Ever since I saw the movie Chocolat, I thought that the village where the story took place was absolutely beautiful. So when we discovered that Flavigny-sur-Ozerain (the village where the movie was filmed) was halfway to Monaco (in the Cote-d'Or Burgundy region of France), we had to make this our 1st night stop.
Our first night was spent at L'Ange Souriant, a bed-and-breakfast right in the heart of the village. We were pleasantly surprised with a spacious 2-bedroom unit with private bathroom. Our B&B hostess, Carole, provided us a map of the village and shared her album of pictures taken during the filming of the movie.
This medieval village, perched 420 metres high on a promontory of a limestone plateau, was like stepping back into time. It was as picturesque as it was in the movie.
The "movie version" of Flavigny was a much livelier place than in real life. This "sleepy" village had just a handful of shops, 2 restaurants, a few B & B's and The Abbey of Saint Peter. The abbey is well known for their anise candy, which reminded me (both in appearance and taste) of a large "tic-tac".
During our walk, we were able to find the church (Saint-Genes Church), the beauty salon and, of course, "La Chocolaterie Maya", as portrayed in the movie.
Saint-Genes Church (statue in front was fabricated for movie)
The beauty salon (someone's house)
After our tour, we went back to the room to finish watching "Chocolat" which the girls had started to watch in the car. After a bit of rest (since I was recovering from the flu!), we walked to a restaurant next door for dinner (which happened to be the only place open this evening).
We had a wonderful dinner of Burgundy escargot (me), crusted salmon with anise-butter sauce (Ray) and lasagna (the girls). Our evening ended with a game of scrabble in the B&B lounge before the girls went to bed.
Afterwards, I managed to sneak out and take an evening stroll while everyone was asleep. In fact, I think I was the only one in the village not asleep...
Our B&B experience here was just delightful. The next morning, we were served our breakfast of fresh bread, croissants, home-made jams, cheese, hot cocoa and a delicious pot of coffee in the lounge. Although it was simple, everything was just delish. This turned out to be the perfect stop to break up our long drive.
Before leaving, we stopped by the local vineyard, Vignoble de Flavigny, for a quick tour before heading to our next stop, Monaco.
We were happy to visit Flavigny, although the girls and I were a bit disappointed that there was not a single chocolate shop in the village! Wishful thinking, I guess...
2 comments:
Loved that!
Love your post! I must say, Chocolat is one of my favorite movies of all time! I watch it almost everyday! I dream that one day I can visit flavigny sur ozerain! You did an absolute wonderful job at describing the little 'chocolat' town for people like me who are in love with the movie and wish we could visit (better yet, live) in that town, but wonder what the town is really like, in real life! My favorite part of your post is your stroll through the town at night when everyone was asleep. And also, of course, the outside of the chocolate shop! That's when you can really soak in the beauty of the town. Wish I could do that!!! One day...... :) you mentioned that the town was "sleepier" in real life than the "livelier" town portrayed in the movie, but were the town's people nice? I read that many of the extras in the movie were actual residents of the town.
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