The Mustard Zone

Beaune was the place to be this past weekend.

On Sunday, we watched a world-famous wine auction!

The 145th Hospices de Beaune charity wine auction took place this weekend.
This year’s event was conducted by the world-famous Christie’s auction house.
You can see all of the wines that were up for auction and read much more about this event on Christie’s web site.
From what we’ve read and heard, the 2005 vintages are supposed to be exceptional.

Since there were crowds of people in town this weekend, most everything was open and there was lots of music and dancing in the streets.
It was very cold, but this didn’t seem to bother anyone.
Must have been due to all that vin chaud (warm, spiced red wine) being sold on the streets.

Saturday, the annual Beaune Half-Marathon and 11 k took place in the vineyards in and around Beaune.

I ran the 11 k, Les Foulées Beaunoises, while Monsieur L’Escargot (above) ran the entire 21.1 k, Le Semi-Marathon de la Vente des Vins Hospices de Beaune.
It was another scenic race and we had (nearly) perfect running conditions (it was a little chilly, about 45 degrees Fahrenheit, but sunny).
I heard the scenary was even prettier for the half-marathon, since the course passed by some chateaux in Volnay and Meursault.
But my race only went as far South as Pommard.

Compared to the races I ran in Marsannay and Nuits St. Georges, this one was very challenging due to how much up-hill running there was.
I do think I was able to make-up some time though on the downhill part.

I’m not sure what my official time was since the results are not yet posted, but according to my watch I think it took me about 1 hour and 5 minutes.
Around what I usually do, maybe a little better.

We didn’t get t-shirts this time.
Instead, everyone who crossed the finish line got a wine glass and this specially-labeled bottle of wine, (hopefully you can see the graphic with the runners).

This entry was posted on Monday, November 21st, 2005 at 3:54 pm and is filed under Life in Dijon, La Route des Grands Crus. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.