Catching up now that we have a decent internet signal. Tuesday we visited Beaune. It's a sweet little town that is known as the wine capital of Burgundy in the Cote d'Or. The highlight of the day was a visit to the Hotel Dieu a charity hospital founded in 1442 which continued to serve its patients until the 1980s. It was initially funded by one of the Dukes of Burgundy and staffed by an order of nuns as a place for the poor to find care, but they became known as such good care providers that noble people also wanted to be patients there. So while the funding came initially from the Duke, it was augmented later by gifts from grateful patients and their families. In particular they were gifted with vineyards, the income from which supported the institution down through the centuries. Other gifts included some extraordinary artworks, many of which are still on display there ( I didn't try to take pictures of them, but you can see some of them at www.hospices-de-beaune.com)
The large ward for the common folk has beds along both walls and a chapel at the end. Those beds typically had 2 people in each with no regard to gender of the occupants. The nobles had a separate room with larger beds and each got his or her own. The nuns provided care and food. Because it was expensive to pay the lay pharmacist, nuns eventually trained in pharmacy as well - some of the first women to do so. There was a river running under the hospital into which all the refuse could be deposited and carried away by opning one of the trap doors in the floor. I could have spent many more hours there since it is also a kind of medical museum where you can see the developments of techniques and instruments through the centuries.
After our visit to the Hotel Dieu we went to a local wine merchant's cellar where we had a wine tasting and talk followed by lunch in a local restaurant.