Beaune and Dijon, France: Some Eclectic Purchases to Bring Home

 We are headed home tomorrow and while there’s nothing like sleeping in your own bed, I will miss the sailing life.  As the hotel manager pointed out during our last “sip and sail,” this evening that starting tomorrow, you will have to get used to no chocolate on your pillows at night and no one but you will be picking up your wet towels off the bathroom floor.  It’s been a while, but I’m sure it will come back to me. 

We spent the last two days in two beautiful Burgundy towns, Beaune and Dijon.   These two hamlets are rich in history but after our requisite walking tours, it was time to do a bit of shopping. While my female friends and I went in and out of stores, each of our husbands all sat outside on park benches talking to each other and looking at their watches.  

While our 13 month old grandson made out the best when it came to gifts, my other purchases can only be described as “eclectic.” They all seemed like terrific ideas at the time, but in retrospect, I didn’t think through what I was buying and how I would get these purchases home. My two most ill-thought through purchases were cans of mackerel and mustard. 

The Mackerel: I am a huge fish lover but I have to confess that I never tasted mackerel before coming on this trip.  We were in Beaune and entered a lovely little specialty shop filled with French flags and all decorations screaming “Viva La France!” As we walked in, the salesperson offered us each a cracker smeared with what could have been a pate but turned out to be mackerel mixed with tomatoes and herbs.  It was the best thing I had eaten all day and frankly, the food bar was quite high on this trip.  We all agreed we needed to bring some of this home.  Fortunately, it was sold four cans to a pack and each of us was given a “gift,” an additional  can of some other fish just for making our purchases.  As one of our friends said, “They were practically giving it to us for free.” 

The Mustard: As one can only guess, the city of Dijon is known for its mustards. It’s also known for its Cassis, but after all the wine we bought, we passed on that liqueur. We learned a great deal about how Dijon mustard is made, including the fact that a replica condiment is made all over the world. For example, many of the mustard seeds are grown in Canada and the mustard recipe includes vinegar and is made somewhere in Eastern Europe.  Real Dijon mustard includes white wine not vinegar and is made specifically in the Burgundy region of France. While you can buy the original Dijon mustard anywhere in Burgundy, there are also a million types of mustard mixtures that can be enjoyed and we gave it the old college try to sample as many as possible. We moved from store to store, using little wooden sticks to try such combinations as mustard and tarragon, whole grain and honey mustard and lemon.  My mouth was puckered for the rest of the day after eating so much spicy mustard!  

It was such a wonderful trip made even better by the great people with whom we shared our adventures.  The adventure will continue when we receive the case of wine we ordered.  It will end when we get the shipping charge…….