With great amazement, despite many trips to Cote d’Or with my family, I sadly found out that our favorite vineyards are outside UNESCO designated zone, and apart from having lunch or dinner in Dijon and Beaune, I have no memory that I have seen those UNESCO listed components. As a result, I had little choice to not revisit Burgundy, and to make it more miserable I went with my friends who are non-wine drinkers! We used Beaune as our base, after checked in our hotel and had great time on mustard sampling and shopping at La Moutarderie Fallot, we shockingly found long queue at entrance of the famous Hotel de Dieu with American tour groups. The former hospital with its beautiful roof, unique display of old system of medical care and lovely decorating arts really made Hotel de Dieu to be one of the most interesting components of this World Heritage Site. Like other reviewers this place deserved to be listed on its own merit or specific mentioned on the official name when listing.

It was unreasonable and unthinkable for my non-wine drinker friends to join wine sampling tour in various chateaus, so instead of finding best wine of Cote d’Or, the trip turned out to be fine a best spot to see beautiful vineyard landscape. We drove across those “Climats” around Beaune passing many well-known chateaus that wanted me to stop by for few bottles. We noticed that the local authorities seem to use stone arched gates to vineries as symbol of these Climats as theirs appeared in many signboards and promotional advertisements. From all beautiful viewpoints around Beaune, we really enjoyed the view from Oratoire de Notre Dame de Bonne Espérance, on the hill just outside the village of Pernand-Vergelesses and from the unknown hill just outside the village of Pommard. These two points provide a view of endless autumnal vineyard in the valley of Burgundy which at least in my opinion good enough to compensate this very dry vineyard trip.

Well, for wine tasting, Burgundian “Terroir” is unquestionable unique for its taste and quality, but for World Heritage Site, I am not sure that I really can understand its Outstanding Universal Value. One thing I leant from this trip is the richness of Dukedom of Bourgogne and its cultural influence in gastronomy to France which later influenced the whole Europe and Western World, but I don’t think this is the reason for inscription.