places, but this is
every restaurant in the Alps, where you'll find fondue, melted cheese, right,
or raclette, or tartiflette, which is my favorite, and if you've never heard of
tartiflette, it's scalloped potatoes with melted cheese. It's always melted cheese
over the top.
All of these dishes, of course, keep people warm in the winter in this cold
climates, there's a reason for it. A lot of cows produce lots of cheese in this
area too. Two sights I recommend, two cities for basing yourself, or for appreciating the
French Alps. The most beautiful city in France, and I think maybe arguably in
Europe, Annecy, pronounced, "ahnsee" here. 50,000 people laced with
canals, arcaded walkways, a glorious situation, town, on the lake Annecy. The Alps are a
little bit in the distance, they're not right there for you to hike up right in
front of you, but for a lakeside visit of the Alps, Annecy competes very favorably
with any Swiss city, from Lucerne to Geneva, that I've ever seen, with a
fraction of the price for hotels, and better food and wine anyway, right. Here you can travel
around the lake, there's a path that goes halfway up the lake. Rent a bike.
Everybody's renting bikes here these days, it's like Greenlake. Ride around the lake
halfway, 45 minutes or so at an average pace, then pull your bike onto one of
the steam ships that runs about every two hours, and come back rolling your into
bike to the city of Annecy via boat. Or rent a paddle boat, but get out into the lake a little
bit. Lakefront Alpine sightseeing is brilliant in the city of Annecy, but
if it's the Alps in your lap that you must have,
if you need to go hiking, if you need to stand face to face with those glaciers,
and the highest peaks in Europe, then to Chamonix you must go. Chamonix Mont Blanc, as it's
called, is a town of about 2,000 people, whose entire existence has always been
devoted to exploration of the mountains. In the late 1700's, early 1800's, when the
mountains became no longer obstacles in the way, but obstacles of desire. "We're
gonna tackle that mountain and climb it because it's there." Chamonix was perfectly
positioned to do so. And today, every every street name in the town of Chamonix is
named for a famous mountain climber. People come to Chamonix from around the
world to study the heroic list of climbers, to understand what they did. And
by the way, traveling in this city, in the French Alps, they do a brilliant job of
explaining the history of mountaineering, as well as the history of the, of
glaciers and their current status today, but we'll talk about that more. But for
you, the most incredible thing you can do from the downtown of Chamonix is to
ride a cable car up to 7,000 feet, then transfer to another one to get up to
12,800 feet to the top edge of the side of the Mont-the massive Mont Blanc. 12,800 feet.
Dress warmly. This is open most of the year, by the way. Then, from the rooftop--
I love this next slide-- from the-- the French are crazy, they're nuts.
Only the French would build a glass platform hanging from the edge of this
building that you're looking at, with a three thousand foot drop below, to allow
tourists to do this. This started just last year. I thought the tour office was
kidding me, and then I went back the next year and I saw it sure enough. Wow, this is
incredible, and there many other things to see a 12,800 feet right next to Mont
Blanc, but the greatest thing you can do, and there there are expositions of
mountaineering, and of glaciers, and of this kind of thing here, really, and
restaurants, and the whole thing, but the greatest thing you can do, is hop into
one of these little teacups,
and travel at 12,500 feet, or 800 feet, with you and your partner,
they can fit no more than four per car, and crossover to Italy. We used to have to
say, "bring your passport," and then drop down the other side if you want to, on a
similar looking cable car, down into the Italian city of Courmayeur, off
to a Aosta, A-O-S-T-A, a beautiful city, and onto Milan, if that's what you want.
There can be no greater European border crossing than this that I've just showed you. At
12,000 feet you'll pass the Matterhorn on the left and all these-- I'm serious, Switzerland is
right there.
Wow. That's worth going to Chamonix alone, I don't know anywhere else in the world
that does that. Then drop back down, on your way back down to Chamonix, get off
halfway, that I mentioned where the transfer was, and hike Chamonix's-- this
region's greatest hike. From the Aiguille Du Midi, which is what that great lift is
called, to the Mer de Glace glacier here below. Eight mile long, one of the
greatest-- the greatest glacier in the French Alps. Drop down, anyway, drop down
to the cogwheel train to take you back down to the city of Chamonix. That's
about a three hour hike for anybody.
Rapid walkers can do it in two hours. But it is-- it undulates, up and
down, but it's a brilliant hike. If that's too much hiking for you, throughout, just
above the city, there are easier trails that I describe in the book, to get you
up to some of these chalets with great views, and a glass of wine, or hot tea,
or coffee. Just enjoy the mountains all around you without so much effort. On the
opposite side of Chamonix's valley, there are lifts and cable cars taking you on the
mountains that hem it in on the other side just as well. It's a little bit
claustrophobic in Chamonix, because you're surrounded by high mountain peaks.
Burgundy and Chamonix and the Alps, pardon me, the French Alps, combine
together for a brilliant five or six days of your time on a trip to France.
If you've enjoyed this video, you'll find lots more at ricksteves.com, and
on my Rick Steves YouTube channel.
Happy travels, and thanks for joining us.