(More on Dijon old town, and Vougeot. From autumn 04.)
At 4, rue Musette, Dijon (a narrow street crowded with outdoor cafés and pedestrians) the bustling Moulin Bleu ("fermeture variable suivant la fréquentation," sound policy) may not be specific to Dijon ("Galettes Bretonnes" says the sign) but offers crêpes of many denominations and can turn out a memorable galette "forestière." That last adjective, if you know something of pan-European food traditions, even if you spoke no French, shouts "mushrooms." A vast crispy buckwheat crêpe with mushrooms persillade (sautéed lavishly with garlic and parsley) and cheese. With a little pitcher of the (slightly) hard house apple cider, it is very satisfying and of course, cheap.
At the end of the same street, near the Notre Dame church, booksellers put out older volumes closely packed on street tables. I found what looked like a good 1860s biography of Talleyrand with reproductions of correspondence. Weighing the mass increase from adding a book to my small baggage, I deferred the decision, only to learn the next day (my last) to be a non-market day and the booksellers fermé.
Local talk mentioned two "gastronomic" restaurants in Dijon. One being at the Hostellerie du Chapeau Rouge (5 rue Michelet, right in the old town, tel. 03 80 50 88 88) and the other not. The other is the Restaurant Stéphane Derbord (10, place Wilson, tel. 03 80 67 74 64). I had time only to try one, the Chapeau Rouge, which served a leisurely "tasting" menu -- part traditional, part novel -- with skillful sommelier advice and local labels. (And not only was I short of time for dinners but that one finished a very long day including also breakfast at San Francisco and lunch at a station restaurant in Paris, so my impressions of it rely on my notes at the time.)
By the way, a point about restaurant wine lists in Burgundy for anyone unfamiliar. Vintage dates tend to go back very few years -- 2000 for example, being the recent lightish vintage in reds, was generally the only one for current drinking, on restaurant lists -- and bringing bottles into restaurants is largely unheard-of, some day I must find out the story on that though it may be, like many things in Burgundy, simply custom, which runs deep.
Re Vougeot: "The wine of the Clos was sent to the Popes in their exile in Avignon, and Petrarch said that it was this that made them so reluctant to end the schism and return to Rome! One abbot, already mentioned, sent thirty hogsheads to Pope Gregory XI, and four years later -- Vougeot, even then, took some time to develop -- was made a cardinal." (Yoxall, ISBN
0140462007 or 0812860918).
At the 16th-century Château de Clos Vougeot, a well-known wine-promotion and gastronomic organization operates a cooking school that serves the banquets there, some of them highly ceremonious and lasting half the night, and generally for 600. (Recipe for Oeufs en Meurette: "Take 1200 eggs ...")
-- Max Hauser