RIVER CRUISING


MON DIEU!


As the original seat of the Dukes of Burgundy, BEAUNE became a city of power, culture, and wealth.


In 1443, as the Hundred Years War entered its last decade, Nicolas Rolin, Chancellor of Phillippe-le-Bon, Duke of Burgundy, generously erected one of the supreme architectural and social monuments of the late Middle Ages. The HÔTEL-DIEU is the finest example of that


late-Gothic style known as Flamboyant. The roof is a mosaic of colour, a complex geometric pattern of glazed tiles in yellow, green, rust, and black. Peaked dormer windows and towers flaunt lacy lead finials, spires, weather vanes, and pennants. The inside of this wonder is equal to the outside. Crowned by a massive oak-panelled, barrel-vaulted ceiling, the Great Hall of the Poor was where patients in the 31 beds received medical care as recently as 1971. The magnificent Polyptych representing the Last Judgement, originally placed high above the altar in the adjoining Chapel, was only seen by the sick on Sundays and feast days.


The voyage continued along the ruler-straight Burgundy Canal to Dijon – capital of the Côte d’Or. These waterways are testimony to the genius of Leonardo da Vinci, who invented the first lock. More than two centuries ago, Louis XV ordered French engineers to build a system of locks and canals. Not only were the canals to be routes for commercial barges, they were to be aqueducts as well, supplying local farmers with irrigation water. France’s history was forged around her waterways


and the tranquil heartland of this evocative land still has 8,000 miles of navigable routes. My cruise negotiated 40 locks or, to give them their French name, écluses. Many were centuries old, eternally


28 WORLD OF CRUISING I Autumn 2011


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100