Burgundy trip, New Year 2013 part two

On the Sunday, after some wonderful croissants for breakfast, we investigated the gîte's tape collection and discovered some funk music which set a cheery mood for the morning's activities, until something went wrong with the tape and it started making a sad droning noise and had to be turned off.

It was a beautiful sunny morning. I made some gougeres which we had warm from the oven, sitting outside on the terrace with a bottle of Bzikot's Bourgogne Blanc 2007 brought from home. ACC had suggested that we all pack some booze with us, as it was unclear what shopping opportunities there would be, and this turned out to be an excellent plan.

Before

Lunch involved this fantastic cheeseboard featuring a declassified Epoisses, a fruity Comté, a Brillat Savarin with a line of truffle down the middle, another cheese with a coating of the kind of grapes and stems they use to make marc, and some quince paste. The board didn't look like this for long!

After

To drink, we had some Dame de Montrose 2008 provided by Baron McG, and a bottle of Giboulot Beaune 2008 from me. A great contrast between Burgundy and claret. The Jacoulot on the left was the traditional "bottle of marc for the house".

After a leisurely afternoon reading the New Yorker, watching an episode of Alan Bennett's "Talking Heads" on ACC's laptop, and having a little snooze, we took a taxi back into Beaune to dine at la Ciboulette, one of the few restaurants in Beaune that's open on a Sunday evening. We received a warm welcome (ACC is a regular) and had the simplest set menu which was 19.5 euros a head for three courses. The cooking here isn't pretentious and there were none of the flourishes and extras that we'd had the previous evening, but for the price this was a total bargain.

To drink, we had a bottle of rose Cremant de Bourgogne, and then a 1er cru red Ladoix which we gave an 8. It didn't wow us, confirming that this village isn't really in the top echelons of Burgundy. The total bill for four of us was about 150 euros, once again exceptional value.

After dinner, we strolled into the town centre which was lit with tasteful Christmas lights but spookily deserted. Beaune is certainly not the place to go if you're looking for some wild nightlife.