Arbois, France - We visited Arbois for Hannah's birthday. Arbois is in the Jura department of France, which is named for the mountain range that runs along the French-Swiss border. Switzerland has a Jura canton, but somewhat oddly, the French department of Jura and the Swiss canton of Jura are not adjacent to each other.
Truth be told, we didn't actually stay in Arbois, but in an even smaller town about five minutes drive outside Arbois called Les Planches (population: 101). We stayed in a charming and poorly insulated 18th century farmhouse owned by a small winemaker, who kindly gifted us one of their Pét-nats for Hannah's birthday. A short hike outside the town was a lovely waterfall.
But Arbois was where we spent most of our time. It's a quaint French town with approximately 3,500 residents. You will not be surprised to learn that we visited a place with a rich gastronomic and viticulture heritage for Hannah's birthday. In fact, according to Wikipedia, it appears that little is known of Arbois' history prior to the renaissance except that they made good wine: "The origin of the town of Arbois dates back to remote times but it is difficult to be specific. It is certain however that its wines were known to the Romans."
One of our favorite wines was a Savagnin from Domaine des Cavarodes - a natural wine that was crisp and refreshing with nice acidity. We had hoped to visit the wine maker, Etienne Thiebaud, but he is something of a recluse and never got back to us. We heard that he doesn't have a phone but rather has people call an office "in town" that he occasionally visits to collect his messages. We drank a bottle the evening we arrived at an unassuming wine bar, Le Bistrot des Claquets, a block or two off the central square. While we were enjoying our wine a French gentlemen made our acquaintance by telling us a joke we didn't totally understand but was about the coronavirus and involved the seven dwarfs, and in particular, Sneezy. Later, when I went to pay the bill, the same gentlemen asked me what I thought of the embarrassing loss by the All Blacks, the New Zealand national rugby union team. Since I'm not a rugby fan, I initially thought he was making a crude racial joke, and it was only after several seconds that I realized that he thought I was a Kiwi (New Zealander). I had to awkwardly explain that I was an American and so I preferred (American) football.
One day we drove to Beaune, where we visited the Hospices de Beaune, a remarkable renaissance era hospital and home for the aged and disabled that continued operations until the 1970s, when it was turned into a museum. I'm not entirely sure if that says more about the strength of this particular institution or the quality of rural French healthcare. Regardless, it is - according to Wikipedia - among the best preserved renaissance era buildings in Europe and "one of the finest examples of fifteenth-century Burgundian architecture".
Unfortunately, we didn't get to take in much of the gastronomy of Arbois or the surrounding region. Coronavirus cases across Europe are and were skyrocketing and we were terrified of indoor dining, so we bailed on our reservations and survived on bread, cheese, and complaining. Speaking of cheese: Arbois is located in the French region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. You may have divined from the name that the region is well know for its cheese, and in particular, Comte, of which we consumed prodigious quantities.
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