Little Beautiful Villages in Côte-d'Or, Burgundy, France 2

Our next stop was Époisses. That was the real destination of our trip to Lyon/Dijon. Époisses is the village that makes Époisses de Bourgogne, J's favorite orange colored, smear-ripened cheese washed in Marc de Bourgogne! First we visited a shop of Fromage Berthaut, the prime manufacturer of Époisses de Bourgogne. We spent a good amount time in the small shop, chatting with a nice lady who managed the shop. J bought three kinds of cheese, a bottle of Marc de Bourgogne, and a jar of confit de mirabelles au cumin (plum and cumin jam) that was supposed to be the best friend of Époisses cheese.

Then we visited Château d'Époisses. The inside of the castle building was closed but we had a good time to walk in the garden, feeling so happy that we actually came to the birthplace of the special cheese!

It was getting dark when we were heading to the next village - Châteauneuf-en-Auxois. It is said that the village is one of the last remaining examples of 14th century Burgundian military architecture. It looked like another picturesque place, but it was getting darker and darker; we didn't have time enough to explore the village and take many pictures. At least we managed to see the inside of the castle. Obviously we were the last visitors of the day. The view from the window of the castle was beautiful.

We safely drove back to Dijon. We found our roasted chestnut vendor on the same spot. I bought a small bag of chestnuts for my evening snack. They were really good! I was almost addicted to the vendor's chestnuts. We liked Dijon very much but we returned to Lyon on the next day.

To be continued...